T-Mobile, SpaceX, Adventure Bikes, etc.
A look at things through a Jobs-to-be-Done lens
A few rambling thoughts…
SpaceX and T-Mobile
Some of you may know that I was with T-Mobile for a brief period recently to help establish a new approach to develop insights using Jobs Thinking. We had a grand vision of building an innovation center of excellence but, unfortunately, we were housed within the Retail organization (called the Consumer Line of Business). This is the first company I’ve seen that called a channel a line of business 🤦♂️. Anyway, when the people around you have never done anything but sell units through physical stores, generally their belief system only includes a future where physical stores rule the world.
Here's more on the partnership they just announced (8/25/2022)
We did some Jobs-to-be-Done research at T-Mo, and also did a deep dive into the industry. My team had a general consensus that wireless telcos - which have been on a steep decline in the growth of revenue (CAGR) for the past 15 years, approaching 0% globally - need a new business model. Not 5G. Not more stores. Not more free giveaways. Not an extremely costly expansion into rural areas (low population density) that the competition had already entered, and then departed in order to partner with…satellite companies. The lack of clear and unbiased thinking was mind-boggling. We were definitely not in the right part of the organization.
Consumers don’t want a smartphone, nor do they want 5G (they have no clue how it benefits them and marketers are unable to explain it). In fact, our research showed that talking or texting on phones was no longer a top priority for most of the consumer segments we uncovered (needs-based). They use their phones to get a variety of jobs done. Connectivity was merely an enabler. The information age companies that dominate our economy built themselves on connectivity. 5G is meaningless in this regard, and limited in use. I'm almost always on Wi-Fi supported bybroadband…unless I'm driving.
But even so, many of these apps facitate communicating and you might be surprised to learn that we found this Job to be significantly underserved. Why? Because of the proliferation of proprietary communication apps out there.
We all have different preferences for apps, they all have different features, and none of them work together. The data we were able to capture and analyze was overwhelming in its invalidation of many telco assumptions and was directional in ways to make just that one job of communicating much better across the app ecosystem (there are so many other jobs enabled by connectivity that we didn’t have time to study). But when you believe your job is to build and run stores, non-conforming information deflects off your ear lobes before it can do any serious damage to your ego!
Unfortunately, the bigger challenge for T-Mo was dealing with the fact that telcos are a utility (you can’t design your way out of that). While they talked about selling experiences through very expensive stores that catered to the homeless, the reality is that companies like Amazon (who are also launching satellites) were making moves into the telco world. I wonder why they would do that? Connectivity! And you'd be surprised by some research I found on consumers' willingness to give Starlink a try. I wrote an internal research alert to highlight this and I seemed to be the only one concerned. After all, we just needed more stores!
Meanwhile, we couldn't even complete a transaction online for customers… because they love stores after all and we wouldn't want to disappoint them. (See Mint Mobile, brags about no stores, runs on T-Mobile network).
Amazon’s motivations involve their need for ubiquitous connectivity supporting their moves toward the Internet for Things (think 4th Industrial Revolution stuff). Connectivity is merely a feature on the platform they are most certainly attempting to create. I’m not even sure SpaceX can beat Amazon (they have more reliance on consumer revenue than Amazon does), but this was really the only move T-Mobile could make and I’m laughing uproariously at some of the things they thought were going to work. None of them did. I just made myself laugh again by thinking about it! 😂
Lastly, this was Elon’s idea, not T-Mobile’s. This is a SpaceX move and Elon will show T-Mobile what Uncarrier really means. Count on it. (Hint: it means not being a carrier)
👆 This is 100% my opinion and others may not agree. So be it.
Thinking about getting an Adventure Bike
I’ve been a fan of Jeeps and off-roading since I was in high school. However, they’re just not that fun to use as a daily driver. I’ve been looking heavily at getting an adventure class motorcycle which takes me back even before my Jeep days when I used to ride dirt bikes and did a lot of single-track riding mixed in with some motocross for 10 years.
These days I have different jobs to get done. I have to buy groceries, I need to commute occasionally, go to the airport, tour through the mountains just north of me, get off paved roads for some excitement, possibly even go camping. Since my son is turning 16, I won't have to cart his butt all over Georgia anymore. No more passengers
Can I do all of these things on a large adventure bike? And why would I want to do that? After all, it gets wet and cold in north Georgia. Is it worth all the extra time it would take to prepare for a ride? I’m not sure. It's like riding horse in that regard. I’m still thinking about it.
As you know, we have functional jobs to get done, but there are emotional aspects as well. In some cases, we have experience jobs to get done where we’re trying find excitement or a thrill. In my case, I’d like to giggle every time I go to the grocery store, not just while I’m hitting the twisties at high speed in the mountains (but following the law of course).
I’m not the only one. While you won’t see a lot of people grocery shopping with a motorcycle, and relatively few commuting on one, you’d be surprised at the number of bikes that are owned and licensed in each state. Most people are purely recreational in their use and many bikes probably just sit in the garage. Me, I need more utility, meaning it needs to get more jobs done so it gets used regularly. The ability of these large bikes to help me get more jobs done on a single platform is what attracts me to the class.
I’m serious about strapping a bag on and going to the airport. Can you think of a better experience than getting off a long flight and hopping on your motorcycle for the ride home…in the rain, at night?
What other Jobs can an Adventure class bike help me get done?
Don’t forget to bookmark my Notion site where I sometimes share #JTBD goodies
https://jobs-to-be-done.notion.site