The Apple iPhone was released in June 2007. I bought a Nokia E71 in October 2008. It was one of the best Nokia phones ever! It served my needs perfectly. It was solid, compact, durable, and fast. It had a comfortable keyboard and integrated with Microsoft Exchange seamlessly. It had the best maps in my opinion, and decent features for Internet and VOIP calls. That’s all I wanted in the late 2010s. If you had asked me to improve it, I would have asked for better VOIP apps, and a better integration with Google ecosystem. They did deliver a better version in the following year.

By 2011, Nokia would be a loss-making business. My requirements for the mobile devices changed too. Personally, browsing became the most important activity on mobile, followed by emails, social network, music and games. Nokia E71 was not designed for browsing, or social networks, or games with touch interactions. With the advances in technology, mobile devices are getting more jobs done for us, than its original purpose of being a “mobile phone”.

History is littered with tales of great companies and brands who failed in the face of disruptive innovation. It is not that the leaders in these companies were complacent as the market shifted under their feet. They were eagerly listening to their customers, doing the right things, and keeping them satisfied. At times, there would be an innovation which was not expected by them or their customers - and the feedback loop breaks, new developments would be derailed, and customer expectations would change unexpectedly! Customers migrate to the new normal, and the old ways are forgotten, left to the time, to slowly dissolve and fade. Such disruptions change the narrative of customer journeys and user stories.

Clay Christensen, a researcher of innovation, explains how Kodak adopted digital technologies to improve the process and workflow of photography. Once the photo is taken, customers print, share, and display the photos. So, Kodak implemented digital kiosks, acquired Kodak Gallery and released the Kodak EasyShare lineup. While such innovations translated a photograph into its “digital twin”, these did not become the mainstream pattern for consumption of digital photos. Soon Web 2.0 and social media appear, and change the way we consume digital media, and photographs.

Photographs served a purpose - to capture a moment, preserve it and share with others. It could be a wedding, a birthday party, a holiday, or a casual walk in the park. We used to take photos and send it to dear and near ones, to share the moments, to connect with them. Social networks were built along those lines and smartphones complemented the narrative. Social networks posed a competition to the products that print, share and display photos. Customers moved on. Rules of the game changed. Playgrounds shifted. And those who remained on the edge were left out.

Change is the only constant, said the Greek philosopher. In technology, transformation is the constancy. Once a transformation wave is complete, we are pulled into the next wave of transformation. You either ride the wave or be dragged by it.

Oftentimes, we start with the “digital transformation” initiatives with “design thinking”, “customer personas” and “user journeys”. The transformation aims to “simplify” the user journeys, improve “user experience”, and provide “personalized offers”. We collect “user voice”, create “journey maps” and build “omnichannel” processes. Until a disruptive product appears in the context, in the form of cloud service, or an advanced AI-based solution, or a gaming platform, or a crypto-token. It is time to reset the stories and journeys and start all over again!

Clay Christensen developed the theory of “Jobs to be Done” to complement the theory of “Disruptive Innovation”. “Jobs to be Done” provides a framework to respond to innovations by examining the job that a product does to serve the customer.

We often look at products as something inanimate to be consumed or configured. Not as an active subject performing a job, or “hired” to help us do a job. If the product does not do well in performing or helping in getting the job done, we “fire” it, and look for an alternative. If another product does the job better or cheaper than the ones we have, we “hire” the better one, or cheaper one.

Jobs to be Done framework focuses on the product, and how effectively it gets our jobs done. When disruptive innovations happen, our jobs do not change. The products that get our jobs done change, and the ways we get it done using new products and features.

It is important to contrast customer journeys with jobs to be done. Customer journeys often get constrained by the context, user feedback, and current products and services. Jobs to be Done challenges the product itself, its format, its purpose, its features and its existence! There could even be a completely different product that gets the job done for the customer, in a totally different category altogether.

We pay a lot of attention to the functional journey of a customer. It is important to explore social and emotional dimensions as well, to understand the purpose of the journey, and the jobs they get done through the products they use. Once the jobs are identified, challenge the product, consider new journeys in the absence of the current product, find alternatives, compare efficiencies, and observe what connects with the customers.

Customer journey is a good tool to understand the process and document requirements. Jobs to be Done gives a complementary view and brings the product into perspective. Exceptional customer experiences are the result of “hiring” right products to make our journeys enjoyable and exciting.

There is more to the concept of “Jobs to be Done”. Please visit hbr.org for more information on this. The podcast Revisiting “Jobs to be Done” with Clayton Christensen is a good start.