Finding Customer Needs

Jobs-to-be-Done are not always obvious to identify.

Example: Job-to-be-Done of a Milkshake

• Stagnating milkshake sales let a big fast food chain apply the ODI approach
• What job causes you to hire a milkshake?
• Half of the milkshakes were sold before 8 am
• Customers were alone and the milkshake was the only thing they bought,
didn‘t spend time within the ‚restaurant‘ and drove directly away
• A survey showed that all customers:
- had a long drive to work
- needed something to do with their second hand while they drove
- weren't hungry, but knew they'd be hungry at 10 am, so they needed
something to stay in their stomach
• Neither a bagel nor a banana, a donut nor a snickers bar gets the job done
• Milkshake is convenient: It fits in hand and cupholder and takes 20 min while
driving to work. Ingredients don‘t matter that much.

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 53 Christensen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmbSpTJXozk
Finding Customer Needs

Needs and jobs that a customer wants to get done remain stable over time.

Jobs-to-be-Done Characteristics Examples for Jobs-to-be-Done

Jobs-to-be-Done Old Solution New Solution
Ingest medicine Pills and Shots Skin patches
People hire products and services
1. Make many products for
to help them get a job done Many craftsman Production line
mass market
Detect enemy at night Flares Night vision
Keep windows clean Clean with squeegee Self-cleaning glass
The “job” – not the product or the Clean teeth Manual brushing Automated with sound waves
2.
customer – is the unit of analysis
Search for information Library Internet

3. A “job” is stable over time

Understanding and identifying the Jobs-to-be-Done creates opportunities for viable growth strategies.

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 54
Finding Customer Needs

Jobs-to-be-Done can be broken down in main and related jobs-to-be-done.

Jobs-to-be-Done Breakdown
• Main Jobs-to-be-Done describe the tasks that
customers want to achieve
Main Job-to-be-Done Related Job-to-be-Done • Related Jobs-to-be-Done describes what a
customer wants to accomplish in conjunction
with the main Jobs-to-be-Done
• Functional aspects are practical and objective
Functional Emotional Functional Emotional
customer requirements
Aspects Aspects Aspects Aspects
• Emotional aspects are the subjective customer
requirements related to feelings and
Personal Social Personal Social perceptions
Dimension Dimension Dimension Dimension • Personal dimension describes how a customer
feels about a solution
• Social dimension describes how the customer
believes he/ she is perceived by using others
while using the solution

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 55
Finding Customer Needs

Jobs-to-be-Done breakdown: Example

Example: Cleaning Teeth

• Main Jobs-to-be-Done: Clean your teeth and gums
• Related Jobs-to-be-Done: Create lasting fresh breath, whiten
Main Job-to-be-Done Related Job-to-be-Done your teeth, clean face, eyebrows
• Functional aspects: Remove foreign particles from your teeth
along with any bacteria and associated odour
Functional Emotional Functional Emotional • Emotional aspects: Cleaning experience should to be
Aspects Aspects Aspects Aspects pleasant, it should feel good, it should not be painful
• Personal dimension: Should make you feel good about
yourself
Personal Social Personal Social
• Social dimension: You will be perceived as a person who has
Dimension Dimension Dimension Dimension
clean teeth, healthy gums, and a fresh breath

The Job-to-be-Done concept is a guide for thinking beyond –

to make your current solutions and your competitors’ solution obsolete.

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 56
Finding Customer Needs
Depending on the industry functional or emotional aspects of the
Job-to-be-Done can be used to differentiate a product or service.
Triune Brain Model Jobs-to-be-Done Breakdown
• Triune Brain Model:
- Reptilian: Basic survival and biological needs
Reptilian - Emotional: Guides most decisions we make in life
- Intellectual: Logical, methodical, and analytical part of the brain
Emotional • When these three parts are in conflict, the reptilian part takes
precedent over the other two
Intellectual • The emotional part wins, when there is a conflict between the
emotional part and the intellectual part
• Usually products or innovations compete in the emotional or
intellectual part
• Create potential value with focussing on aspects contrary to the
industry
• Examples: Apple, Body Shop, surgical instruments

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 57
Finding Customer Needs
Understanding and identifying the Jobs-to-be-Done creates opportunities
for four different growth strategies.

Meet unmet needs and outcome expectation associated with a job that customers want to achieve.
Core growth
Perfecting the current solution paradigm.

