How will you measure your life? (Still business related)

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How will you measure your life? by Clayton M. Christensen
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I've recently been listening to this book. First and foremost I'd define this book as a self-help book as it is mostly about life in general and not specifically entrepreneurship. I did find an interesting point midway through though which does relate to entrepreneurship and I thought I'd share it here.

The author describe a way of viewing purchases of both products and services as "jobs the buyer wants done".

With services this might be obvious. For example you hire a housemaid because you need to get the job of cleaning the house done. You hire a web developer because you need to get the job of building your website done.

But what about products? Turns out these can also be examined through the lens of "jobs the buyer wants done". Here are three examples from the book:

1. Motivating and Engaging Classrooms
The school board was trying to identify the best way to engage students and help them to be successful at school. The author suggested that the board try to determine the job the children want done when they come to school.

As he describes it the job students want done is to feel successful and to be with friends. Some students seem to naturally do this through school and these are the engaged and motivated students. But students could just as easily get the same job done by dropping out of school and joining a gang so this explains why some students might pursue that lifestyle. The motivating factors are the same it's just they don't get the job done with school.

With this new insight the school board was able to adjust it's approach to allow students to feel successful for their accomplishments and gave them recognition in front of their friends. They didn't just give everyone an A but rather they adjusted the workload so each student was able to make consistent progress and receive this recognition.

2. The Job of a Milkshake
The next example the book discusses is a restaurant chain looking to sell more milkshakes. Initially they did the usual market research by asking customers what they could do to make the milkshakes better. More flavor? Thicker? Chunkier? Healthier? The results were varied and inconclusive.

Instead the author suggested they watch when/how people purchase the milkshakes currently to try to identify the job people want done when they purchase a milkshake.

It turns out that the restaurant was selling more than half their milkshakes early in the morning. The buyers were often alone and dressed in business attire. With this knowledge in hand the team went out to survey these customers as they were leaving the restaurant. The customers identified the following reason for purchasing the milkshake:

The customers had a long lonely commute ahead of them. They weren't too hungry at this time of the morning but knew that in a couple of hours they would be. They needed something to keep them occupied on the commute, fill them up until mid-morning and something that was easy to consume while driving. The milkshake fit these requirements.​

Now that they had identified the reason people purchase milkshakes they could improve them in order to fulfill the need better:

• Make the milkshakes thicker so they last longer on the commute
• Include chunks of fruit to make it more interesting
• Design cups which don't have the condensation build up so they won't make a mess in the car

3. Simple is Better When You Know the Job
The last example I'll share was of a man who had developed a simple card game and presented it to a game manufacturer. The company's boos wasn't all that impressed with the game but then he asked the man why he thought the game would be useful, what job was it going to do for the customer. He described a situation in his own life:

He works a demanding job with long hours. When he comes home the family immediately sits down to dinner and then it is time for his young children to go to bed. He hasn't had any time to play with them but what is he supposed to do? Set up a game of Risk or Monopoly? The current games take too long! Instead he designed a simple game which can be setup and played quickly.
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This was much more interesting to the company and spawned a successful line of games called "12 Minute Games". The product completed a job the customer would want done and that is part of what made it successful.

Summary
So next time we're out examining possible businesses or trying to work out our next product instead of going the common approach and picking a particular demographic or avatar look at "jobs" people need to get done regularly.

Maybe this will help people to identify profitable ideas/products/services/niches and help you to view your own motivations through a different light.

 

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