Lecture 5-6

Part I
Job Scoping, Heuristic Redefinition,
and Nine Boxes
Prof. Mohamed Watfa
ENG 950, Innovation and Design
Notes taken from a number of sources mentioned at the end.

Innovation Example
In 2011, water pollution closed or drove visitors away
from U.S. shores on more than 15,000 beach days
across the country.
In many places, the problem is getting worse. As
coastal towns crowd with rooftops and parking lots,
they produce more runoff from rain.
The runoff picks up bacteria from animal waste and
collects in pipes that then release the water into the
ocean. Pretty gross.
But some engineers have a simple and effective
solution: Send runoff underneath the beach instead,
where sand can filter the bacteria out.

Solution
1.Dirty storm runoff is diverted into a five-foot-wide
open-bottom plastic tube positioned 1.5 to 2.5 feet
beneath the sand.
2. The water flows into a bed of gravel, spreading out
onto a larger surface area of sand, which acts as a filter.
3. The runoff that reaches the groundwater is diluted,
and whatever bacteria get trapped in the sand die.
4. By the time the storm runoff is 75 feet down shore,
bacteria levels are comparable to normal groundwater's.
5. The materials to purify dirty storm water are quite
simple: plastic tubing, gravel, and a little help from
Mother Nature.

By The End Of Part I Today, You Should:

Be able to apply the Job Scoping technique to explore the
underlying issues that your JTBD addresses (focusing up) as
well as the detailed, ancilliary jobs you may need to consider
to successfully address your JTB
Be able to use Heuristic Redefinition to place your JTBD in
context and explore the interactions that the JTBD you have
identified, as well as solutions you are considering, have with
the rest of the world

Be able to use the Nine Boxes technique to understand the

context (past/present/future,
subsystems/systems/supersystems) in which your JTBD lives

Discussion: Assignment 1
What made this exercise:
Easy or hard?
Interesting or boring?
Frustrating or pleasant?

Did you find it challenging to focus on your customers

needs, and their Jobs To Be Done without jumping to
propose solutions?
Why do you think that is?

Key idea: it takes discipline and practice to focus on

your customers challenges, problems, needs, wants, and
desires rather than the product or service you hope to
sell them!

Some Thoughts On Assignment 1

Practice, practice, practice
De-emphasizing finding solutions is intentional
Simple is better than complicated

Outcome expectations:
It is more important to give a clear, simple statement of what the
expected/desired outcome is, than it is to follow the format for
writing these statements too strictly

Value Analysis Graphs:

The vertical axis should probably be something like High,
Medium, Low instead of a [0..1] scale
The gaps that you are looking for are places where current practice
is far away from the perfect world solution

Job Scoping Analysis

Jobs Scoping Analysis

Goals:
Refine your JTBD to something more specific, or more general
Identify additional JTBDs related to the original

JTBD analysis steps

List current focus state JTBD

Identify barriers (focus down)
Develop new jobs (lower level, more specific)
Identify reasons (focus up)
Develop new jobs (higher level, more general)
Determine your project focus

Job Scoping Worksheet

Heuristic Redefinition

Heuristic Redefinition Analysis

Goal: to understand the context in which the Job To Be

Done is currently handled, and identify important related
(ancilliary) Jobs To Be Done

Visual technique to identify the context/system in which

the job takes place, and all factors that affect the
customers efforts to do the job

Heuristic Redefinition steps

1.
2.
3.
4.

Visualize the overall system and its elements

Label system elements and how each relates to the JTBD
Create a problem statement for each element identified
Pick the best elements for innovation

Pick The Best Elements For Innovation

Expected Impact
on JTBD

Problem Statement:
"How can we ensure that?"

