Before I dive into this potentially divisive topic, I wanted to share this new toolkit I’ve created that I hope will help you understand the key principles of Jobs-to-be-Done faster and easier. It has 99 topics supporting 9 key principles. It’s completely free and I am expanding each of the topics regularly. It’s called the JTBD Strategy Stack. Check it out!
Now, on with the show!
Deep Breath
Today I’m going to talk about something that is common everywhere. But my focus is going to be on Zero Pivot Problem-Solving, powered by Practical Jobs-to-be-Done.
I’m almost to the point where I don’t even want to associate myself with the term Jobs-to-be-Done any longer. It’s become a market of fast-followers - some of whom have made ridiculous claims - who don’t give damn about ruining something. They only care about themselves. It really doesn’t matter to me what they do, or how they do it. What matters to me is constantly getting caught up in the debate about what Jobs-to-be-Done is.
Where it started for me
I was introduced to this concept when I was “in the market” for a solution that addressed the root cause of unpredictable outcomes in digital transformation (we didn’t call it that then). The requirements that were elicited from workshops and interviews almost never survived the duration of a large implementation. Or if they did, the end users would either not adopt the new way of doing things or would simply use the new tools in ways, and for purposes, that were unintended. Most of the time this meant there was little to no discernable business impact after such a major investment.
I’m telling you this because I want you to understand what I was trying accomplish. I was not selling workshops or canvas development. I was building things and I wanted to make sure I was building the right things, the right way. And I decided at this point that internal stakeholders and their ideas were basically worthless. It doesn’t matter how good the facilitator is…although each of those individuals will disagree with me. They can continue to live in their own reality; I’ll live in mine.
I’m not going to diminish the work of Design Thinking teams who step forward into the functional problem-space with their method. They have no options but to do this because there was a vacuum of insights, and the culture has allowed it and promoted it. It’s very much like salespeople who have to develop their own leads because the marketing organization sucks. They should be doing what they’re good at, closing deals. Designers should be doing what they’re good at, designing winning concepts based on the work of strategists who develop targeted and precise insights into where the value gaps exist in a market.
This is a simple focus. Let’s not overcomplicate it by trying to simplify it further. 😂
Taking shortcuts to get around the rigor required by a purposeful methodology will not deliver the outcomes that your stakeholders desire. It’s only great for you, because the initiative will fail, or have very little durability. In each case, you get to go on stage again, and again. Quite the business model.
That’s what you do.
Congratulations!
Now, I want everyone to pay attention to this very, very closely. The folks that have developed shortcutting and derivative works of Jobs-to-be-Done are following a lead. On one hand, there was protective inventor who wouldn’t share the secrets of a rigorous methodology. On the other hand, there was great storyteller who recited an engaging tale over, and over again. It was an unbelievable tale of success. And it was such a simple method that even you could do it.
Let’s take a look at this great story…(pay attention to the end)
This is the part that’s going to get me into trouble 👇
