Anthony W. Ulwick

Expected Impact of Phase I: Qualitative Insights

Team Thinking Before Phase I	Team Thinking After Phase I
The product team disagrees on who the customer is (the buyer, user, installer, influencer).	The product team agrees on who the customers are and why.
The team defines the market from a product- centric perspective (around the product or technology).	The team defines the market from a customer-centric perspective (around the Job-to-be-Done).
The team doesn’t know what job the customer is trying to get done.	The team agrees on what job the customer is trying to get done and on the job map.
The team can’t agree on what a customer need is (purpose, structure, format, content).	There is cross-functional agreement on what a need is.
The team believes customers have latent needs and needs they can’t articulate.	The team recognizes that customers can articulate their needs when they are defined around the Job-to-be-Done.
While the organization may collectively know most of the customer’s needs, there is no agreed-upon list.	There is a single, agreed-upon list of customer needs that is shared across functions.

Upon completion of Phase I, the product team will share a common language of innovation and possess a unique set of customer insights (a job map and a set of desired-outcome statements) that it can use to make customer-centric marketing and development decisions. Because the job and customer outcomes are stable over time, these qualitative insights are an indispensible, long-term guide to success at innovation.