In the world of business and innovation, there’s a common misconception that listening to your customers means asking them what they want or analyzing the data you have on them. While these practices can lead to sustaining innovation at best, they can also paint you into a corner, stifling true creativity and breakthroughs.
The Role of a Business
The job of a business is not merely to produce what the customer wants. If it were that simple, every company would be a trailblazer. The reality is that customers have no obligation to know what they want or even need. It’s our responsibility as innovators to understand their underlying needs and desires, often before they do.
Understanding Jobs to Be Done
To create products and services that truly resonate, we need to delve deeper into the “jobs to be done” by our customers. This concept, popularized by Clayton Christensen, focuses on understanding the progress that a customer is trying to make in a particular circumstance. It’s about identifying the problems they face and the outcomes they seek.
Innovation Beyond Customer Feedback
Customers can provide valuable insights, but they can’t be expected to envision innovative solutions. That’s our job. Take Apple, for example. They didn’t create the iPhone by asking people what they wanted; people didn’t know they needed a smartphone until it existed. Apple identified the jobs people were trying to accomplish—communication, entertainment, productivity—and created a device that helped them do these jobs more effectively.
The Path to Real Innovation
Real innovation comes from understanding the context and the jobs to be done by your customers. It’s about empathizing with their struggles and aspirations, and then doing the hard work of creating solutions that exceed their expectations. This is where true value is created, and it’s what sets industry leaders apart.
Embrace the Challenge
So, stop doing what your customers tell you to do. Instead, start understanding their context and their jobs to be done. Then, roll up your sleeves and do the hard work you’re paid for—come up with better solutions that help them get their jobs done. This is how you create products and services that customers will rave about.
Learn More
If you’re eager to dive deeper into this approach and understand how to apply it to your business, I invite you to hop on a free call with me. Let’s discuss how you can shift from merely listening to your customers to truly understanding and innovating for them.
Stay tuned for more insights on leadership, agility, and innovation. Together, let’s redefine what it means to create value for our customers.