Making jobs-to-be-done part of how a pet food company innovates

The question

A pet food company wanted its innovation teams to begin projects from what owners are trying to get done, in a form that fit how the company already innovated.

The method had to outlast a training course. The company’s own people needed to write and use job statements on live projects, find a place for them at each stage of development, and teach colleagues to do the same. It also had to suit teams working on very different products, in different parts of the world.

Our approach

We started by listening inside the business, interviewing teams across its categories and regions, so each tool would plug into the company’s existing innovation process.

Every tool was tried with a team on a live project before it became training, and the training was tiered, so the company’s own champions could learn the method, use it on their own projects, then teach it, with notes for anyone training others.

What the team came away with

The company now had a jobs-to-be-done framework of its own, with experience tools, reference cards and a worked example from the pilot for teams to learn from.

Its champions had tiered training with trainer notes and round tables with their peers, and e-learning let colleagues work through the method in their own time, wherever they worked in the business.

We also ran coaching clinics on live projects, working through the method with teams on the products in hand. That support ran beside the company’s own champions, so the skills could stay in the business as its innovation work moved on.