Thoughts on Last Week’s JTBD Workshop

Many thanks to GBQ Partners for hosting and Darci Congrove, Managing Director, for participating in our jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) workshop. After I laid out the basics of the JTBD approach, people doubled up to do an application exercise and report back to the large group. The session was then capped off by Darci sharing her experience working with Reveal using JTBD and other keen leadership insights. GBQ provided us with a beautiful set up for both the workshop and for drinks and hors-d’oeuvres afterwards. Thanks to everyone for making it a successful event!

There are three high-level takeaways I would like to leave with you:

1. Customer needs are separate and distinct from product or service offerings.
2. Customer needs are best defined as the jobscustomers want to get done (functional, emotional and social) and the criteria they use to measure success.
3. To turn innovation and growth into a repeatable business process, find your target customers’ important unsatisfied needs (these are opportunities for innovation and growth) and then address the most attractive ones.

Many people, including myself, often characterize JTBD as an innovation process for new product development, and it certainly is that. But the value of the market analysis that it provides goes far beyond just increasing new product success rates, although that’s obviously important and we increase new product success rates to over 80% and are very proud of that.

But because JTBD makes it possible for companies to identify and rank the opportunities in any given target market with statistical validity, JTBD is better understood as a strategic tool that enables companies to determine where to focus and what to do to create unique value for customers. So, in addition to increasing new product success rates, JTBD also can help companies:

1. Guide R&D and technology development
2. Prioritize value creation initiatives according to what the market wants
3. Create messaging and positioning that connects
4. Increase sales effectiveness
5. Create experiences that delight customers
6. Get ahead of disruption by knowing where value is migrating
7. Determine what your new product portfolio should include because you know where value is migrating

Once you have:

• Identified and ranked the opportunities in your market from the customers’ point of view, with statistical validity
• Determined what customers are trying to accomplish, and how they want to feel and be perceived, and
• How they measure success

…all your customer-facing, value-creation activities will become much more effective. Reveal needs, create value, drive growth.