David S. Duncan

A "detective story" that delivers key insights for any businessperson asking the questions: who really are our customers, why do we lose them, how do we regain them?​Customers can be a mystery. Despite the availability of more data than ever before, everyone, from the CEO to salespeople in the field, struggles to understand who their customers really are, what they want, why they lose them, and how to regain them. To solve this challenge, start by thinking like a market detective. David Scott Duncan shows how in his entertaining and instructive tale of Tazza, a fictional regional chain of Boston-based caf s trying to go big time. The only problem is that sales are declining at several key stores and they can't figure out why. The cast of characters include Cate Forrest, Tazza's CEO, Alex Baker, a "market detective," Jordan Sims, a young computer whiz at Tazza, and Ed Amato, the "mayor" of Tazza--their most loyal customer--who has stopped visiting their stores. Through their investigation, the team discovers why the "mayor" has fired Tazza, a revelation that leads to the "a-ha moment" that enables the company to get its ship in order. The key lesson of the Tazza story is a simple, powerful idea that upends how most businesses view their customers. Customers have "jobs to be done." They "hire" companies to solve these jobs and "fire" them when unhappy. Duncan's fresh way of thinking about how to understand your customers provides an innovative path for solving whatever market mysteries you face.

A "detective story" that delivers key insights for any businessperson asking the questions: who really are our customers, why do we lose them, how do we regain them? Customers can be a mystery. Despite the availability of more data than ever before, everyone, from the CEO to salespeople in the field, struggles to understand who their customers really are, what they want, why they lose them, and how to regain them. To crack the case, start thinking like a market detective. David Scott Duncan shows how in his entertaining story of Tazza, a fictional chain of cafes with declining sales and leaders urgently seeking to understand why. The vivid characters of Tazza's market detective force come to their aha moment when they finally understand why their most loyal customers walked out the door--and how they can get them back. The core of the Tazza story is a simple, powerful idea that upends how most businesses view their customers. Customers have "jobs to be done." They "hire" companies to solve a problem or fulfill a need and "fire" them when unhappy. Duncan's fresh way of thinking about how to understand your customers' secret lives provides an innovative path for solving whatever market mysteries you face.

The foremost authority on innovation and growth presents a path-breaking book every company needs to transform innovation from a game of chance to one in which they develop products and services customers not only want to buy, but are willing to pay premium prices for. How do companies know how to grow? How can they create products that they are sure customers want to buy? Can innovation be more than a game of hit and miss? Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has the answer. A generation ago, Christensen revolutionized business with his groundbreaking theory of disruptive innovation. Now, he goes further, offering powerful new insights. After years of research, Christensen has come to one critical conclusion: our long held maxim-that understanding the customer is the crux of innovation-is wrong. Customers don't buy products or services; they "hire" them to do a job. Understanding customers does not drive innovation success, he argues. Understanding customer jobs does. The "Jobs to Be Done" approach can be seen in some of the world's most respected companies and fast-growing startups, including Amazon, Intuit, Uber, Airbnb, and Chobani yogurt, to name just a few. But this book is not about celebrating these successes-it's about predicting new ones. Christensen contends that by understanding what causes customers to "hire" a product or service, any business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers not only want to hire, but that they'll pay premium prices to bring into their lives. Jobs theory offers new hope for growth to companies frustrated by their hit and miss efforts. This book carefully lays down Christensen's provocative framework, providing a comprehensive explanation of the theory and why it is predictive, how to use it in the real world-and, most importantly, how not to squander the insights it provides.