Sublime

While Jobs-to-be-Done is the theory, Outcome-Driven Innovation is the process that puts it into practice.

THE NEEDS-FIRST APPROACH IS OFTEN FLAWED IN EXECUTION

To avoid defining the job to narrowly, work directly with customers to understand not why they bought your product, but how your product fits into what they are trying to accomplish. Ask, “Why are you using that product, what job are you ultimately trying to get done”.

Third, a job is solution agnostic.

In nearly all the markets we have analyzed, some segments of customers struggle more than others to get a job done.

Trying to guess at what needs-based segments exist and which needs are unmet introduces risk and variability into the innovation process. This is why statistically valid quantitative research is an essential part of the ODI process.

An effective innovation process must produce answers to the following questions: Who is the customer? What job is the customer trying to get done? What are the customer’s desired outcomes? How do they measure value? Do segments of customers exist that have different unmet outcomes? What unmet outcomes exist in each segment? What segments and unmet

While defining the functional job correctly is important, uncovering the customer’s desired outcomes (the metrics they use to measure success when get the job done) is the real key to success at innovation.