Understand desire outcomes.
The Universal Job Map describes what the customers is trying to get done (needs view); for core functional jobs.
FORMAT
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Job mapping breaks down the task the customer wants done into a series of 8 process steps.
The goal of creating a job map is not to find out how the customer is executing a job that only generates maps of existing activities and solutions.
Instead the aim is to discover what the customer is trying to get done at different points in executing a job and what must happen at each juncture for the job to be carried out successfully.
1. Define. What aspects of getting the job done must the customer define up front in order to proceed? This step includes determining objectives; planning
the approach; assessing which resources are necessary or available to complete the job. In this step, a company can look for ways to help customers understand their objectives, simplify the resource-planning process, and reduce the amount of planning needed.
2. Locate. What inputs or items must the customer locate to do the job? Inputs are both tangible (ex. the surgical tools a nurse must locate for an operation)
and intangible (say, business or other requirements that a software developer uses when writing code). When tangible materials are involved, a company
might consider streamlining this step by making the required components easier to gather, ensuring that they are available when and where needed, or eliminating the need for some inputs altogether.
3. Prepare. How must the customer prepare the inputs and environment to do the job? Nearly all customer jobs involve an element of setting up and organizing materials. At this stage, companies should consider ways to make setup less difficult. They might invent a means to automate the preparation process; make it easier to organize physical materials; or create guides and safeguards to ensure the proper arrangement of the work area. (For customers dealing with information, companies can help organize, integrate, and examine required data.)
4. Confirm. Once preparation is complete, what does the customer need to verify before proceeding with the job to ensure its successful execution? Here,
the customer makes sure that materials and the working environment have been properly prepared; validates the quality and functional capacity of material
and informational components; and confirms priorities when deciding among execution options. This step is especially critical for jobs in which a delay in
execution might risk a customer’s money, time, or safety.
A company seeking to differentiate itself at this step could help customers gain access to the types of information and feedback they need to confirm readiness and decide among execution alternatives. Another approach is to search for ways to build confirmation into the locating and preparing steps, since this would allow the customer to proceed through the job more quickly and easily.
5. Execute. What must customers do to execute the job successfully? Whether they’re printing a document or administering anesthesia, customers
consider the execution step the most important part of the job. Because execution is also the most visible step, customers are especially concerned about avoiding problems and delays, as well as achieving optimal results.
Here, innovating companies can apply their technological know-how to provide customers with real-time feedback or to automatically correct execution
problems. Companies can also think about ways to keep performance consistent in different contexts.
6. Monitor. What does the customer need to monitor to ensure that the job is successfully executed? Customers must keep an eye on the results or output
during execution, especially to determine whether they have to make adjustments to get the task back on track in the event of a problem.
While some monitoring activities are passive (like the way a pacemaker monitors heartbeats), others can often be time-consuming and demanding for
customers. When the costs of poor execution are significant, as when operating on a patient, solutions that call attention to problems or relevant changes
in the environment are especially valuable. Solutions that link monitoring with improved job execution or that provide diagnostic feedback offer considerable
value as well.
7. Modify. What might the customer need to alter for the job to be completed successfully? When there are changes in inputs or in the environment, or if
the execution is problematic, the customer may need help with updates, adjustments, or maintenance. At this step, customers need help deciding what
should be adjusted as well as determining when, how, and where to make changes. Like monitoring, searching for the right adjustment can be both
time-consuming and costly. Companies can help by offering ways to get execution back on track when there are problems. They can also provide avenues for reducing the time needed make updates and the number of adjustments the customer has to make to achieve desired results. (In addition, solutions that target the location and preparation steps can be designed to eliminate modifications.)
8. Conclude. What must the customer do to finish the job? With some simple jobs such as hand washing, the conclusion is self-evident. Complex jobs, on
the other hand, may involve some concluding process steps. Customers often think of concluding steps as burdensome because the core job has already
been completed, so companies need to help them simplify the process. Also, the conclusion of one job cycle is often the start of another or may affect the
next one’s beginning. When a job is cyclical, companies can help customers make sure that concluding activities are closely connected to the starting point
of a new job cycle.
One way to help customers finish the job is to design benefits sought at the conclusion into an earlier step in the process.
