Igniting Innovation with Lean JTBD?

I was delighted to be the guest speaker on Jim Kalbach's monthly live webinar called "JTBD Untangled" recently, specifically to talk about Lean JTBD?. JTBD Untangled is perhaps the largest online community of people interested in JTBD innovation practices. (See the link to the live webinar in the first comment below).

The timing was perfect for me because I've been thinking a lot about how to make the Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) innovation process simpler and easier for executives to understand and leverage.

Doesn't everyone want to understand the essence of a new product/service or best practice quickly and for free? "Free trials" are a great way to do this.

In my perception, up until now, JTBD has simply been too complicated, too expensive, and/or overkill for many executives to even get started. What do you think??

Another barrier to adoption is that many companies are intensely focused on day-to-day operations and, consequently, don't want to pursue "innovation" per se because it's perceived to require people and resources for something "outside" day-to-day operations that is risky, messy, and expensive.

It pains me that these misbeliefs continue to cause big losses for many companies that are totally unnecessary. Perhaps even worse, these misbeliefs inhibit leaders from even trying to innovate. People simply don't know that there's a way to turn innovation and revenue growth into a repeatable business process that is highly effective, low risk, straight forward, and inexpensive if you choose to pursue only such opportunities. You get to decide.?

Interestingly, these same companies/leaders are very interested in differentiating and building competitive advantage. I think that's because, even given how challenging it is to differentiate and/or build competitive advantage (unless you're doing it with JTBD), most leaders have a better understanding about these things than about how to innovate. They don't know that the JTBD innovation process enables firms to differentiate and build competitive advantage with little risk, without mess, and inexpensively, if that's what you want to do. (Further discussion about this will make a good future article).

Yet, anyone who wants to drive innovation and revenue growth in a repeatable manner can gain potentially game-changing insights by knowing what customer information to obtain, how to get it, and how to use it, be that through sales conversations, customer service calls, or any day-to-day interaction with customers. (Of course, a skilled JTBD consultant adds significant additional value in a variety of ways such as identifying and ranking the biggest opportunities in your market with precision and statistical validity, revealing jobs-based market segments, transferring knowledge and skills to management, etc.).

"I have probably done over 100 jobs-to-be-done projects and…not one has failed to deliver potential game-changing insights.” - Jeff Baker, Former Head of Market Research and New Products, NetJets

The mindset shift alone can have a profound impact on any organization. Who would think that an accounting firm would be an exemplar of innovation? Good leadership makes a difference.

"One of the most important things that came out of our work with Urko was a shift in our mentality from focusing on what we know how to do, to what the client is trying to get done. Instead of saying “Here’s the audit report,” now we ask, "What is the client trying to get done with the audit report and how can we provide good business advice along with that work product?" - Darci Congrove, Managing Director, GBQ Partners

What if you could integrate a proven process to differentiate and build competitive advantage into your daily operations? Would that be valuable to you?

What if you could take small steps in strategic places to create a major positive impact in your employees' productivity and the firm's competitive advantage?

That's the intent with the new offering my team and I are exploring called Lean JTBD?. Our objective is to extract the fundamentals of JTBD and package them in a way that enables organizations to "test and see" the value of JTBD, get quick wins, and determine if it's worth further exploration.

I believe EVERY organization benefits from:

1) Understanding the JTBD paradigm

2) Learning some key questions for employees to ask customers

3) Learning a few ways to embed Jobs Thinking into the culture

That's because every organization that adapts Jobs Thinking will have a better understanding of their target customers' needs than they would without it, at least for companies that operate in functionally complex markets. It provides a more thorough, more accurate understanding of your market opportunities.

Does this resonate with you? If so, let me know. Sign up on our Waitlist to get a sneak peak and provide feedback (see link in second comment below). I'd love to hear what would make this offer irresistible for you.