Today’s episode dives into understanding your customers' unmet needs and mastering the art of building products the right way.

Our guest is Tony Ulwick, innovation leader and the bestselling author of "Jobs to Be Done: Theory to Practice." Tony offers a simplified approach to the innovation process, and together with host Wes Bush, they discuss Outcome-Driven Innovation as a framework for market success.

The focus here is on discovering what customers aim to achieve (their "jobs to be done") rather than rushing into product features or solutions. Explore the roles of different customer segments, a systematic approach to customer discovery, valuable segmentation for product development and marketing, and more.

Key Takeaways:

[1:00] Tony Ulwick’s IBM experience and ongoing innovation challenges

[2:10] His desire to predict product success before development

[3:15] Understanding customer needs

[9:00] Defining customer groups

[10:40] Targeting underserved segments

[13:10] Finding segments of opportunity

[15:00] Step-by-step process for understanding customer needs

[16:00] Mapping out desired outcomes

[20:45] Discussion of platform-level solutions

[21:40] Mapping out desired outcomes

[24:00] The collaborative approach

[25:00] Categorizing desired outcomes

[28:00] Finding segments of opportunity

[30:00] Segmentation based on unmet needs

[30:40] Focus on the job to be done

[31:00] Example in dentistry where patient segments are identified based on their unmet needs.

[32:10] Identifying unmet needs to inform product strategy

[33:00] Shifting the value proposition based on identified unmet needs.

[34:15] Innovations and unmet needs

[38:30] Free book “Jobs to be Done” theory

About Tony Ulwick:

Tony Ulwick is the CEO of Strategyn, an innovation consultancy. He's known for pioneering Jobs-to-be-Done Theory and inventing Outcome-Driven Innovation® (ODI) with an 86% success rate. Tony works with Fortune 500 companies to make innovation more predictable and oversees the JTBD + ODI publication.

Links:

Tony Ulwick | LinkedIn

JOBS TO BE DONE book

Wilson T. Bell, "Stalin's Gulag at War: Forced Labour, Mass Death, and Soviet Victory in the Second World War" (University of Toronto Press, 2018)