strategy

Photo: © Tony Luong

Revisiting Clayton Christensen’s ‘Jobs to be Done’ Theory

January 29, 2020 Happenings

On January 23, we lost one of our finest innovation thinkers and scholars, and an icon whom I have revered and admired deeply. I’m referring to the passing away of Prof. Clayton M. Christensen, 67, Harvard Business School professor and the father of the theory of “disruptive innovation” from complications of leukemia. The closest that I’d come to associate myself with the legendary business consultant was during my rather prolonged tenure at Tata Consultancy Services he was serving as an Independent Director enabling the company to achieve greater success globally 1, a position which he held from January 2006 until September 2018. It’s a terrible loss no doubt, but I wanted to personally pay a tribute to “Clay” and remember him through one of his famous theories on “Jobs to be Done” which not only has roots in innovation but also consists of insights for customer experience strategy.

To begin with, in 2007, Christensen popularized the phrase “Jobs to be Done”. In an MIT-Sloan Management Review article, he summarized the peculiar nature of innovation that is steeped in demographical data in the following words:

Most companies segment their markets by customer demographics or product characteristics and differentiate their offerings by adding features and functions. But the consumer has a different view of the marketplace. He simply has a job to be done and is seeking to “hire” the best product or service to do it. Marketers must adopt that perspective. 2

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Strategic Design As A Business Offering

December 7, 2018 Design

Not so long ago, McKinsey published an insightful article on the importance of strategic design in delivering business value called ‘The Business Value of Design’, it was based on a research study conducted on the design practices of 300 big corporations. I was so enthralled by their findings that I published a post in dissecting its virtues.

Recently, they published another piece titled ‘Why design means business’ in yet another attempt at defining the value of design in relation to business. However, I found this article to be a rejoinder to the previous one listing the key themes from that research study. There was one thing though which stood out for me from this post which was the definition of design as a strategic tool.

Organizations have garnered their own individualistic approach for interpreting ‘design’ based on its overall positioning in the hierarchy of the business. The fact remains that that interpretation is widely based on 3 key elements which complement each other, that is, 1) the positioning of design in the current operating model for delivery, 2) the perceived value that is derived from the design activities, and, last but not the least, 3) the integration of design in the organization’s future strategic focus. In creating a justifiable acceptance of design as a standard for building a strategic vision and in proving how companies have delivered value through this approach McKinsey has defined ‘strategic design’ for innovation in an easy to understand terminology in its latest article.

What exactly do we mean when we talk about “design?” Well, much like “strategy” and “analytics,” design is a term that suffers from misuse. Design is not just about making objects pretty. Design is the process of deeply understanding customer/user needs and then creating a product or service—physical, digital, or both—that addresses their unmet needs.

If there’s anything that the twin McKinsey articles have uncovered its some organizations which have woken up to the cadence of strategic design for innovation and delivering striking results. It’s a slow process but it’s not for too long that the corporate world would sit up and take notice and accept this new age phenomenon for innovation. ‘Design’ has the potential to bring that change.

Source: Why design means business | McKinsey & Company

Dear UPS, This Should Be Your Delivery Strategy!

October 5, 2017 Design General

No matter how hard I try I always seem a bummer when it comes to receiving packages at home, especially with UPS’ odd delivery acts. Here’s a journey map with a ‘mood meter’ to illustrate my purchase experience.

The Ups and Downs

UPS Customer Journey Map

I browsed a book I liked at a local bookstore and bought it on Amazon from the mobile app. I received an email that my package has been shipped with UPS with a tracking number and an approximate delivery date. I wait for the package to arrive on the same day but nothing happens. Surprisingly, UPS has stuck a note at the entrance (embarrassingly for the world to see) that I missed the package, and the reason provided was that the customer wasn’t available to receive the package!

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Design is Experimental

November 5, 2015 Design

I came across a sentence from Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie’s book ‘Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers’ summarizing design.

“Design, in contrast, favors trying over extensive planning and is overwhelmingly experimental in its approach.”

Design no doubt is a medium of experimentation, though it must also sync with the business model to create value for its audience. This brings lot of anxiety and isolation for most designers as their ideas get iterated but ignored under the influence of business logic and delivery schedules. Designers must build trust through empathy and personal discussions, become design leaders for the project by translating their ideas to guide design decisions, and helping others to see the value proposition. If business strategy or MBA is about planning as inferred in the book, then design is about doing and experimenting! So go for it.