Jobs Theory Application Paper-Consumer Behavior
In this paper you will take to heart the notion that ‘people do not want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole’. This paper will also bring to light that understanding consumer behavior is the causal mechanism of successful innovation and entrepreneurship. Your goal is to write a compelling thesis concerning a particular job-to-be-done that you have recognized (e.g., that you personally experienced, observed firsthand, or have thought deeply about from a consumer perspective).
Your goal is to write a paper about what job(s) a product or service you have used gets done. Recall that a people buy or “hire” products or services to get a “job” done. Why did you hire this product or service? Was it hired for social or emotional jobs, in addition to a functional job-to-be-done? Gaining insight into the jobs underlying why we purchase or “hire” products or services in our lives is critical to designing new innovation solutions (products/services).
Part A – Describing the Job itself
In terms of the identified job-to-be-done underlying a product or service that you are familiar with, please work to develop a thorough ‘job spec’ (e.g., specific details of the identified job) as a blueprint someone might use to understand why someone is ‘hiring’ a particular product or service. Recall that jobs can be described in terms of the functional, emotional, and social dimensions that define the desired progress customers (such as yourself) are seeking, the trade-offs that they seem willing to make when adopting the solution (what really matters to them, what costs are they willing to incur), the full set of competing solutions that must be beaten, and the obstacles and anxieties that must be overcome for someone to adopt a new solution. You may write about his, or any other aspects of the job itself that you deem relevant.
Part B – When Does the Job Arise in People’s Lives? What are competing solutions?
Under what circumstances, that is when, do you believe people will be looking to hire a solution for your identified job-to-be-done? Can you describe these circumstances? Along these lines, what other solutions, such as products/services/work-arounds, etc., have people perhaps tried as a means to accomplish the job? Can you describe some of the other ways people might solve this job when it arises within their lives?
Part C – Understand Why People ‘Hire’ Products/Services using A Documentary Script
Imagine you are filming a documentary of someone trying to make progress in a particular set of circumstances and they are struggling (e.g., your identified job-to-be-done). Please imagine a mini-movie script of someone with the job-to-be-done arising in their life (see chapter 2 for details). *Please note that the aim of jobs theory is not simply to identify who that someone is (their characteristics) or simply what they do (current practices), but to go a step further to think about why they these actors within your mini-movie-script below actually do what they do (so as to better solve their deeper, more fundamental jobs-to-be-done). As such, a fictional documentary can help you better think through and understand the job to be done.
Part D – A New Solution
Please offer your solution, please develop a product resume which captures all of the reasons a customer would hire a new solution you can dream up as an even better means available to solve their job-to-be-done. Are there a particular set of circumstances where your solution is better?