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1-Page Summary of Competing Against Luck
Overview
The book, Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice, is a guide on how to create products that customers will choose even in a crowded market.
Innovation is highly prized by businesses, but many times companies waste money and resources on products that have only a gambler’s chance at success. The Jobs Theory can help remove the risk of creating something new, and give innovators a better chance of succeeding in their endeavors.
Steve Jobs believed that a successful product must answer an unsatisfied customer need. He also said that the producer needs to understand why customers have this need and how it affects their lives. This is considered jobs, where each responds to customers’ desire to move forward in life. When they decide to purchase a product or service, they are hiring it for a job vacancy in their lives. Once they no longer use the product or service, they fire it from its job position. By thinking of the customer’s needs in terms of jobs (which are familiar and concrete), companies can better position themselves as products/services providers who will meet those needs when potential customers consider them during their decision-making process
Jobs Theory is a basic concept that’s important to keep in mind. Companies need to understand the complexity of each job and how it fits into customers’ lives. Jobs can be broken down into three categories: functional, social, and emotional. A product or service may fit perfectly with one facet but fail at another. For example, if you’re designing a new car seat for children, you would need to consider all three aspects before deciding on the final design.
Key Takeaways
Business leaders must understand what products or services they provide and how they help people. They should also learn why consumers hire or fire their company’s product.
In order to succeed in business, you must understand why customers are choosing your product or service over others. Customers take into account practical, social and emotional factors when making their decision about what to buy. You can’t just create a new job for your product; instead, you have to find an existing job that needs filling and then tailor the product accordingly. There’s no single strategy for finding this ‘job’. Instead, there are several ways of doing so: 1) The Big Hire – analysing what happens at the point where a customer chooses your solution over another 2) Remove barriers 3) Create a process
Key Takeaway 1: Business leaders must understand the job their product or service seeks to fill and, by doing so, learn why a consumer will hire or fire it.
Every successful innovation is a solution to a problem. This can be thought of as filling the need for something that solves an issue or job. When people have problems, they seek out solutions to fill those needs. Some needs are obvious: a man might need transportation to work, so he seeks out cars in order to solve this problem and fill that need. Other needs might not be apparent at first glance though, such as the need for entertainment or relaxation after a long day at work.
For example, Airbnb filled the niche of providing accommodations for people who were unsatisfied with impersonal hotels and wanted a more participatory experience. American Girl dolls filled the niche of providing meaningful toys that young girls could relate to their own cultural backgrounds. A job is not just something to be filled; it’s a way for customers to achieve progress in life.
For a long time, people have wanted to order takeout food without having to leave their homes. In cities like New York, this was generally not a problem because of the large number of restaurants in the city that had delivery services. However, many other restaurants did not offer those services and customers who lived outside major cities could not get takeout food delivered to them easily. A company called Seamless recognized that there was an opportunity for companies like theirs to fill this need by providing home delivery for any restaurant’s menu items. Now in more than 600 cities across the country, Seamless is helping hungry people make progress with their plans for dinner by delivering food directly from local restaurants to their doors.
