Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice

The crux of success in innovation is adoption. We may think we know what our customers will like, but more often than not, we are surprised and dismayed when we watch our “innovative” product or service flounder after launch.The odds of creating exactly the right product or service to disrupt a vulnerable incumbent are probably less than 25%. Failure is expensive as it comes late in the development cycle after the investment of time, energy and money.Best-selling author and Harvard professor Clayton Christensen provides answers and a solution in “Competing Against Luck” which comes after two decades of research where he carefully and inductively observed people who bought and sold things. What is the customer trying to do with the purchase? Why does the seller think the customer needs the product?He found a big disconnect… and the answer to why adoption is often not achieved. He also found a solution. He urges readers to abandon the old way of framing customer’s needs and look at the customer through a new lens with one question, “What is the customer hiring the product to do? What is the job?”“The fundamental problem is that companies accumulate masses of data that are not organized in a way that enables them to reliably predict which ideas will succeed. But none of the data tells you why customers make the choices they do."Now with “Competing Against Luck,” Christensen offers a paradigm change, “The Jobs Theory,” that provides a new lens and a discovery mindset that will help innovators (and investors) answer one of the most important questions that has bedeviled us for decades: is innovation inherently a question of luck? With this new tool, the answer is no.In Section 1, “An Introduction to Jobs Theory,” he defines “what is a job?” and goes on to put meat on the bone by explaining what is not a job, how can we discern a job and what are the theory’s limits.”To understand a job, it is critical to understand what “progress” is for the customer. A job is defined “as the progress that a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance.” It’s key to why choices are made. It represents movement.Circumstance is fundamental to finding a solution. Where are you? Who are you with? While doing what? What were you doing ½ an hour ago? What are you doing next? What social or cultural or political pressures are exerting influence?Social and emotional needs can far outweigh any functional desires. Who will I trust to take care of my children? The old ways of organizing - centered on product attributes, customer characteristics (lifestage, financial status, etc.), trends and competitive response - are insufficient.In contrast to what is normally baked into today’s customer research, neither product/service cost nor efficiency are a core element to defining a job. Also, Christensen notes from his research that new products succeed not because of the features and functionality they offer but because of the experiences they enable. When you enable the right experience for your customer, they will pay a premium price.Section 2 gets at the nuts and bolts of how to apply the theory. The author challenges us to uncover jobs to be done in our own life. Look for opportunities in non-consumption, identifying workarounds, zoning in on things we do not want to do and spotting unusual uses of products.While it is important to listen to the customer, you have to listen to hear what your customers don’t say. “Rarely can the customer articulate the requirements accurately or completely – their motivations more complex in their pathways to purchase more elaborate than they can describe. What they hire – and equally important, what they fire – tells a story.” Steve Jobs was famously known for listening to what was not said.Southern New Hampshire University, which has become a national leader in online education, sought answers to these questions when trying to ascertain “what they were being hired to do”: What are the experiences customers seek in order to make progress? What obstacles must be removed? What are the social, emotional and functional dimensions?In Section 3, Christensen outlines how one can create a Jobs focused organization. There are many critical elements. One is metrics. What gets measured gets done. Creating the right metrics is hard but important. Companies get focused on revenue instead of delivering the customer benefit. We can consider metrics like “how much time do we save this customer? Do we improve their cash flow?” He notes that Amazon focuses on when orders are delivered not when they are shipped.He goes on to note the problems of the old frame. Engineers and operators have focused on the product specification rather than the “job specification.” As a result, the organization has overweighted the value of its technology and underweighted the downstream applications of that technology to solve customer problems that enable their desired progress.There is a lot in “Competing Against Luck” to unpack. Just keep in mind that Christensen’s Jobs Theory was developed not to explain past successes but to help us increase the predictability of new ones. Identifying and understanding the job is only the beginning. Having empathy for the customer so we can create the right set of experiences in solving the job- is the key. It is easier for competitors to copy products but it is difficult for them to copy experiences that are well integrated into your offering.Should you buy this book?…that depends on the progress you seek and the job that needs to be done. By digging in and applying this new lens, you can cede luck to your competitors and leave them in the dust.Some afterthoughts:• NetFlix was hired to provide entertainment anywhere, anytime with control over time without a penalty.• Why didn’t Hertz come up with the Zipcar?• Why didn’t Kodak excel in digital photography?• Why is Sports Illustrated being fired for ESPN?• Why is Amazon buying Whole Foods?