Ease of
Implementation

Good/High = 3
Average/Medium = 2
Poor/Low = 1

Likelihood of
Accomplishing
JTBD

Problem Statement Prioritization Matrix

Total

Nine Windows Analysis

Widely Used

Nine Windows Grid

One of the challenges we face in creative problem
solving is mentally getting out of our own way.
We tend to be so trapped in our unique perspective that
it limits our ability to see other possibilities.
The nine windows technique gives you a number of
different lenses through which you can creatively
look at your current challenge or opportunity.

Nine Windows Analysis

Goal: much like Heuristic Redefinition, the goal with nine

windows analysis is to understand the context in which the Job
To Be Done is currently handled, and identify important related
(ancilliary) Jobs To Be Done

Structured technique in which you look at a JTBD in the

context of all permutations of time (past, present, future) and
scale (subsystem, system, supersystem)

Nine windows steps

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Prepare the nine windows grid

Fill in the JTBD in the center box (can also use an innovation
opportunity not expressed as a JTBD)
Identify Super-system and Subsystem for curent state (and time)
Determine the past and future for current state
Complete the grid fill in the four corners to show how it could be
Reassess your opportunity

Nine Windows Analysis Grid

Nine Windows
Past

Present

Super System

System

Sub System

Current Innovation

Future

SubSystems and SuperSystems

The supersystem relates to how the system or object
interacts with the surrounding environment. To
complete this box, ask, What larger system
encompasses the system or object?
The subsystem breaks the present system or object
down into the components and characteristics that
constitute it. To complete this box, ask, What makes
up the object in its present form?

Past and Present

What did the system or object look like before its current
incarnation, and what will look like in the future?
Where was the system or object before its present state, and where
will it be in the future? The answer can range from a few seconds to
years into the past or future.
What happened to the system or object from its creation to its
present form or function? What will happen after it ceases to
function in the present?
Before the present system or object existed, what was the previous
solution for the job to be done, and what future solution could be
developed to address the same job to be done?
How can these system inputs be modified to eliminate, reduce or
prevent the harmful function, event or condition from impacting the
output? Or, how can the systems output be modified in a corrective
or reactive way?

Exercise: Nine Boxes

Scenario: To illustrate Nine Windows, lets
say we want to grow Pitaya, a plant that
produces the unusual-looking, but tasty and
highly nutritious dragon fruit. Pitaya is
fond of tropical, semi-dry environments,
but we want to farm it in Colorado.
So, our goal (JTBD) is to:
determine a way to cultivate the Pitaya
plant in a colder climate.

Note: The dragon fruit and its antioxidant

properties are beginning to capture the

attention of mainstream companies
including Snapple, Tropicana and Sobe.

Another Example, computer game

Recall Assignment 1
Use the following techniques to expand your
exploration of the JTBD you selected for Assignment 1:
Job scoping
Heuristic redefinition
Nine boxes

Part II:

Selecting An Opportunity:
Stage-Gate Processes,
Customer Scenarios, and POGs

By The End Of part II, You Should:

Understand the concept of stages and gates in the StageGate process
Understand why organizations use a structured method
such as Stage-Gate to direct their innovation investments
efficiently and effectively
Understand how an organization can use scenarios to
illustrate a Product Opportunity Gap, the Job Statements,
and the Value Opportunities that underlie the POG
proposed for further investigation

The Good News: Lots of Ideas

SET

JTBD

Job Scoping

Nine Boxes

Lots of
Ideas
(POGs)

The Bad News: Limited Resources

Organizational
Resources
Resources
Available for
Innovative
New Product
Development
NPD

The Problem

Lots of
Ideas
(POGs)

NPD
Resources

Resource Allocation: The Stage-Gate NPD Process

In the early stages of developing new market
opportunities and bringing innovative services and
products to market, one of the most critical tasks is
appropriately backing and funding the most promising
opportunities, while eliminating non-promising ideas as
quickly and as cheaply as you can determine they are
not promising, but no quicker.
The Stage Gate process provides a rigorous, structured
way for organizations to do so

Overview Of The Stage-Gate Process

Stages are steps in the New Product Development
(NPD) process where a specific set of work activities
are done to produce a specific set of deliverables
Gates are decision points that come at the end of each
stage.

