StrategyProduct
Competing Against Luck
Clayton Christensen
2016
Summary
Clayton Christensen's final major work explains why successful companies so often get disrupted: they focus on who the customer is rather than what job the customer is trying to get done. The Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework reframes innovation around the progress customers are seeking — functional, emotional, and social. Companies that understand the job being hired for build products with lasting competitive moats; those that don't get displaced by competitors who figure it out first.
Key Takeaways
- 1Customers don't buy products — they hire them to make progress toward a goal
- 2The job defines the true competitive set, which is often wider than the product category
- 3Understand the functional, emotional, and social dimensions of the job
- 4Non-consumption is your biggest competitor — most people don't hire any solution at all
- 5Features that serve the job create value; features that don't are clutter
- 6Deeply understanding one customer's job gives more insight than broad survey data