This is a decent book, outlining some principals of product marketing to folks who are inside the company. For field sales people, the book should be read in tandem with completing a very old, but proven course by Learning International, called Professional Selling Skills. I've witness a number of sales people selling over the years, in addition to having been in sales myself, and rarely do they ask the right questions of the customer, or listen at the right times, and keep their mouths shut at the right times. There is a proven process for uncovering that 'job to be done', and it involves what Learning International's course gets to the root of, in what they call the 'need behind the need.' The customer might tell you about a problem, or rather in many instances, you present what you believe is a solution to some problem you THINK, they may have. Most often, the two parties stumble through that process. With new or emerging technology, that stumbling can be costly. The key is to have a methodical approach, designed to elicit the right information, so you can help the customer identify the right solution, and help him articulate his need not only to you for your product, but to his associates and other buying influencers. This book is an analogue to that sales process, and the thinking used by Clayton and his associates for innovation, or product development, is the same type of thinking to be used in sales as to how to effectively approach getting your new technology, service, or solution into the hands of the people who have the 'job to be done.' I would have given 5 stars to the book, but it is not an easy read. The stories take a long time for the author to draw out - admittedly, it is not easy to describe the notion of how to do something, that involves the thinking of the need of a prospective client, or the job to be done, in the case of innovation. Too often, people keep the descriptions of the buying process, or job to be done process, at too superficial of a level. They give up too soon when objections are expressed, or someone says 'no' to the idea. Clayton helps to clarify how to dig a bit deeper into the process. This book is something I would consider valuable to VP's of both product management, and VP's of sales, or other similar positions. Too often, those positions, make decisions in a silo, and aren't working close enough together to get their respective teams to be effective in front of customers. CEO's of emerging technology firms, the people now getting into that "IoT" space, would certainly benefit from what is outlined here in the book. And if you are a CEO, I would urge you to consider taking the Professional Selling Skills course, previously offered by Learning International, which is also the former Xerox Professional Selling Skills course. If you haven't been on the front lines of sales, and have not taken this Professional Selling Skills course, I can guarantee you just don't know what you think you know, and you WILL make many crucial strategic mistakes that will doom your company, and you will hire the WRONG VP of Sales or Commercial Officer, and they will hire the wrong sales managers and wrong sales people. I've witnessed it time and time again, at more than a dozen firms in the past 30 plus years.

