Tell your work story with an infographic
I have recently found myself updating my resume. Why? After 4 1/2 years at Spigit, I have moved on as the company has been acquired by Mindjet. It was a good run there. So I needed to dust off the resume. And you know, it was eye-opening how limiting resumes are. They are great for their […]
Latent needs are overplayed as an innovation dynamic
Reading this thought piece from the Silicon Valley Product Group, The End of Requirements, I saw this point about latent needs: Unrealized needs (also called “latent needs”) are those solutions where customers may not even be aware they even have the need until after they see and experience the solution. Examples include digital video recorders, […]
Generate opportunity maps with customer jobs-to-be-done
In seeking to better understand customer jobs-to-be-done, I found myself a bit underarmed. Meaning, I didn’t really have a way to do this. The value of jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) thinking has only emerged recently. It’s still nascent, and there aren’t ready guideposts to follow. However, Tony Ulwick has been at it over two decades. Indeed, his […]
Exactly what jobs will self-driving cars satisfy?
On Twitter, I made this observation about the future of self-driving cars: Our kids will have a very different “driving” experience. Self-driving cars allow them to work during transit, and improve safety. #jetsons— Hutch Carpenter (@bhc3) September 22, 2013 A moment later, Megan Panatier made this skeptical counterpoint: Whenever I hear people talking about self […]
What do you mean customers don’t know what they want?
If I’d asked customers what they want, they’d have said more convenience and relevance. Look familiar? I’ve riffed on that Henry Ford quote about faster horses, yada, yada. It’s not too far off from what customers would theoretically have been seeking in faster horses. I altered that quote to fit a modern day phenomenon: 3D […]
Finding opportunities to unseat incumbents
On Quora, this question was asked: Competition: How do you assess the value of a new product or service vs an incumbent’s? Is there a starting set of criteria? eg. price, quantity provided, ease of use, breadth and so on. I’m thinking specifically of a product to supply financial news and information and prices. What […]
A Method for Applying Jobs-to-Be-Done to Product and Service Design
Say you’re designing something new for a product or service. Of course, you have your own ideas for what to do. But, how informed are you really about what is needed? This is a question I faced in thinking about game mechanics used in a social platform. A common product approach is to work up […]
What’s your view on customers’ value to innovation?
More and more, customer-centricity is becoming a thing. As in, an increasingly important philosophy to companies in managing day-to-day and even longer term planning. In comes in different forms: design thinking, social CRM, service-dominant logic, value co-creation. But it’s not pervasive at this point. Companies still are spotty on how much they integrate customers into their processes. […]
Tweets Offer Little Value in Understanding Customer Needs
Social media. A rich source of insight and opportunity for companies. Why, it’s an article of faith that customers are talking…on their terms…where they want. So get out there and learn from them! See what this IBM executive says:
Jobs-to-be-done’s place in a customer-centric organization
On Twitter, I asked this question: When firms talk about being customer-centric today, what are they actually *doing*? FB page? Reacting to tweets? Sentiment analysis? #scrm — Hutch Carpenter (@bhc3) May 15, 2012 I asked it, as I had a conversation in recent days with a fellow from a large corporate. Customer-centricity was recently adopted […]
Bell Labs Created Our Digital World. What They Teach Us about Innovation.
What do these following crucial, society-altering innovations have in common? Transistors Silicon-based semiconductors Mobile communication Lasers Solar cells UNIX operating system Information theory (link) They all have origins in the amazing Idea Factory, AT&T’s Bell Labs. I’ve had a chance to learn about Bell Labs via Jon Gertner’s new book, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and […]
It’s the Jobs-to-Be-Done, Stupid!
I do product management for Spigit. I’ve done product management for other companies as well. And let me tell you, the easiest thing in the world is to fall into the trap of focusing on how customers are using your product. Product forms your relationship with customers. It’s how you know them. They will tell […]
On the Utility of Thinking in Terms of Jobs-to-Be-Done
In a recent post examining the future of retail, I used the jobs-to-be-done approach to break down the industry. And I’ve been using it more in other ways. It’s quite useful as a basis for innovation. The premise of the jobs-to-be-done approach is that it provides a much better basis for innovation. The focus is […]
5 Social Business Truths
Meritocracy trumps hierarchy: Companies don’t get a “pass” on Wall Street or the London Exchange becauswe they’re been around way before new companies. Political candidates aren’t immune from beingf being upended when they don’t perform. Why should work be any different? Companies that focus on the meritocracy are focused on growth. Those that pay too much attention […]
Four Innovation Insights Customers Provide
Customers, properly, have been having a renaissance of sorts in terms of business thinking. Peter Drucker famously espoused a very customer-centric business philosophy. Nowadays, social CRM represents the return of a customer-first orientation. Last year, Altimeter published the 18 use cases of social CRM. Included in those use cases were several that relate to innovation. […]
