book.chapter The causal mechanism for successful innovation

Innovation can be predictable if you understand why customers choose a particular solution, helping to forecast their future needs accurately. The key lies in discerning the jobs customers hire you to do. A mid-1990s fast-food chain case illustrates this. Despite customer surveys and attempts to implement suggestions, milkshake sales remained stagnant. The breakthrough came when consultants asked customers what job they were hiring the milkshake to do. Most were buying milkshakes for their commute to work, needing something to make the drive interesting and keep them nourished until lunch. This insight allowed the chain to align their product with the customer's job, making the milkshake more viscous, adding fruit chunks, and moving the dispensing machine to the front. However, milkshakes purchased in the afternoon or evening served a different job, typically bought by parents as a treat for their children. This highlights that people hire milkshakes for two very different jobs during the day, each with a different set of competitors and evaluated based on different criteria. This suggests that there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution for the fast-food chain to sell more milkshakes, but rather two distinct solutions. Many recent innovation successes, like Uber, have identified a Job-to-be-Done and offered a product or service that performs that job exceptionally well. The core insight is that customers don’t buy products or services; they pull them into their lives to make progress. We call this progress the “job” they are trying to get done, and in our metaphor we say that customers “hire” products or services to solve these jobs. The fast-food chain initially took a classic approach to improve their milkshake sales. They identified their target milkshake-slurping demographic and sent researchers to analyze this. Unfortunately, once the fast-food company began making new, evidence-backed and "better" milkshakes based on the research, the sales remained stagnant. The company started by segmenting its market both by product (milkshakes) and by demographics. Next, the marketing department asked people who fit the demographic to list the characteristics of an ideal milkshake (thick, thin, chunky, smooth, fruity, chocolaty, etc.). The would-be customers answered as honestly as they could, but the sales did not improve. The breakthrough came when the company approached a Harvard Professor, Sir Clay Christensen, who is well known for his JTBD (Job To Be Done) theory. As per the JTBD theory, we hire a product to get a specific job done. For example, if the job that I am trying to get done is to clean my teeth, I would hire a toothpaste and a toothbrush to get that job done. Based on the JTBD theory, Clay's team decided to find out what is the job that buyers are trying to get done by hiring the milkshake. They spotted single males coming out of the fast-food chain carrying their milkshakes and talked to them. They found that these males had a long commute to work. The milkshake kept them occupied throughout the drive as it takes almost 23 minutes to finish the super-sized version. This insight allowed the chain to align their product with the customer's job. They made the milkshake more viscous to last longer and added fruit chunks to make it more interesting. They also moved the dispensing machine to the front to make sure that people who wanted to just buy a milkshake and drive through didn’t have to wait. However, milkshakes purchased in the afternoon or evening served a different job. They were typically bought by parents as a treat for their children. In that case, a different, thinner milkshake was in order. This highlights that people hire milkshakes for two very different jobs during the day, each with a different set of competitors and evaluated based on different criteria. This suggests that there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution for the fast-food chain to sell more milkshakes, but rather two distinct solutions. By using the JTBD theory, the fast-food chain was able to increase its milkshake sales by 7 times. Many recent innovation successes, like Uber, have identified a Job-to-be-Done and offered a product or service that performs that job exceptionally well. The core insight is that customers don’t buy products or services; they pull them into their lives to make progress. We call this progress the “job” they are trying to get done, and in our metaphor we say that customers “hire” products or services to solve these jobs.