| >First, start with the M, not the P. Well said! This is basically the linchpin behind the Jobs to be Done theory commonly attributed to Clayton Christensen (many thought leaders developed the theory over the years which he credits, but Clay seemed to be the leader of the group). The premise of Clay's book "Competing Against Luck" is about this JTBD theory (he also calls "Jobs Theory") which aims to surface the fundamental causality of customer purchase behavior, which allows you to build your solution such that it aligns directly with that behavior instead of all the abstractions and manifestations of that behavior that are often red herrings (ie: pointless features, solutions that in reality not aligned but this is not obvious, etc). Ultimately, Jobs Theory is an approach that that aims to objectively lower risk around innovation. It teaches you to think of customer needs/objectives independently from solutions/technologies, so that it's more natural to innovate to serve the ultimate need rather than compete against preexisting solutions or be misled by customers who are not often able to articulate (or they may not even consciously know what drove their behavior -- it can be very complex) what a better solution for them would be and as such will just mislead you. Instead of taking shots in the dark, you build better solutions around preexisting needs (more accurately called "jobs" in JTBD Theory, and it isn't just semantics). Apologies for nerding out on a topic you probably already know well but I figured I'd add to the conversation for others who might be interested. I really love JTBD. It helps solve imo the single hardest problem around startups -- product/market fit. Read Competing Against Luck folks! |
We also hear the advice to "make a painkiller, not a vitamin," which is sort of a JTBD/HCD test in disguise.