What's Wrong with the Data-Driven?

The problem with the data-driven approach lies in its very name – it implies making decisions based on existing data. Existing data, in turn, are influenced by the current situation and accumulated experience, effectively locking the company within its current state.

Companies like Nokia and Motorola, for a long time, worked to satisfy their customers' need for an affordable mobile phone with good connectivity and a physical keyboard. This need wasn't pulled out of thin air but formulated based on extensive research. Before the iPhone suddenly appeared out of nowhere, both companies were convinced that their future and the future of their products were secure because that's what the data indicated.

In simple terms, the Data-Driven approach is excellent for systematic product improvement and refining the details and nuances of the offering but can be detrimental as a tool for forming a strategy. This is because, eventually, an iPhone will replace Nokia just as cars replaced horses.

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It's impossible to build products for the future based solely on the requests and expectations of users from the current product

PHOTO CREDIT:

ELRIK SOLHEIM, UNSPLASH

As a result, data-driven approaches are unsuitable for gaining insights and ideas for development. But how do you determine development ideas without relying on intuition, which is unlikely to convince investors?

This is where the Design-Driven approach and the JTBD framework come into play.

What is JTBD?

Abbreviated as Jobs to Be Done, it's one of the frameworks within the design-driven approach—a methodology emphasizing the user experience in product, service, or solution development.

The core idea of JTBD is that the user "hires" a product to accomplish a task—or, more importantly, doesn't hire it, because a more suitable competitor exists. Users and their differences aren't crucial in this approach; what matters is the "job," i.e., the product's useful action.

Meet Jimmy. In 2006, Jimmy was 32, married with two kids. Jimmy is diligent, cheerful, and kind. On weekends, he goes swimming, and once a month, he meets friends at a bar. Five minutes ago, Peter bought a flash drive. Did any of the characteristics mentioned above influence the purchase? No, Jimmy bought the flash drive not because he's 32 years old but because he needs to share a document with a colleague. "Sharing a document" is the job to be done.

The data-driven approach won't help marketers selling flash drives (unless they offer Jimmy a family discount for flash drives for his wife and kids). In contrast, the JTBD methodology focuses on the "job," i.e., Jimmy's desire to share a document. In 2007, a company introduced a cloud storage solution, significantly simplifying Jimmy's life and ultimately rendering other companies selling flash drives obsolete.

JTBD began evolving into a methodology in the late '80s, thanks to entrepreneur Bob Moesta and Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. In an article for the Harvard Business Review and his book "The Innovator's Dilemma," Christensen writes:

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The focus should be on what the user aims to achieve in specific circumstances. This is called the job to be done.

JTBD & Competition

Keeping the idea of competition between companies selling flash drives and those selling cloud storage solutions in mind, let's touch on another fundamental JTBD concept.

Within the framework, three types of competition exist:

Direct Competition: Two products perform the same task in the same way. For example, companies like Sandisk and Kingston both produce flash drives and compete for users in the market.
Secondary Competition: Products perform the same task differently. We've already discussed this, with physical drives vs. cloud storage.
Indirect Competition: Products perform different tasks but compete for the same audience. In the Jimmy and flash drives example, it could be a restaurant where Jimmy can go with his colleague instead of dealing with work files. At first glance, it may not seem to offer business insights, but that's not the case. Jimmy frequents restaurants, and they partly "steal" him as a customer from companies helping him work. To move forward, you either make the "results" of another product less appealing to users or change the product's positioning so that the "results" no longer conflict.

The case of a fast-food chain that wanted to increase milkshake sales. They conducted extensive research on their customers and, based on their demographics and psychographics, made menu changes. Sales did not grow even by a percent. They then consulted Clayton Christensen, who suggested they find out what "job" customers were "hiring" milkshakes for (no matter how strange it sounds). As it turned out, the goal was not to go hungry in traffic on the way to work. The milkshake was dense and nutritious, lasting a long time and providing enough energy to start work as soon as you arrived. True competitors for milkshakes were bananas, coffee, and granola bars. Once the company understood the advantages of milkshakes over these products, they made changes, and sales began to rise. They made the milkshakes thicker and purchasable through a window on the street, which is convenient when you're in a car (previously, you had to go inside the cafe). Also, the milkshakes for children became less thick, which also positively affected sales.

Also, let's look at another one

For instance, you want to launch an online service for delivering flower arrangements in beautiful boxes. Should you fear an online Flowers shop? If you're addressing the "quickly buy flowers" problem, probably. But if your user's Jobs To Be Done is "surprise the girlfriend on her birthday," you should be more concerned about balloon shops or rooftop date organizers. They are taking your customers right now. If you understand that "surprises" are the job to be done, you can at least place targeted ads for flowers with the query "balloon shop." And yes, they will work.

So, instead of polishing a product based on the existing data, you can think about how to adapt the positioning to capture the audience that is currently with direct or indirect competitors.

The Power of Context

Another crucial aspect of the JTBD concept is working with the context of the product. Here, it partly resembles the classic Data-Driven approach but with important nuances.

Let's imagine there's a food delivery app. It has a wide reach, from twenty-something students to fifty-year-old businessmen. Both occasionally use the delivery service, and both value fast delivery, friendly couriers, and the app's commission rate.

Now what? Armed with a Data-Driven approach, a marketer would know how to position the product to these target audiences (e.g., advertise near a university for students or on a business website for businessmen)—and that would be accurate.

On the other hand, equipped with JTBD, we see another important dimension and difference.

The point is that a student lives in a dorm and often comes home late after classes. In the context of their task, the primary JTBD might be "Quickly eat after a long day of studying."

In the case of a businessman, the app serves a slightly different "job": when coming home tired, they want to "prepare a quick and nutritious dinner for the family without spending much time on cooking."

The student is likely to order at night, while the businessman might order in the evening, perhaps while in transit, possibly with a poor internet connection. Discounts are crucial for students, while the businessman values one-click ordering, and so on.

By paying attention to the power of context, we can uncover insights that didn't occur to us before—and by incorporating them into our product, we can expand our audience reach.

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JTBD is "the job" plus "context." By understanding for which task—and in what context—the user will use your product, we can find numerous ways for both local and global upgrades.

Summary

JTBD is an excellent framework for identifying areas for innovation and improvement.

In summary, here's what you should remember:

Identify the "job" or series of "jobs" for which the user “hires” your product or service. Are all of them "served"?
Define the "context": when and under what circumstances your service is used. What qualities should the product possess in this context to gain the highest popularity?
Identify second and third type "competitors." Can you compete for an audience with indirect, or even conflicting, products—or resolve the conflict to gain their preference?

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