How this facebook executive uses Jobs to be Done to create products from scratch ?
Different people approach creation from different angles.
inventive creation - nothing exists, you conceptualize and create - (1st vers of things)
inspired creation - something exists, you bring a Point of View and improve it (ipod, superhuman)
imitative creation - something exists, you just rip it off and create it cheaper, faster (any me too)
Which method you choose depends purely on what you are comfortable and the context dictating your choice.
Irrespective of your foundational choice, you still have to do the ground work to conceptualize, test, create, package, distribute and exchange value. whether it is inventive, inspired or imitative, the work that needs to be done is smilar.
There might be some degree of variation in some activities of the full stack creation stack. Notwithstanding those differences, building a product from scratch is highly intensive and immersive work of choices, decision, execution & improvement.
Exactly what sunita mohanty of facebook thought when she started building here first product. She recalls in here
“Right after grad school at Stanford, I found myself in the middle of my first startup: a failing K-12 analytics company. We were on a mission to improve a broken education system with the promise of interesting technology. But we were stuck in circles of decision-making and couldn’t successfully execute or build traction”
It begs the question as to why did this stanford grad is highlighting the “circle of decision making“ as a cause rather than money, people or market as a top of the mind recall of reasons for their failure.
There is a common misconception when it comes to giving life to new commercial ideas. It is that we need to pump in more and more resources to research, design, build, distribute, acquire, onboard, retain make it successful. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Reality is that you could fail inspite of having all the resources purely because you don’t have decisions making sign posts that guide you. Believe me, Intangibles play a disproportionate and unrecognized role in impacting the outcomes of initiatives.
sunita further argues that unearthing real problems & prioritizing those were difficult. In here own words “Looking back, it’s easy to diagnose that we had a hard time focusing on which problem to solve first because we didn’t understand the actual problems of our audience well enough — we only assumed we did”
Typically, We can take 4 approaches when it comes to understanding our audiences.
Assume(Intuition, Instinct, Vision ),
Ask (objectives, experiences, Feelings, landscape),
Observe ( context, trigger & behavior ) and
Amalgamate (abstract & make sense)
A lot of times, as creators most of us stop at assumptions. For some who struggle to grasp the audience, they typically end up scratching the surface about the solutions rather than the pains or problems. Few who extend their horizon, take the pains to observe audience in their natural settings and form opinions.
When it comes to customer study, no one method can give us all the insights required. Even if we use all the methods once, we will not get an accurate picture. you have to be able to use all the methods multiple times to incrementally enhance our comprehension of the audience.
There are very few companies that amalgamate and bring it all together. Even rare is the breed that do it repeatedly with the sole purpose of building a product that people will actually find valuable. According to sunita, that persistance requires a deep belief in the idea of iteratively testing assumptions.
“Many entrepreneurs may do this intuitively — but many others fail to cultivate a deep level of empathy for their users, which ultimately can lead to building the wrong product for any specific market. If you don't put in the work upfront, you risk charting the wrong course towards product-market fit, which you may not discover until you’re facing struggling retention numbers or battling high user churn”
not being proactive and not investing to understand our audience in totality is a recipe for disaster. Consequences of a lack of upfront diligence will be an untractable battle to unwind the execution debt. creation ceases to be a joy when we create obstacles and spend time and effort to untangle it.
There is no choice but to use all the methods to understand our audience (all types of them ). Assume, Ask, Observe and Amalgamate are the 4 key steps. Next important question is what do we assume about, ask about, observe about and amalgamate about ?
Experts in the field of innovation identify 5 different trends shaping our thinking.
technology
demand
outcome
data or
context
Thought leaders in innovation like clayton christensen argue that in a constantly changing world we need to lead with context. They have also proposed approaches to crystallize our thinking called Jobs to be Done.
when context driven innovation is supported by demand, outcomes, data and technology in that order we will have solutions ready to evolve and keep pace with ever changing environments.
Jobs to be Done is the thought work of many different thinkers who are on a shared mission to make audience research meaningful starting with sound understanding of context. with a proper footing in context, one can explore real customer pains and problems leading to the identification of opportunities to resolve.
Precisely what companies like facebook, oculus, basecamp, airbnb, intercom to name a few. However, since this concept is muddled in corporate jargons, it’s very hard for beginners to get started with. Benefit of using this tool to understand customer context is not broadbased as the insights of using it is limited to the “elite consultants”
In my limited understanding, Jobs to be Done is a Package. Magic Formula to explore it requires amalgamation of clarity around Roles + Crisis Situations + Jobs + Outcomes irrespective of how it is framed and communicated. I use a framework called TEFAMBO to articulate crisis situations.
Sunita uses a Format called Job Spec, Job Statement, Desired Experience & Tooling to communicate the magic formula.
Job Statement
When I “…behavior..”
But I “…inability…“
Help me “…expectation…“
So I can “….experience….“
Job Spec
Circumstance
Where are they? - “place or environment”
Who are they with? - “coworkers or colleagues or family“
What got them to this point? - “ trigger “
Desired Experience
What are the functional needs or wants?
What are the emotional needs or wants?
Hire/Fire
Hire: What else are they using that works? What are the shortcomings? “tools“ & “limitationss“
Fire: What else has been tried, but doesn’t work? Why? - “tools” & “causes“
In case you are trying to build the product from scratch, kindly use the approaches highlighted here.