Hutch Carpenter
Hutch Carpenter
Hutch Carpenter is a Strategic Consultant with HYPE Innovation, where he helps clients get the maximum value from their innovation programs. He's a firm believer in the concept of jobs-to-be-done, which stresses the importance of understanding customers' wants and needs. He also sports a 2:57 marathon PR. Dad to two awesome kids.
The Folly of Inside-Out Product Thinking
Ever run into this deductive reasoning? Customers like our existing products and our company We are building a new product that reflects the priorities of…
The Product Manager is the Chief Customer Development Officer
If pressed, what would you say is the secret to product success? Certainly there are a number of things that go into making and...
10 examples of fabulously flawed product-first thinking
In talking about jobs-to-be-done here, I sometimes think that all I'm doing is stating the obvious. I mean, isn't it obvious that you'd create...
Uncover latent needs with a simple question
After publishing Latent needs are overplayed as an innovation dynamic, I got a lot of feedback. Plenty of agreement, but also some good counterpoints....
Latent needs are overplayed as an innovation dynamic
Reading this thought piece from the Silicon Valley Product Group, The End of Requirements, I saw this point about latent needs: Unrealized needs (also called...
Generate opportunity maps with customer jobs-to-be-done
In seeking to better understand customer jobs-to-be-done, I found myself a bit underarmed. Meaning, I didn't really have a way to do this. The...
Exactly what jobs will self-driving cars satisfy?
On Twitter, I made this observation about the future of self-driving cars: Our kids will have a very different "driving" experience. Self-driving cars allow them...
Two cases of job-to-be-done driven design
In doing some reading this morning, came across a couple examples of practitioners with a customer-centric orientation emphasizing the job-to-be-done. They come at it...
What do you mean customers don’t know what they want?
If I'd asked customers what they want, they'd have said more convenience and relevance. Look familiar? I've riffed on that Henry Ford quote about faster...
Finding opportunities to unseat incumbents
On Quora, this question was asked: Competition: How do you assess the value of a new product or service vs an incumbent's? Is there a…
McDonald’s wins on the fast food jobs-to-be-done that matter
Consumer Edge Insight conducted a survey of consumer perceptions about 20 different fast food restaurants. Specifically, how are they ranked by consumer perceptions on...
A Method for Applying Jobs-to-Be-Done to Product and Service Design
Say you're designing something new for a product or service. Of course, you have your own ideas for what to do. But, how informed...
Net Promoter Score is a window into jobs-to-be-done fulfillment
I'm a big advocate for better understanding customer needs, particularly in the jobs-to-be-done form. Companies should spend more time on this, instead of the...
What’s your view on customers’ value to innovation?
More and more, customer-centricity is becoming a thing. As in, an increasingly important philosophy to companies in managing day-to-day and even longer term planning....
Jobs-to-be-done’s place in a customer-centric organization
On Twitter, I asked this question: When firms talk about being customer-centric today, what are they actually *doing*? FB page? Reacting to tweets? Sentiment analysis?...
Do big companies need a ‘slow development’ movement?
Read this comment by George Ciardi from a discussion about why products fail in the Market Research Group on LinkedIn: While proper research could certainly...
Bell Labs Created Our Digital World. What They Teach Us about Innovation.
What do these following crucial, society-altering innovations have in common? Transistors Silicon-based semiconductors Mobile communication Lasers Solar cells UNIX operating system Information theory (link) They…
It’s the Jobs-to-Be-Done, Stupid!
I do product management for Spigit. I've done product management for other companies as well. And let me tell you, the easiest thing in...
On the Utility of Thinking in Terms of Jobs-to-Be-Done
In a recent post examining the future of retail, I used the jobs-to-be-done approach to break down the industry. And I've been using it...
5 Social Business Truths
Meritocracy trumps hierarchy: Companies don't get a "pass" on Wall Street or the London Exchange becauswe they're been around way before new companies. Political...