Jobs-to-be-done and Start-Up Ideas go hand in hand

I never really thought about this idea of jobs-to-be-done until it was mentioned in the reading, Mastering the Art of Disruptive Innovation in Journalism. According to the article, “The basic idea is that people don’t go around looking for products to buy. Instead, they take life as it comes and when they encounter a problem, they look for a solution—and at that point, they’ll hire a product or service.” To me, it was always thinking about the customer and the product, but I never even considered that it is the job that is the focus. It’s about getting the job done that customers want, which eventually leads to the product.

I think this idea relates heavily to the, How to get Startup Ideas reading, when it talks about people needing a product. According to the text, “When a startup launches, there have to be at least some users who really need what they’re making—not just people who could see themselves using it one day, but who want it urgently.” This goes along with this idea of jobs-to-be-down because the job is something that customers want. You need at least a few people to actually this job or it’s going to fail. If they don’t want the product urgently, then it’s going to be very hard for the start-up idea or job to actually work.

Oh the Times are Changing

To go even more in depth about jobs-to-be-down, another important aspect I took away from article, Mastering the Art of Disruptive Innovation in Journalism is when times change, your business needs to change. You can’t be the business that gets left in the dust for not updating your business to match the times we are currently in. A great example was provided in this article about IBM. IBM started as a software and hardware company, but as new competitors entered the market they were facing a decline in revenue. It decided to move to professional services and today they are a solutions-based consulting company. As stated from the article, “Faced with disruption, IBM completely redefined itself, moving away from its fading traditional businesses and leveraging the expertise of its people to capitalize on a different opportunity in the market.” Other companies should focus on doing exactly what IBM or they will get left behind. They need to discover and accept new opportunities that may arise.

This ties into the competition section of the reading, How to get Startup Ideas, when it talks about not worrying too much about the competitors ruining your idea. In the reading it states, “It’s exceptionally rare for startups to be killed by competitors—so rare that you can almost discount the possibility. So unless you discover a competitor with the sort of lock-in that would prevent users from choosing you, don’t discard the idea.” I took this as don’t let the competition scare you from sticking to your idea. I think this ties into the fact that when times change, your business needs to change and if you have a new idea that could keep your business going then go with it. Better an idea than no idea at all.

Wrap-Up

Altogether, I thought both of these readings were extremely helpful in laying out how to attract consumers without thinking only thinking about them and the product. I have a much better idea about what audience’s value and how this portrays to a start-up idea. Knowing the jobs-to-be-done goes hand in hand with how to get start-up ideas is important because it lays out specifically what customers value which forms an idea to get started.