Sorry Clayton, outcomes matter more than jobs-to-be-done

Looking at diverse frameworks I often see management consultants referring to the job to be done. It's true, consumers have a job to do and organizations propose products and services to do this job. A good example is listening to music. Along the decades, the job to be done hasn't changed... listen to music. Organizations have successively offered walkmans, portable CD players, MP3 players, smartphones to do this job.

As an organization, it's your job to have a vision and simply looking at the job to be done may send you into a wall. It may send you into a wall because the job to be done, although it can live a few decades, is not permanent. Hertz focussed on the job to be done. They went bankrupt. There are hundreds of similar examples.

Customers are interested in outcomes. They consume your products and services to reach outcomes. Let me say it again. They consume your products and services to reach outcomes.

"Customers seek outcomes"

If you look at Clayton's video on the job to be done (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzezRI9KNKY) he is actually mentioning it but revert to the job to be done. He is asking three questions about the customer:

1. Why is she trying to do this?
2. What is the trying to accomplish?
3. What job is she trying to get done?

Although these questions apparently look the same, they aren't.

Question 1 is the most fundamental question and relates to outcome. Note that you may have to ask "Why" multiple times to get the essence of why a person do something. Why relates to outcome. I want to send document A to person H because it will allow me to open a bank account which will let me spend money in this country. The outcome is that you can spend money in this country. The job to be done is to send A to person H (DHL, UPS, Fedex...).

Question 2 tends to relate to outcome but not fully. You can accomplish something but not reach the outcome. I can spend 3 hours at an amusement park and not accomplish the outcome i target: have fun with my family.

Question 3 is about the job to be done. What i am saying is that the job to be done is a narrow alley inside a city. When you are inside this alley you don't see the big picture. Go through the main streets to understand the big picture. You will create products and services that are more relevant for the customer.

Let's take another example.

You want to go to London to enjoy the presence of someone you haven't seen for 7 months. The job to be done is to take you from Sydney to London. The organization fulfilling this need is usually an airline. If you are an airline and you only focus on the job to be done you will compete against other airlines. Maybe in 10 years time, your customer's value chain will be disrupted by SpaceX who will offer ultra fast flights from Sydney to London.

But imagine you look at the outcome that this specific customer segment targets. How could your customers reach this outcome without using your products or services? Can you be innovative and propose holographic experiences?

In an environment where technology is making great progress, you need to look at the full picture because you will increasingly see organizations outside of your industry coming with innovative solutions to fulfill the outcomes you are currently providing to your customers. The risk is that you will not see them arriving.

Disruptors will not just be looking at the job-to-be-done, they will look at the outcome and they will find innovative ways for customers to reach it.

Going even beyond, some food for thought: can you quantify the outcome?

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