Mike's notes.
One secret entrance to the job to be done is how people hack your product. There’s the way you built a thing – using supply-side innovation to scratch an itch or whatever. But then there is the demand-side innovation of what people really want. This manifests as hacks, like desire paths. Peloton saw people hack… Continue reading The Secret Path to JTBD
“Don’t eat them for the 100% whole grain oats. Don’t eat them because the oats can help lower cholesterol. Eat them for her.” The good. Jobs-to-be-done uses “Mario marketing”. Sell the power, not the flower. Why is ‘being healthy’ a goal? It’s to spend longer with your granddaughter. This ad ran on a Wednesday morning… Continue reading Cheerios JTBD
One of the best-performing stocks of the last twenty years – a famed 100-bagger – is Monster Energy. Why didn’t we see this? If you want to succeed at investing, Howard Marks wrote, you have to be different and you have to be right. Embedded in that is the notion that being different is hard.… Continue reading A Monster JTBD
One question within jobs to be done is: Are the consumer and the customer different? A manager who buys software or uniforms or food for their staff is the customer whereas the staff is the consumer. And this happens a lot. Homeowners use thermostats but HVAC companies buy them. About one-fifth of books sold are… Continue reading The birthday cake’s JTBD
When asked if he worried about Xerox vertically integrating, Kinko’s founder Pual Orfalea said ‘HAAHAHAHAH. No.’ It’s obvious with distance, hindsight, and present best practices that’s exactly what Xerox should have done. Move down the market, get closer to the customers, and let their purchase decisions drive product innovation. But Paul Orfalea just laughed. And… Continue reading Kinko’s JTBD
JTBD (vacuums, meals, multitools) exists to find the implicit motivator. Humans stink at admitting, acknowledging, and understanding the scope of our motivations. JTBD finds gaps between those shortcomings and the lived results. “I’m going to go Black Friday shopping,” Krista told me, “as an excuse to get lunch with my girlfriend.” It seems like shopping… Continue reading Black Friday JTBD
Robot vacuum innovation using JTBD Too fast? Slow down. Too hot? Cool down. Too little? Add more. Too long to wait? Make it shorter. Maybe. Waits are complainable for a couple of reasons. Fairness, if someone enters a line later but finishes sooner. Ambiguity, if the wait duration is unknown. Comfort, if there’s somewhere to… Continue reading Robot vacuum innovation using JTBD
The central point of JTBD is that innovators over index on what they can build and under index on progress the customers wants. Too often innovators ‘scratch their own itch.’ This doesn’t mean verbatim bequeaths . Do that, said Ford CEO Jim Farley, and you get The Homer. No, successful JTBD innovation uses the customer’s… Continue reading Fifteen minutes could…be the JTBD
If I listened to my customers, Henry Ford lamented, they’d have asked for a faster horse. Let’s peel back this meme. Superficially, Ford noted, customers do not know what they want. It takes visionary God-given insight to make things for people. Maybe. What’s happening is that customers share a suggested solution. Ask the right questions… Continue reading Netflix DVD JTBD
My eleven-year-old daughter requested “Pirate Booty” after having it at school. Those bright buccaneers put the JTBD right on the box. Parents buy these “lunch bags” to pack for their children. You’re not buying a snack. You’re buying being the parent who packs their kid’s lunch. Pirate Booty also commandeered a clever CAC. They earn… Continue reading Pirate Booty JTBD
The Waiter's Pad 