We recently ran across an article in Forbes – How “Jobs To Be Done’ Is A Concept Being Debased.
And we couldn’t agree more.
It essentially outlines the watering-down phenomenon of Clayton Christensen’s “Jobs to be Done” work as the approach becomes so much bigger and more popular. And it’s totally fair.
Quester’s approach has been a direct evolution of what the author is saying – our clients had their own unmet needs for jobs as the field became more crowded and more buzz-worthy. It’s already an approach with a rich and varied history, but popularity has bred new experts and a lot of noise that’s caused – at best – confusion and – at worst – shallow findings that leave doubts. On top of that, what’s actually useful and actionable varies widely based on the category, the functional-emotional nature of the industry, internal innovation steps, and even the way different organizations embrace and define what a Job is.
The challenge has become democratizing jobs when there is so much demand for it, without losing the spirit and the disciplined techniques that need to be executed to really make it the actionable and incredibly useful approach that it’s intended to be. It’s not one-size-fits-all and it requires a strong understanding of not only Jobs for the consumer, but the ultimate Job for the organization.
Regardless of the internal method and point of view, it’s our responsibility to provide all of the emotional underpinnings of what people are trying to accomplish so organizations can leverage what’s really meaningful as they move forward. So we will always include the core interviewing techniques that are going to get those insights, flex around other modules that we layer into that, and report in strong collaboration with the client to make the insights internally valuable.
Jobs is about finding deep-level meaning. And the bottom line is that it requires the need for flexibility in the approach without losing the discipline, and without losing sight of the outcome – an in-depth, nuanced understanding of what people need.
You might like to read these:
Curiosity: The Essential Mindset of a Successful Market Researchers
Discovering Drivers of Customer Attrition: Gap’s Research Journey to Converting Lapsed Customers
Using AI Qualitative Moderation to Discover Insights about Online Impulse Shopping
Quester® is an award-winning consumer intelligence firm that uses proprietary artificial intelligence technologies to conduct multi-lingual qualitative research on a quantitative scale. We specialize in yielding superior consumer understanding in areas such as innovation, concept development, brand positioning, segmentation, and path to purchase. Our online software-based moderator and analytical software probes deep into participant thought processes, analyzes responses, and allows researchers to make wise business decisions grounded in data, and has netted Quester an EXPLOR Award from the TMRE and an Ogilvy Award from The ARF. Learn about our DIY tools on our website.
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