In a mobile world, users’ situations and contexts are constantly changing – and with them their needs and desired outcomes. In order to create a great customer experience we have to be aware of our users’ situation and current goals. Only this allows us to re-evaluate what solutions and content we offer based on contextual conditions. In this session we explored how to uncover needs of users of mobile devices and how to capture and describe them in context. This enabled participants to subsequently design better mobile offerings and to create more meaningful flows for your users – all with the help of tools and methods from the increasingly popular Jobs-to-be-Done framework. The 90-minute session alternated between short input sessions and interactive hands-on exercises and gave the opportunity to put the new knowledge into action immediately.

1. Uncovering
Customer Jobs
in Contexts
Zalando: Mobile First Day
September 24, 2015
Master mobile with Jobs-to-be-Done
innovation framework

2. BAC KG RO UND
Product, Innovation, Design
H A N N E S J E N T S C H ,
Design & Innovation Consultant,
Freelance
@Kaffeertrinken
M A R T I N J O R DA N ,
Experience design,
HERE/Nokia
@Martin_Jordan

3. POINT O F VIEW
Customer jobs & hired solution
S O LU T I O N
• toothpaste and toothbrush
J O B S
• having a fresh breath
• feeling fresh
• preventing caries

4. Ask & listen
to your neighbour
2
MIN
EACH

5. Which garment with a price tag
of € 100+ did you purchase
recently?
What ‘jobs’ is it doing for you?
What did do the job before?
WARM-UP
Uncovering jobs

6. Share with all of us

7. What is the
job of wine?
EX AMPLE
Let’s talk about
something pleasant …

8. Source: Laurence Veale / ‘The jobs wine is hired for’
https://medium.com/@laurenceveale/the-jobs-wine-is-hired-for-272a929ea8be
EX AMPLE
How most wines are
organised in wine stores

9. EX AMPLE
Organising the retail space around a
specific job: making dinner a little better
Source: Laurence Veale / ‘The jobs wine is hired for’
https://medium.com/@laurenceveale/the-jobs-wine-is-hired-for-272a929ea8be

10. EX AMPLE
Organising the retail space
for a second job: expressing appreciation
Source: Laurence Veale / ‘The jobs wine is hired for’
https://medium.com/@laurenceveale/the-jobs-wine-is-hired-for-272a929ea8be

11. Uncovering customer jobs helps understanding
their desired outcomes
Finding your real competition,
refining the market you are in
Rephrasing the messaging around your offering
to match the customers’ mental model & language
EX AMPLE
Take-away

12. What is Pocket’s
context of use?
EX AMPLE
Let’s look at a mobile service

13. EX AMPLE
Pocket: in the office
5 min, end of
lunch break

14. EX AMPLE
Pocket: in the office
Found article,
saved for later

15. EX AMPLE
Pocket: on the go
15 mins time
to bridge

16. EX AMPLE
Pocket: on the go
Review articles,
choose one

17. EX AMPLE
Pocket: at home
On sofa, 45
min free time

18. EX AMPLE
Pocket: at home
Deep read &
share w/ others

19. Main job of ‘making me a smarter, better human’
carried through various contexts and situations
Limited resources & capabilities in regards of time,
space & cognitive capacities
Specific sub-jobs that need a hand-over
from one situation to another
EX AMPLE
Take-away

20. How might we help someone
to get away from everyday life
and explore a new place?
EX ERCISE
Let’s get hands-on …

21. Get together in 6 groups,
find out who went on
vacation last.
Interview your group member.
1 5
MIN

22. EX ERCISE
Conducting retrospective interview
How did your interviewee …
made the
plan to
travel
started to
look for a
destination
booked the
journey &
accommodation
planned
the trip
details

23. 1 person asks
1 person answers
1 person asks additional questions
1 person takes written notes
1 person takes visual notes
EX ERCISE
Conducting retrospective interview

24. Share with all of us
(2 groups)

25. What did you learn?
How did it go?
How well would your discovered customer journey
work to design a solution against?
What do you think is missing?
EX ERCISE
Reflection

26. Learnt relevant details by special interviewing
technique that is prevents speculation
Not yet fully understand needs
to design focused service offering against
Require advanced tools & techniques to uncover
and describe needs
EX ERCISE
Reflection

27. Resource: Silverstein, D., Samuel, P. (2012): The Innovator's Toolkit. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
TOOLS & MINDSET S
Kinds of jobs
Social
jobs
Emotional /
personal
jobs
Functional
jobs