Related job growth Bundle solutions that achieve the needs of more than one main or related Jobs-to-be-Done.

New job growth Expand the solution space to accomplish different Jobs-to-be-Done.

Disruptive growth Change noncustomers to customers by offering solutions that more customers can afford.

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 58
Finding Customer Needs
Outcome-driven innovation is a customer-centric, data-driven strategy and
innovation process.

01. 02. 03. 04. 05.

Identify market
Define a market Identify needs Quantify needs Analyse the data
segments
Define the job executer Uncover the Quantify the extent to Identify hidden Use the data to
and the Job-to-be-Done customer’s needs tied which each need is segments of formulate a successful
to the job-to-be-done under/overserved opportunities growth strategy
• Job mapping
• Create Outcome
statements

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 59
Finding Customer Needs
Technologies come and go, but the market is still the same with the
underlying Job-to-be-Done.
Define a Market: Music Market

LP market CD market MP3 market Music streaming market

Job-to-be-done: Listen to music

People don’t want LP’s, CD’s, or MP3-players. They want to listen to music.

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 60
Finding Customer Needs

A job map analyses exactly what the customer is trying to get done.

Job Mapping Process

• Job mapping breaks down the Job-

to-be-Done into eight categories of
1. Define 2. Locate 3. Prepare 4. Confirm activities
• Process to identify solution-neutral
criteria (outcome expectations)
• The goal is not to find out how the
customer is executing the job (maps
existing activities and solution)
5. Execute 6. Monitor 7. Modify 8. Conclude
• Important is the underlying job to be
done, what are people trying to go
through in order to get that job done
in the most efficient order

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 61 Bettencourt and Ulwick (2018): The Customer-Centered Innovation Map
Finding Customer Needs

Job mapping: Step one to four

1. Define 2. Locate
• Create a list of all different aspects of the Job-to-be- • List out all the items and information that are needed
Done that need to be defined (need to be located) to get the job done
• Customer view: establish objectives, plan the • This includes both tangible and intangible information
process, identify needed resources
• What are essential planning steps for the customer?

3. Prepare 4. Confirm
• List the activities associated with preparing the inputs • Confirm that all necessary preparation is taken and
(organizing and environment setup) to efficiently the Job-to-be-Done is ready for execution
execute the Job-to-be-Done • This reduces chances of making errors and ensures
• Solution providers can innovate by simplifying the that rework is minimized
preparation step (e.g., minimizing the time)

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 62 Bettencourt and Ulwick (2018): The Customer-Centered Innovation Map
Finding Customer Needs

Job mapping: Step five to eight

5. Execute 6. Monitor
• What must customers do to successfully execute the • What must the customer monitor to ensure the job is
job? successfully executed?
• Identify details about the aspects of the steps – • Verify the necessity of making adjustments or
innovation can result from simplifying and automating modifications to the execution step
parts of these steps

7. Modify 8. Conclude
• What might the customer need to alter for the job to • What must the customer do to finish the job?
be completed successfully? • After the actual job execution there can be additional
• Modify the experience either in real time or in future activities to be done like a deposit return
executions based on the learning in the preceding • Innovations could again simplify such activities
step

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 63 Bettencourt and Ulwick (2018): The Customer-Centered Innovation Map
Finding Customer Needs

The job map reveals what functions the perfect solution should provide.

Listen to music Fulfilling Multiple Needs with One Solution

• While LP and CD only cover the execute step (listen
LP CD MP3 Music streaming
to music), the MP3 solution gets more of the job done
• Music streaming covers even more steps with keeping
track of preferences and suggesting new music
• Most products only get a part of the job done because
Gather the Confirm Jobs-to-be-Done from the customer’s perspective are
Assess the Organize rarely defined
desired the music
situation the music • Similarly for coffee machines the job is not to prepare
music plan
hot water but to prepare the customer a hot beverage
Monitor Modify the • See the job as the right level of abstraction, other
Listen to Assess the
the music possibilities to get the job done better on a single
the music experience
experience selection platform (e.g., Nespresso)

People want to get the job done with a single solution.

Finding customers who combine several solutions offers potential to innovate.

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 64
Finding Customer Needs
Understanding outcome expectations helps to identify unidentified market
space which can then be filled with better solutions.

