The Customer-Centered Innovation Map
Lance Bettencourt,
Tony Ulwick
May 1, 2008
May 2008, Harvard Business Review
In this groundbreaking Harvard Business Review article, Lance Bettencourt and Tony Ulwick reveal an important discovery they made while turning the jobs-to-be-done innovation theory into practice -- "job mapping." A job map is used to deconstruct a job that customers want to get done into specific process steps, providing organizations with a framework to capture all the customer's needs and identify opportunities to create valued solutions.
The jobs-to-be-done innovation theory states that people "hire" products and services to get a job done. For instance, surgeons hire scalpels to dissect soft tissue. Janitors hire soap dispensers and paper towels to remove grime from their hands. Office workers hire word processing software to create documents.
Understanding customer needs is all about understanding the job the customer is trying to get done. To begin the process, companies must create a "job map." A job map is a visual depiction of a job, deconstructed into its process steps. A job map does not show what the customer is doing; rather, it describes what the customer is trying to do. An anesthesiologist, for example, may be checking a monitor during a surgical procedure, but only as a means to monitor the patients vital signs. Analysis of hundreds of jobs has revealed that all jobs consist of some or all of eight fundamental process steps: define, locate, prepare, confirm, execute, monitor, modify, and conclude.
Once a job map is created for a particular job, it acts as a framework from which to identify all the customer’s needs. For each process step, customers are able to describe the metrics they use to evaluate that step’s successful execution. These metrics are the customer’s needs, with 50 to 150 identified for a given job. With these metrics in hand, companies know how customers measure value. Subsequently, they know how to create customer value and measure how much has been created. If a product effectively addresses all the metrics, then the customer will be able to get the job done perfectly. That is the ultimate goal of innovation. By mapping out every step of the job, companies can discover unmet needs and discover new opportunities to differentiate their offerings.
Strategyn's job mapping tool resulted from years of practical application. The job map gives companies a universal framework for discovering opportunities, and helps them create breakthrough products and services. It turns the jobs-to-be-done innovation theory into practice. Learn more about job mapping.
