051: Product Innovation and Jobs to Be Done with Tony Ulwick

Enterprise Product Leadership

Today we are joined by the pioneer of the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) theory, the inventor of the Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) process, and the founder of Strategyn, Tony Ulwick. When Tony was working as a manufacturing engineer for IBM in the 1980s, the company launched their PC Junior product. The colossal and expensive flop of this product led to Tony’s interest in product planning and the goal of his career to develop an innovation process that would prevent or mitigate the risk of failure. As someone who has become a world-renowned expert on innovation, today he joins us to discuss some of the problems companies face in their innovation initiatives. We talk about the challenges of understanding the needs of customers in a b2b context, how different methodologies such as Jobs-to-be-Done, Agile, Lean, and Design Thinking fit into the product life cycle, and the need for a unified innovation language across your company. Listen in to find out what the three most important things are that a company needs to be in alignment on, as well as Tony’s advice to anyone new to the Jobs-to-be-Done framework. This is an information-packed episode that no product leader should miss, so tune in today!

Links From Today’s Episode:

Anthony Ulwick

Tony Ulwick on LinkedIn

Tony Ulwick on Twitter

Strategyn

IoT Product Strategy Template

Daniel Elizalde Newsletter

Daniel Elizalde