Stage n

Gate
n+1

Stage n+1

Gate
n+2

Gates: Go/No-Go Decision Points

Gates are key decision points in the process
Always a cross-functional group of gatekeepers
Gates should force a decision to be effective

Possible outcomes from a gate meeting:

Go: move ahead to the next stage, commit appropriate resources
No-Go: the project does not meet the criteria required to move forward.
Stop the project and reallocate project resources.
Recycle: the project shows promise but has not yet met the criteria for
moving to the next stage. Continue work in the current stage, return with
additional information. Resources are allocated as needed to get requested
information
Deliverables
From Previous
Stage

Decision
Criteria

Decision,
Resources
Allocated,
Outputs

New Product Development (NPD) Stages

Discovery
Stage

Gate
1

Stage 1:
Scoping

Gate
4

Gate
2

Stage 4:
Test &
Validate

Stage 2:
Biz Case

Gate
5

Gate
3

Stage 3:
Development

Stage 5:
Launch

Mapping Stage Gate to Cagan/Vogel Process

Identify

Discovery
Stage

Understand

Scoping
Stage 1

Conceptualize

Business Case
Stage 2

Realize

Launch*

Development Stages 4 & 5

Stage 3

Managing Risk With Stage-Gate

Resources
allocated

Level of
risk and
uncertainty

Time
(Stages)

Exercise:
Gate 1 is where we go from idea generation (discovery)
to the scoping (starting to really understand the
customer)

What criteria should we use for exiting gate 1?

Who should your gatekeepers be for this gate?
Who should your gatekeepers be for later gates?
How should you go about selecting the proper people to
participate in the gate meetings?

Scenarios Making Your POG Resonate

POGs, on their own, can be very abstract and dull

By illustrating your POG with scenarios, which describe a real

person, in a real situation, dealing with the real problems or
challenges you have identified, you can bring the idea you have
to life for your audience, and convince them that this is an idea
worth pursuing
Scenarios are short (1-2 paragraphs) descriptions of a person or
people in a specific situation.
A scenario should illustrate who your target customer is, what
their need is, why they have that need, how the task is currently
accomplished, and when it happens.

Scenario Example: Ron The Construction

Contractor
Ron is an independent contractor. He typically works alone or with a
crew of one or two. When Ron arrives at the work site in the morning,
he drops off his larger equipment as close to the work area as possible.
Setting up a work area typically means carrying sawhorses and boards
as well as large ladders and tools. Most of the equipment is heavy and
many trips to a destination far from the truck can be time- and energyintensive.

If Ron can work near his truck, he often uses the tailgate as a cutting or
work surface, even for eating lunch. Rons truck has side-mounted
toolboxes that he installed and both a ladder rack and a towing hitch
that were installed professionally. This means that Ron has no free
space within his truck bed and that his tools often have to be put on the
ground during unloading, which is damaging to both the tools and
Rons back.

Phase 2 Overview: Understanding The Opportunity

Gate
1
Phase 1 outputs:
POG statement
JTBDs
SET Factors
Scenario(s)
Value analysis
(graphs, attributes)

Phase 2

Gate
2

Phase 2 activities:
Phase 2 outputs:
Look, listen, learn
Prioritized value
Stakeholder analysis
opportunities
Ethnography:
Detailed
- Interviews
scenarios
- Field observations Prioritized
Story and scenario
product
generation
attributes
Task analysis
Prioritized
Detailed secondary
stakeholder list
research
Detailed data analysis

Example For Discussion:

JTBD:
Record images from vacations to share with friends

Refined as a POG statement:

Help young adults traveling with friends on vacation record

images from their vacation that they can share with their
friends without having to carry around a large, heavy, and
bulky camera and camera supplies.