28. Inspiration &
personal
growth
Acquiring
knowledge
Contributing
to valuable
conversations
with peers
Resource: Silverstein, D., Samuel, P. (2012): The Innovator's Toolkit. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
TOOLS & MINDSET S
Kinds of jobs

29. TOOLS & MINDSET S
Progress & Failure
Desired
Outcome
Undesired
Outcome

30. TOOLS & MINDSET S
Progress & Failure
Easy & fast
retrieval of
stored articles;
make good
use of my time
No access to
stored articles;
being
non-productive

31. + + + + +
Situation
M
onday
M
orning
Rain
Alarm
didn’t
ring
Usuallygone
atthattim
e
Carin
repair
The better you can define the situation,
the better you can design the solution against
TOOLS & MINDSET S
Context for understanding situational needs

32. When
Where
Who
How
What
season
month
weekd
ay
daytime
occasionlocation
type
category
attrib.profile/mode
social
device
motion
useract.routine
traffic
facebook
c
ollec.
weather
Routinely used route
Routinely visited place
First time visit
Unknown area
Known area
…
Historical traffic around location
Congestion/incidents on route
Congestion/incidents around loc.
…
Visited by friends
Visited by me
Popular on facebook
Liked by friends
Liked by me
…
In
popular collection
In
m
yfriendscollection
In
m
ycollection…
FreezingCoolMild
Warm
Hot
Night
Day
Stormy
Snowy
Rainy
Foggy
Cloudy
Clear
Wetseason
Dryseason
Winter
Autumn
Summer
Spring
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
AugustSeptemberOctoberNovember
December
MondayTuesday
Wednesday
ThursdayFriday
Saturday
Sunday
Morning
Noon
Afternoon
Evening
Night
Sunrise
Sunset
…
At a planned appointment
Appointment scheduled in x hours
Leaving
In transit
Arriving
Early in month
Late in month (f.ex salary)
Commute
Travel
…
Outdoor
Indoor
Near POI of cat. XNear POI cluster of cat. XMoving towards X
Distance to destinationDistance to POI
…
On streetIn building
In/at venueIn park
On mountain
On water
…
Airport
Departm
ent store
Hotel
Cafe
Restaurant
ATM
Leisure
PTstation
Sight
Mall
Parkingspace
Junction
Highway
…
Pricerange
Openinghours
Availableparking
…
…
Commuter
CityDweller
Traveler
Age30-39
Age18-29
Age<18
Male
Female
…
Withanonymouscrowd
Withknownpeople
Alone
…
Roamingactive
Via3G
etc
ViaBluetooth
ViaWiFi
Desktop
Tablet
Phone
…
Ascending/descending
Trajectory/bearing/direction
DrivingWalkingStill
…
Using app since 1d/1w/1m
Calculated a route to/from
Reviewed
Shared to/byCollected
Searched for
…
Routine follow up action when x Situation
TOOLS & MINDSET S
Retool

33. Refine one phase of your
customer’s journey
1 5
MIN

34. EX ERCISE
Pick a phase in your colleague’s journey
made the
plan to
travel
started to
look for a
destination
booked the
journey &
accommodation
planned
the trip
details

35. TOOLS & MINDSET S
Jobs-in-context mapping
Context
Desired Outcome
Undesired Outcome
Jobs
Currently employed solutions

36. Share with all of us
(2 groups)

37. TOOLS & MINDSET S
Jobs-in-context mapping

38. APPLICATI ON
In Lean Product Development

39. Retrospective
interviews
Forces Customer Job
Definition
Job Stories ----------------------->
Consider-
ation Set
JTBD-based
Marketing
APPLICATI ON
In Lean Product Development
Customer
Job Map

40. VALUE
Benefits for all team members
Product owners and managers know what kind of
products they are developing and who they are
competing with.
Developers know the context of the product and its
sprints, can prioritise better and see purpose.
QA engineers know the essential use and test cases,
can prioritise better.
Designers know the context and desired outcomes of
the user and can design against these accordingly.

41. NEX T
Where to start
Conduct retrospective interviews with customers or
users who used your or your competitors’ offering.
Understand the jobs they tried to get done.
And start tweaking your product accordingly.

42. Thanks for
participating
Join the JTBD Meetup in Berlin:
One every month in a location near you