A common language of innovation has the power to unite an organization in its effort to build a competency in innovation. The introduction of new theory presents companies with an opportunity to redefine the language of innovation from the customer’s perspective; and an opportunity to understand and discuss innovation by seeing it through a new lens.

These are a selection of the terms the Innoventive team may refer to during the assessment and creation of Innovation individuals, teams, processes, products or services.
 

Start-up - A temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model based on a product, service or process.

Company – A permanent organization designed to execute a repeatable and scalable business model based on a product, service or process.

Brainstorming — An unbounded method of idea generation that encourages the creation of hundreds of ideas.

Consumption chain jobs — The jobs that the product lifecycle support team must get done throughout the product lifecycle. These jobs include installation, set up, and storing, transporting, maintaining, repairing, cleaning, upgrading, and disposing of the product.

Creativity — The mental process by which an idea is triggered and conceived.

Customer — A constituent for whom the company chooses to create value. Key customers include the end user (the functional job executor), the purchase decision maker (buyer), and the product lifecycle support team (people who install, maintain, and repair the offering).

Customer need — A metric that customers use to measure the successful execution of a functional job or a consumption chain job. Synonymous with desired outcome.

Desired outcome — A metric that customers use to measure the successful execution of a functional job or a consumption chain job. Synonymous with customer need.

Differentiated strategy - A company pursues a differentiated strategy when it discovers and targets a population of underserved consumers with a new product or service offering that gets a job (or multiple jobs) done significantly better, but at a significantly higher price.

Discreet strategy — A company pursues a discrete strategy when it targets a population of “restricted” customers with a product that gets the job done worse, yet costs more.

Disruptive strategy — A company pursues a disruptive strategy when it discovers and targets a population of overserved customers or non-consumers with a new product or service offering that enables them to get a job done more cheaply, but not as well as competing solutions.

Dominant Strategy — A company pursues a dominant strategy when it targets all consumers in a market with a new product or service offering that gets a job done significantly better and for significantly less money.
 

Emotional jobs — Statements that describe the way customers want to be perceived or feel when executing a core functional job.

End user — This is a person who ultimately uses the product or service to execute the functional job the product is intended to perform. Also the functional job executor.

Financial outcomes — The financial metrics that the purchase decision maker uses to decide what product or service to purchase.

Functional Job-to-be-Done — The underlying process an end user is trying to get done in a given situation, and the focal point around which a market is defined.

Idea — An output of the creative process that defines a way in which specific unmet customer needs can be satisfied.

Ideas-first approach to innovation — An inherently flawed approach to innovation that starts with the generation of ideas and is followed by evaluation and filtering methods that determine which ideas customers like best without ever explicitly understanding their needs.

Industry — The collective set of companies that offer solutions to help customers get a job done.
Innovation — The process of devising a product or service concept that addresses the customer’s unmet needs, thus enabling the customer to get a job done better and/or more cheaply.

Job executor — The group of people who are targeted for value creation. The job executor could be the functional job executor (end user), the purchase decision maker (buyer), or someone who executes a consumption chain job, such as the installer.
 

Job map — A visual depiction of a functional job, deconstructed into its discreet process steps. Unlike a process map, a job map does not show what the customer is doing (a solution view); rather, it describes what the customer is trying to get done (a needs view).

Job-to-be-Done — A task, goal or objective a person is trying to accomplish or a problem they are trying to resolve. A job can be functional, emotional or associated with product consumption (consumption chain jobs).

Jobs-to-be-Done — as a general concept, Jobs-to-be-Done is best defined as a perspective — a lens through which you can see and think about markets, customers, needs, competitors, and customer segments in a way that makes innovation far more predictable and profitable.

Jobs-to-be-Done Growth Strategy Matrix — A framework that illustrates when and how to deploy a differentiated, dominant, disruptive, discreet or sustaining growth strategy.

Jobs-to-be-Done Needs Framework — A visual depiction of the structure and relationship of all the customer inputs that are needed to effectively execute the innovation process.

Jobs-to-be-Done Theory — The notion that people buy products and services to get a job done and that new products and services win in the marketplace if they help customers get a job done better and/or more cheaply.

Market — A group of people (end users) and the core functional job or jobs they are trying to get done.

 

Parents (a group of people) who are trying to pass on life lessons to their children (the Job-to-be-Done) constitute a market. Dental hygienists who clean patients’ teeth and farmers who grow a crop also constitute markets.

Needs-first approach to innovation — An approach to innovation in which companies first uncover the customer’s needs, then determine which are unmet, and then devise solutions to address those unmet needs.

New market — A new job that a group of customers want to get done because of changes in policy or conditions, scientific discoveries, or in support of a new technology, or a job that a significant group of customers now want to get done due to a demographic trend.

Market selection — The process of deciding what customers and Jobs-to-be-Done to target to create new revenue streams.

Market strategy — A plan that a company devises in order to achieve and maintain a unique and valued competitive position in a market. A market strategy includes the creation of a value proposition, product positioning and messaging, and the formulation of a digital marketing strategy.

ODI-based research methods — The qualitative and quantitative research methods that are integral to the Outcome-Driven Innovation process.

Opportunity — An unmet need; a desired outcome that is both important and poorly satisfied (underserved), or a desired outcome that is unimportant and very well satisfied (overserved).

Opportunity algorithm — The formula used to determine the degree to which a specific outcome or related or emotional job is under- or overserved. It is defined as opportunity = importance + max(importance — satisfaction, 0). Importance is calculated as the percent of people (in a statistically representative population) rating an outcome a 4 or a 5, where 5 is extremely important. Satisfaction is calculated as the percent of people rating the outcome a 4 or a 5, where 5 is extremely satisfied.

Opportunity landscape — A visual depiction of the opportunities that exist in a market and the degree to which the customer’s desired outcomes are under-or overserved.

Outcome-driven brainstorming — The process of conceptualizing new platforms, business models, and features that address underserved segments and desired outcomes discovered through the use of ODI-based research methods.

Overserved market segment — A segment of customers with a majority of desired outcomes that are unimportant and well satisfied.

Process of disruptive innovation — The introduction of a series of products, the first of which employs a disruptive strategy that gets the job done worse and more cheaply, followed by a series of products that build on that technology platform, with more and more features, until the newest offerings get the job done better and more cheaply.

Product lifecycle support team — People (customers) who help install, set up, store, transport, maintain, repair, clean, upgrade, and dispose of the product, and perform other support services as necessary.

Purchase decision maker — The person responsible for executing the “buying” job: seeking out and evaluating alternative offerings and deciding which to buy.

Qualitative research — Market research methods used to uncover the customer’s desired outcomes and other inputs that comprise the Jobs-to-be-Done needs framework.

Quantitative research — Market research methods used to gather the statistically valid data needed to conduct Outcome-Based Segmentation analysis.

Related jobs — Functional jobs the end user is trying to get done in conjunction with the core functional job. Getting more jobs done on a single platform make the platform more valuable.

Sustaining strategy — A company pursues a sustaining strategy when it introduces a new product or service offering that gets the job done only slightly better and/or slightly cheaper.

The Cycle of Neutral Neglect

Underserved market — A market in which the majority of the customer’s desired outcomes are important and poorly satisfied.

Unmet need — A desired outcome or related or emotional job that is both important and poorly satisfied.

 

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