Scenario For Discussion

Maha is a twenty eight year old woman living in Dubai. She has two young children a seven
year old son and a five year old daughter. She works as an elementary school teacher at a school
in Dubai. Mahas husband owns and runs a construction company. Between family and work
commitments, they are very busy people.
One of Maha and her familys favorite things to do is to travel. Sometimes they go to exciting
new places, other times they return to familiar places they have visited and enjoyed before. She
likes to take a lot of pictures on these trips, both to remember the fun times that theyve had and
also to keep a history of her children growing up. When they are on a trip, Maha always seems to
have a lot to carry and she would love to be able to carry fewer things when they are touring
around a new place. Although she enjoys taking pictures she is often frustrated by the quality of
those pictures, both because the small camera she carries around does not take very high quality
photos but also because she often takes so long to find the camera and get ready to take a picture
that the moment she was trying to capture has passed her by.
Maha greatly enjoys sharing her pictures with her friends and family. When she gets home from a
trip, she has prints made that she sends to her mother back home (who does not use a computer),
shares the best pictures on Facebook and Flickr with her friends, and often just enjoys looking at
the pictures through the LCD on the back of the camera right after she takes them. On a long trip,
she would like to be able to share her pictures more quickly but not if doing so is a hassle. Her
husband and kids get tired of posing and waiting for Maha to take so many pictures but they put
up with her requests because they like to look at the pictures when they return home also.

Value Opportunity Analysis:

Value opportunity attributes
Ease of use, cost, image quality, ease of sharing, device size, device weight, flexibility,
range of situations in which an image can be captured, how quickly a photo can be
taken (and with minimal hassle)

Perfect world value opportunity graph

Compare the perfect world graph to:

Remembering the vacation storing memories in your mind

Point-and-click digital camera
High-quality DSLR camera
What else?

Where do the value opportunities appear to be?

Do we know that these are the right value opportunity attributes?
How or why do we know that?
Do we know which ones are customers care the most about? The least?
What could we do to be more confident that we have picked the correct ones?

Understanding Customers Through Ethnography

Ethnography can help you deeply understand your
customers (and other stakeholders), their needs, wants
and desires, what they actually do to complete a JTBD,
and their views on the world

Key ideas:
Look, Listen, Learn
Focus on observing and gathering facts, explain and
synthesize later
Plan your study thoughtfully to get the information you need
Results can be presented many ways stories, visual artifacts,
reports with detailed data analysis, videos, etc.

Collect Artifacts

Ethnography Examples
Laundromat video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jydtrbk55U

What does it mean to be green? video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KtSQZ_lqSw

Planning Your Ethnography Study

What are we trying to learn?
What questions should we be answering with the study?

Who should we observe? How many observations?

When should we do the observations?
What, specifically, are we trying to see?

How will we conduct the observations?

Discretely or as a participant?
Staged events or in the wild?

How will we record what we observe?

Do we need participant permissions?

Where will we do our observations?

Task Analysis
Break the job down into a series of tasks required to
complete a JTBD small, detailed steps
Try to understand each step, what happens during the
step, why it is being done, what it accomplishes, who
does it, how long it takes, etc.
Look for steps in the process that can be improved,
eliminated, or otherwise changed for the better
Task analyses can guide your ethnography studies

Exercise: Complete A Task Analysis For Maha

Prepare for a day walking around museums in Paris,
including making sure that she has her camera
Take a picture of her children inside the Louvre, in
front of a famous statue by Michaelangelo
Make sure that she has gotten a good picture

Share the photo with her friends in Dubai, Madrid,

Australia, and the US
Share the picture with her mother in Lebanon, who
doesnt use a computer

Task Analysis
Break the job down into a series of tasks required to
complete a JTBD small, detailed steps
Try to understand each step, what happens during the
step, why it is being done, what it accomplishes, who
does it, how long it takes, etc.
Look for steps in the process that can be improved,
eliminated, or otherwise changed for the better
Task analyses can guide your ethnography studies

