Anthony W. Ulwick

Desired outcome – A metric that customers use to measure the successful execution of a functional job or a consumption chain job. Synonymous with customer need.


Differentiated strategy – A company pursues a differentiated strategy when it discovers and targets a population of underserved consumers with a new product or service offering that gets a job (or multiple jobs) done significantly better, but at a significantly higher price.


Discreet strategy – A company pursues a discrete strategy when it targets a population of “restricted” customers with a product that gets the job done worse, yet costs more.


Disruptive strategy – A company pursues a disruptive strategy when it discovers and targets a population of overserved customers or nonconsumers with a new product
or service offering that enables them to get a job done more cheaply, but not as well as competing solutions.


Dominant strategy – A company pursues a dominant strategy when it targets all consumers in a market with a new product or service offering that gets a job done significantly better and for significantly less money.


Emotional jobs – Statements that describe the way customers want to be perceived or feel when executing a core functional job.


End user – This is a person who ultimately uses the product or service to execute the functional job the product is intended to perform. Also the functional job executor.


Financial outcomes – The financial metrics that the purchase decision maker uses to decide what product or service to purchase.


Functional Job-to-be-Done – The primary task or fundamental goal an end user is trying to accomplish or problem they are trying to resolve in a given situation.


Idea – An output of the creative process that defines a way in which specific unmet customer needs can be satisfied.