Summary of “The CustomerCentered Innovation Map”.docVIP

The Customer-Centered Innovation Map by Lance A. Bettencourt and Anthony W. Ulwick COPYRIGHT ? 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. Brief introduction To systematically uncover more—and better—innovative ideas, Bettencourt and Ulwick recommend job mapping: Break down a job that customers want done into discrete steps. Then brainstorm ways to make steps easier, faster, or unnecessary. All jobs have the same eight steps. To use job mapping, look for opportunities to help customers at every step: Define : Determine their goals and plan resources. Locate : Gather items and information needed to do the job. Prepare : Set up the environment to do the job. Confirm : Verify that they’re ready to perform the job. Execute : Carry out the job. Monitor : Assess whether the job is being successfully executed. Modify : Make alterations to improve execution. Conclude : Finish the job or prepare to repeat it. By thoroughly mapping the job a customer is trying to get done, a company can discover opportunities for breakthrough products and services. Summary As everyone knows, people “hire” products and services to get job done, however, very few companies use the perspective of “getting the job done” to discover opportunities for innovation. They just hopefully get innovation through customer interviews. Although this method may occasionally achieve interesting information, it rarely uncovers the best ideas or exhaustive set of opportunities for growth, The author suggest a method to innovate, which they call “job mapping”, breaks down the task the customer wants done into a series of discrete process steps. Then they list some benefits of the method. There is a comparison deserve to to be mentioned, “job mapping” differs from “process mapping” in that job mapping’s goal is to identify what customers are trying to get done at every step, not they are doing currently. Anatomy of a Customer Job The article revealed three fundamental principles about customer