Stakeholder Analysis: Key Concepts

A stakeholder is a person or group of people who are
purchase, use, maintain, or are in some way affected by
the purchase, use, maintenance, etc. of the product or
service
You will rarely delight all stakeholders with your
innovative product or service.
The goal is to delight and inspire who determine to be
the most important stakeholders, and to not turn off
those negatively affected enough to prevent the
purchase and use of your product

Stakeholder Analysis: Common Stakeholder Groups

Those who make the purchase, pay the bill, or affect the
purchase decision
Those who use the product or service directly
Those who need to store and maintain the product
Those who are affected by the use of the product or
service
Others?
Sometimes, it depends on the product or service

Stakeholder Exercise: iPhone

Identify specific stakeholders:
Those who make the purchase
or affect the purchase decision
Those who use the product or
service directly
Those who need to store and
maintain the product
Those who are affected by the
use of the product or service
Others?

Stakeholder Exercise: Family Vacation Photos

Identify specific stakeholders:
Those who make the purchase
or affect the purchase decision
Those who use the product or
service directly
Those who need to store and
maintain the product
Those who are affected by the
use of the product or service
Others?

Selecting and Refining Product Attributes

Selecting and Refining Product Attributes

Once we really understand our target customer and the
challenges that they face, we then need to identify
opportunities for a new product or service to provide
significant value by improving the experience, the
results, solving a problem, reducing costs or other
undesirable outcomes, etc.
We express these as prioritized and abstract Value
Opportunities (VOs) and then turn those VOs into
specific Product Attributes that our new product or
service needs to have

VOs to Product Attributes Example

Value Opportunities

Product Attributes

Low cost

No more than 100 Dirhams

Easier to carry

Weight < 200 grams,

Size < 6 x 6 x 1 cm.

Reduce number of
devices to carry

Improved durability

Camera should be integrated

with phone or another device
customers already carry daily
Should be able to bounce
around all day in handbag,
occasionally be dropped on
floor, and work in rainy
conditions

Refining A Scenario At The End Of Phase II

Phase 1 scenario: helping elderly women in the kitchen
Mary is 70 years old and lives alone. She loves to bake and often
entertains her family for holidays. She has developed arthritis and
is no longer comfortable reaching into the oven to lift things out.
Losing the ability to bake things has been very depressing for her to
contemplate. Mary is hesitant to have her family over and no longer
feels confident entertaining in her home.

Refined scenario at the end of phase 2:

Mary has arthritis in her lower spine and shoulders that limits her

range of motion. She has also lost strength in her back and arm
muscles. A device is needed that fits in the context of a standard
oven that will compensate for her limited motion and reduced
strength and allow her to easily put in and remove a variety of pans
and baking dishes in the oven. The device will have to lift items
that range in weight from to 7 kilos.

Supplementing A Scenario With Product Attributes

Revised Product Opportunity Statement, with specific
product attributes identified:
The team will develop a product that will integrate with a
standard oven and will be easy to install and clean. It must
have a simple mechanism and must cost no more than AED
150 to buy and install. Any installation should be easy enough
for a family member to do. While the primary market will be
senior women with arthritis between the ages of 70 and 85,
the primary purchasers will be family members

Class Design Project: Design an innovative

Shopping Cart.

Movie Links for discussion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66ZU2PCIcM

References
[CE09] Robert G. Cooper and Scott Edgett, Successful
Product Innovation, Product Development
Institute, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-4392-4918-5.
[CV02] Jonathan Cagan and Craig M. Vogel,
Creating Breakthrough Products,
Prentice Hall, 2002, ISBN: 0-13-969694-6.
[KL01] Tom Kelly with Jonathan Littman, The Art of
Innovation, Doubleday, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-49984-1.
[SSD09] David Silverstein, Philip Samuel, Neil
DeCarlo, The Innovators Toolkit,
John Wiley and Sons, 2009,
ISBN: 978-0-470-34535-1.