In digital, guessing is the standard A key success factor in digital innovation, invented by big players like Google and Facebook, is to run largescale A/B-tests all the time. In essence, such testing is the same as placing bets on all the roulette fields, in all casinos of the world, all the time and figuring out which strategy works best from there. Things go fast and rely heavily on user input. Digital companies build a minimal viable product (MVP) and improve through iter

In the Q&A of a Meetup, someone from the audience asked a very interesting question: Is there a connection between Blue Ocean strategy and Jobs-to-be-done? The question was put rather loosely and not specifically related to the content of the talk, so the answer we gave was a kind of shot from the hips. But the question is actually quite interesting and stuck with us. After giving it some more thought, here’s our take on where we see the connection between the Blue Ocean stra

The challenge A team of young intrapreneurs sits down around a table. Their task is to come up with new mobility services and products. They have carefully selected a densely populated region –let’s call it Betasia – that seems challenging and interesting to run a pilot. Now it is time to go out there and get a sense of what such new mobility services could look like in that region: what is it, that the people living in that area really need and how could they help them in te

What would an ideal process of the front-end of innovation look like? Well probably something like this: As you get closer and closer to the actual launch comfort about the success of an innovation increases along the way. Ideally, before launch, there would be a lot of confidence and a shared feeling of comfort that the product or service has a good chance of being successful in the market. However, reality often looks more like this: This graph shows the comfort decreasing

Of thriving bees… Susan gets up early in the morning before her husband and teenage kids. The wheater is nice, so she does her normal jogging routine. The fact today, like almost every day, she manages to be fresh and ready when she pushes the button on the coffee machine in the kitchen precisely at 7 o’clock promises a great day ahead. She takes the coffee to the room next door, opens the windows and starts setting up her home office space. Like every day she stows away her

Quite symbolically the political authorities in Switzerland chose – of all the dates – Friday the 13th of march to proclaim that the lockdown will be put in place. A new situation for everybody. After the initial turmoil a question started popping up at Vendbridge: What can we do to help people in this crisis? Since we are experts in the application of Jobs-to-be-done we (virtually) sat down and discussed if Jobs-to-be-done could be helpful in this situation. From the discuss

Recruiting for qualitative Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) exploration isn’t as easy as you might think. Based on the example to “find people for exploration about chocolate“ from a real case for a chocolate manufacturer we will show you how to best organize this process. Before you start Defining who to recruit for exploration can be a challenge. It is driven by your project objectives and by your stakeholders, who will work with the project results. It helps to go systematically thr

With the digital revolution as a main driver of change, customers have become a central market power over the past years. Their new clout forces companies to perform a fundamental rethink. The CFI Method – an approach based on the Job-to-Be-Done Logic – can fuel this transformation by facilitating a new, fresh perspective from the customers’ angle. Transformation Is Driven by Customers There is hardly a company these days that would not claim to follow a customer-focused appr

Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) is a great concept helping to create innovation strategies, new products and value propositions which people find meaningful and valuable. It reframes the customer problem by asking, what jobs customers are trying to get done, the perspective of developers and innovators changes towards more customer focus almost immediately. The idea behind JTBD was initiated by Ted Levitt, the originator of the quote «people don’t want a drill, but a hole in the wall»

To become more customer-centric and innovative, many companies carry out market research or ask their sales force to identify what their customers want. Only to find quite generic insights that are already known. For example, banks find out that “relationship is key”, mobile operators that users want “good network quality” and life insurance companies that clients want “more flexibility”. Not very useful to guide engineers and product developers, we thought. And co-created in

«Customers don’t buy a drill. They buy a quarter-inch hole», said marketing guru T. Levitt already in the 1960s. And he meant: Think differently about how to address the needs of your customers. It seems that Levitt’s thought never made it into innovation. Not more than 10% of all new products are successful, that is, still on the market after three years and fulfilling needs. Apparently, the remaining 90% don’t fulfill customer needs. We look at innovation from a different a

All companies that have been in business for some years say they know the needs of their customers. They mention needs like «quality», «flexibility» or «service» as being the key drivers for purchase and usage. There is only one little problem: Those needs don‘t resonate with customers. That‘s why most products are perceived as equal. And bought on price. Where is the issue? Executives are trained to conceptualize. They think in abstract terms in order to cope with the increa

From a workshop with Marco de Polo from the Roche New Concept Incubator in Silicon Valley. When it comes to innovation design, there is the wrong way, the conventional way and the new agile design way. We thought about combining the most promising elements of these approaches in order to get the best out of it: Quick, but still profound outside-in understanding of unmet consumer needs, iterated with focused ideation sessions and rapid prototyping. The wrong way of innovation

A cup of coffee costs 5 cents traditionally prepared, but many people pay 50 cents for a Nespresso. Mineral water is 500 times more expensive than tap water – at the central station even 3,500 times more. Despite the crisis, a global nuts&bolds dealer is able to increase sales in the upscale market for special bolts. Kia and Dacia sell low-cost cars but are not market leaders. One of the world’s leading producers of citric acid defies Chinese low-price products with European

How do we enter a new segment? What is most relevant for premium grill users? We have plenty of ideas in the pipeline – but are we betting on the right things? How do we achieve true innovations rather than incremental improvements? These were our client’s questions. The answers lay in understanding users’ perspective. The Challenge OUTDOORCHEF, a DKB (www.dksh.com) Household brand, is a leading manufacturer and seller of premium grills. Over 25 years ago, the company became

To grow in a market, a company needs products that offer either greater value or a lower price. From a financial perspective, the former is more attractive. Since value is subject to the customer’s momentary perception, decision-makers need to be perfectly clear on what their customers really want, what they are doing to accomplish a task and what is getting in their way, whether consciously or not. The challenge here is that with each new solution in the market, customers’ v

Applying a job-based approach to customer insight discovery in product innovation in the implantable hearing solutions market ABSTRACT The continuous development of innovative product solutions that profitably address evolving customer needs is a critical success factor in the medical device industry. Market success is dependent on the innovators’ understanding of the unmet needs of a number of key customer groups like physicians, payors and patients. The first task in innova

When you choose a Christmas gift, you first think carefully about your loved ones. You want to give them something new, something valuable, something surprising. It doesn’t cross your mind to make a gift that only you like. The same should be true when developing new products. Exploring and measuring carefully what your customers want, before working on solutions. The reality of product development is different. Most companies spend all their time and money on developing tech

Innovation leads to growth, but innovations fail often. The article shows why this is the case and how in three systematic steps organic growth through innovation can be achieved and sped up – while significantly reducing the risk of failure. Find the full article here (German): #Innovation #Jobstobedone #Strategy

Applying the systematic Outcome-Driven Innovation Method leads to groundbreaking innovations – based on real customer input. The new method has been applied by strongly growing companies in many industries such as Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson or Bosch. It can revolutionize your innovation process! Find the full article here: #Innovation #Jobstobedone