Die Gedanken von Clayton M. Christensen kreisen seit mehr als 20 Jahren um das Management von Innovation. In seinem Klassiker aus dem Jahr 1997  Clayton M. Christensen  ging es noch darum, disruptive Innovation zu erkennen und zu erklären, warum gerade etablierte erfolgreiche Unternehmen es schwer haben, solche disruptiven Innovationen immer und immer wieder hervorzubringen und dadurch ihren Fortbestand langfristig zu sichern.Dieses Buch hier hat eine viel positivere Gesamtaussage: Es gibt eine Theorie, mit der man Innovation zielsicher produzieren und qualifizieren kann. Diese Theorie namens “Jobs to be done“ (JTBD) hat er bereits in früheren Büchern aufgegriffen und beschrieben – damals jedoch noch nicht so auf den Punkt gebracht und ausgereift wie im aktuellen Werk.Es geht sowohl bei existierenden als auch bei neuen Produkten oder Services immer darum, welche Aufgabe (Job) wir als Individuum damit erledigen. Das ist weit mehr als der Nutzen eines Produktes oder Dienstes. Es ist die subjektive und individuelle Unterstützung bei einer längerfristigen Aufgabe (einem Job).Die Beispiele eröffnen einem völlig neue Sichtweisen: Welche Aufgabe erfüllt ein Milchshake, der morgens gekauft wird und warum ist dies eine komplett andere Aufgabe als der Milchshake, der nachmittags gekauft wird?Diese JTBD-Sichtweise erklärt, warum wir auch mit Big Data, KI und ein paar Korrelationen niemals herausfinden, warum wir Menschen etwas überhaupt tun. Und solange wir dieses „Warum“ nicht klar definiert haben und wissen, welchen Job unsere Kunden zu welchem Zeitpunkt mit unserem Service erledigen, müssen wir in ständiger Angst leben, dass ein potenzieller Wettbewerber mit einer abgefahrenen und unerwarteten Innovation um die Ecke kommt und uns vom Markt fegt.Ohne das echte und tiefe Verstehen des Jobs eines Individuums können wir unser Produkt und unseren Service nicht zu einer Killer-Applikation weiterentwickeln. Und ohne eine Menge von Individuen, die denselben Job haben, wird unser Service ein Nischendasein fristen.Disruption ist mit JTBD einfach erklärt: Die Aufgabe wird plötzlich mit einem Produkt oder Service einer ganz anderen Gattung erbracht – und nicht mit einem logisch weiterentwickelten Produkt bzw. Service.Die zwingende Logik der Gedanken und Beispiele bringen einem das Ziel von Christensen mit jeder Seite näher: Eine Anleitung, wie jeder von uns sich auf die Suche nach zwingender und logischer Innovation machen kann, und dabei gleich einen Wertmaßstab mitgeliefert bekommt, um die Qualität der eigenen Idee zu bewerten.Und da wir die Produkte und Dienste als Menschen kaufen, zeigt dieses Buch auch die Grenzen von statistischen und Big Data-Analysen bei der Bewertung von Innovation und zukünftigen Diensten auf. Korrelation ist eben etwas anderes als das Verstehen der Ursache einer menschlichen (Kauf-) Handlung. Und genau darum geht es bei echter Innovation.Fazit: Absolut lesenswert. Eine Empfehlung für Unternehmer, Gestalter und Idealisten! Clayton M. Christensen

The WSJ on Dec 30, 2016 has a great article about storytelling. The article notes that "stories are profoundly intimate", per historian Kari Winter. Since Competing Against Luck is at its core a treatise on how critical "story" is for innovation (it's often the missing link), it stands to reason that the book can also be described as profound and intimate.I really appreciated the time spent in grounding in the importance of theory. The authors have a great blend of rigorous academia and practical application that is the truest application of scientific theory. Far too often when books written by academics talk about scientific theory it's all analysis without any true observation and experiments.The idea of the big hire (purchase) and little hire (usage) was also really important to me. A lot of companies pick just one or the other to build data around. Some just focus on need states or moments (the little hire), but within 6-12 months of building out that moments fact-base they come to the realization that no data exists there and it is impossible to measure or manage, per Peter Drucker. Some focus on just shopping missions (the big hire), but lack the empathy to care what happens next.Finally, I appreciated the time spent discussing the organizational implications. I've long argued that market share is an important, but wholly insufficient measure to run your business. Share of category growth and share of category profit are also really important and measurable with data today. But the authors are suggesting is that one of the best metrics that doesn't yet exist is "share of story" or "share of struggle". It's probably the truest measure of how well your innovation (and your entire business is doing).But beyond it being profound, I really appreciated the intimacy of the individual stories. The intimacy makes it fun to read.Not many books are worthy to buy and read. Some books are worthy enough to read and share. And a very select few are worthy to read and re-read regularly. I know people who treat JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as an example of an evergreen read. I think this book is worthy to buy, share and re-read to ensure you are on the straight and narrow path to innovation success that is story.

I find This book to be quite useful. A more expanded Version of the jobs to be done theory from Clay Christiansen. I do find the book could’ve been a little bit more concise and a little bit less on the stories themselves. Alas one actually need stories to explain a lot of things.If you have red clear Christiansen work that he has done before. You’ll be very familiar with his jobs to be done Theory and This would be A delightful refresher for you and a more expounded version that you can readily apply.Like about this book is that it also lays out what the theory is in capable of doing. It is not a “fix all” solution.Al in all good read.Personal caveat: Never expect to get all the answers for businesses, startup or Innovation solutions from anyone book or anyone theory.