I trust that your year started well and you are well on your way to implementing your strategy. At PKL Consulting, we wish you well in your journey of performance for FY 23.
In this note, we focus on a strategy principle – jobs to be done (JTBD). This theory proposes that a customer has a job to be done for which they hire a product/(s) or and service/(s) to get their job done.
What Job(s) is the SACCO being hired for?
Reflecting on the statement – jobs to be done – in the financial sector, we could ask the following questions:
- What are the jobs to be done by SACCO members?
- What jobs to be done do members hire the SACCO for?
- What jobs to be done don’t they hire the SACCO for?
- When they don’t hire the SACCO, who do they hire?
A few dilemmas could arise when reflecting through these questions. These include:
- How can you know what are the jobs to be done?
- How can you tell what the SACCO is being hired for?
- How would you know who/what the members hire when not hiring the SACCO?
The answer may be closer than you think. Take yourself as a member of the SACCO. Reflect and introspect how you interact with the SACCO. This reflection, will give you a sense of how you hire the SACCO to get your jobs done.
So, what jobs do you and don’t you hire the SACCO for?
Why Job(s) to be done?
JTBD is a powerful principle when leadership and senior managers reflect on how well the SACCO is responding to member needs and more importantly the SACCO’s competitive landscape.
Jobs to be done delivers to management insights on the work arounds members deploy to get their jobs done. These work-arounds presents opportunities to innovate new products and services that respond to customers’ jobs to be done.
Determining Jobs to be done
You must not be a brilliant marketer or conduct complex marketing research to determine the jobs to be done. However, you will require to be curious, observant and on the ground to watch and reflect on how customers get their jobs done.
For instance, if a customer needs Kshs 500, is S/he likely to hire your SACCO to deliver? If NO why? It can be as easy as that. You would need to ascertain who and where they would get the Kshs 500 and reflect why they would prefer to hire that person/organization over the SACCO.
The second example would pertain to customers who maintain zero balances/pay slips et cetera. At SACCO level, we treat them as desperate cases and may not be accorded much help. This customer has jobs to be done between the first day of the month to the last every month. Who do they hire to get their jobs done? At SACCO management level you might ask, how much market share of this segment (members with zero-ed pay slips) do we have? Is this worth reflecting?
After determining jobs to be done – What next?
The next step is either to develop a new product or service or to align existing one(s) to be more responsive. In this phase, it paramount to think through product or service purchasing and use experience. A customer journey map would be helpful to determine customer actions at discovery, interactions, purchasing, using and feedback mechanisms.
Senior managers must then reflect on what processes would facilitate the best customer experience and integrate these in the respective departments. By aligning processes and resources an organization can maximize capabilities of delivering the best customer experience and product profitability.
Think jobs to be done not products and services. When you do, then you will maximize customer responsiveness and be at the brink of innovation that sustain your SACCO’s competitive advantage.
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Director – Advisory Services
I have a vast consulting experience in business advisory services in private sector, public sector and development world. I have worked with World Council of Credit Unions and the founder of Strathmore Research and Consultancy Centre at Strathmore University.
*“View expressed in the blogs are personal to the writers or contributors of respective pieces. They are in no way to be construed as those of PKL. For any questions and or clarifications, kindly contact the writer and or contributors directly.”
