Understanding Target Populations and Their Jobs-to-Be-Done Through Learning

Abstract

During the exploratory observing step, a diverse set of information is collected. Once key insights have been collected, the learning step focuses on making sense of the observed insights and ensuring a common understanding. Learning aims at retaining key insights and transforming them into knowledge to be used during the designing step of the design thinking for strategy process. The objective of learning is to understand the present by creating a mental model or a map that structures the gained insights, focusing on the firm and its relationship with the environment, primarily customers and their jobs-to-be-done. To do so, learning focuses on retaining, sorting, aggregating, and structuring insights gained from observing. Insights are clustered using various generic as well as specific frameworks, to synthesize knowledge. The derived knowledge serves as the basis for designing the firm’s future business model and strategy. Learning, consistent with observing, is on gaining knowledge around the strategic focus. Visualization tools, especially the detailed business model canvas, play a major role.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest—Benjamin Franklin