Outcome Expectations Types of Outcome Expectations

• Outcome expectations are solution-neutral and
reside at a higher level than functional aspects of a
Job-to-be-Done (increase the duration of illumination 1. Desired outcomes customers want to achieve
– using any solution)
• It is important to define any outcome expectations
associated with a Job-to-be-Done to understand with 2. Undesired outcomes customers want to avoid
which solutions customers are satisfied and where
there is potential to innovate
• View outcome expectations as hiring criteria
3. Desired outcomes providers want to achieve
• Customers usually hire a solution (product/service)
that provides more benefits (desired outcomes) and
less cost and harm (undesired outcomes)
• Outcome expectations exist not only for customers 4. Undesired outcomes providers want to avoid
but also for the provider of a solution

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 65
Finding Customer Needs
Outcome statements improve the consistency and reliability of collection
useful information regarding the Job-to-be-Done.
Outcome Expectations for Cleaning Cloth at Home
Create Outcome Statements
• Undesired smell • Product liability
• Innovations should meet expectations to a greater extent
• Damaged Cloth • Imitation products than they are met today
Undesired

• Harmful chemicals • Environmental • Use imperative terms to create outcome statements

• Inconvenience complaints following the structure:
• Excessive cost • Supply shortages
Direction Metric Object of control Contextual clarifier
• Stain removal • Revenue growth Increase the likelihood of an appealing smell from clothes.
• Easy cleaning • Steady profit
Desired

Characteristics of a “perfect” statement

• Fast cleaning
• Clothes smell fresh
• Clothes look fresh
Customer
• Customer loyalty
• Customer description of value
• Steady demand • Measurable
• Low cost to make • Stable over time
Provider • Free from solutions or specifications

Having a complete set of customer outcome statements is the holy grail of innovation.

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 66
Finding Customer Needs
Quantify the needs by asking customers about the importance of a need
and their satisfaction with existing solutions.
Satisfaction
Outcome Importance
with solution
10
Minimize the time it takes to
remove songs that you no 9
longer want to hear
8
Minimize the time it takes to
7
determine what songs to

Satisfaction
include 6
Minimize the time it takes to 5
determine the order in which
to play the songs
4
3
2
1
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Opportunity score = importance + max(importance – satisfaction, 0) Importance

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 67
Finding Customer Needs

Segment the market around unmet needs rather than age or market size.

Market Segmentation
10
• Companies often segment markets around demographics,
9
psychographics, attitudes and customer behaviours
• These classifications do not reveal segments of customers 8
with different unmet needs 7

Satisfaction
• Personas give only qualitative insights, often stereotype 6
customers and are quantitively invalid 5
• Traditional segmentation methods often result in targeting 4
phantom segments and are therefore ineffective and
misleading 3

• Group outcomes with similar ratings to segment the market 2

around unmet needs 1
• Cluster the outcome groups in a predetermined number of 0
segments 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Importance

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 68
Finding Customer Needs
Outcome-driven innovation reveals hidden opportunities which can be
addressed by the four organic growth strategies.

10
9 • Address under-served outcome expectations with a
8 core-growth strategy of improving the current
Over-served Table Stakes solution
7
• Develop solutions which are simpler, cheaper, and
Satisfaction

6 more available for over-served outcome

5 expectations to reach more people (or
4 noncustomers) – disruptive growth strategy
Appropriately
3 served • Do not focus on appropriately served outcome
expectations
2
• The related job strategy and the new job strategy
1 Irrelevant Under-served
can be applied to every segment
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Importance

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 69
Finding Customer Needs
The competitive analysis shows unique insights into the strategic focusing
on specific needs.

Value quotient
Desired outcomes
desired outcomes
Value quotient =
Minimize the time it takes to undesired outcomes
remove songs that you no -- -- + +
longer want to hear • Try to meet all desired outcomes
• Try to avoid all undesired outcomes
Minimize the time it takes to
determine what songs to -- -- + ++ • Close the value gaps between the ideal and
include current solution
- Customers report an outcome is very
Minimize the time it takes to important but the satisfaction is low
determine the order in which -- -- + ++
to play the songs - Customers report an outcome as not very
important but they are satisfied
- When no solution exists so far introduce a
Minimize the likelihood that
-- ++ + ++ new solution which exceeds the customer
the music sounds distorted
expectations

Winter 22/23 | Technology and Innovation Management | Prof. Dr. Alexander Kock | 70