Anthony W. Ulwick

Ideas-first approach to innovation – An inherently flawed approach to innovation that starts with the generation
of ideas and is followed by evaluation and filtering methods that determine which ideas customers like best without ever explicitly understanding their needs.


Industry – The collective set of companies that offer solutions to help customers get a job done.


Innovation – The process of devising a product or service concept that addresses the customer’s unmet needs, thus enabling the customer to get a job done better and/or more cheaply.


Job executor – The group of people who are targeted for value creation. The job executor could be the functional job executor (end user), the purchase decision maker (buyer), or someone who executes a consumption chain job, such as the installer.


Job map – A visual depiction of a functional job, deconstructed into its discreet process steps. Unlike a process map, a job map does not show what the customer is doing (a solution view); rather, it describes what the customer is trying to get done (a needs view).


Job-to-be-Done – A task, goal or objective a person is trying to accomplish or a problem they are trying to resolve. A job can be functional, emotional or associated with product consumption (consumption chain jobs).
Jobs-to-be-Done Growth Strategy Matrix – A framework that illustrates when and how to deploy a differentiated, dominant, disruptive, discreet or sustaining growth strategy.


Jobs-to-be-Done Needs Framework – A visual depiction of the structure and relationship of all the customer inputs that are needed to effectively execute the innovation process.


Jobs-to-be-Done Theory – The notion that people buy products and services to get a job done and that new products and services win in the marketplace if they help customers get a job done better and/or more cheaply.


Market – A group of people (end users) and the core functional job or jobs they are trying to get done. Parents (a group of people) who are trying to pass on life lessons to their children (the Job-to-be-Done) constitute a market. Dental hygienists who clean patients’ teeth and farmers who grow a crop also constitute markets.