A simple mental shift that will make you a more strategic communicator

One of the reasons I love working across a wide variety of industries is that I get exposed to many different modes of thinking, and that stretches my brain in different directions.

Through my work with startups, I’ve been exposed to a product development concept that neatly expresses the outcomes focus needed to craft impactful communications: Jobs to be Done (or JTBD for short).

The JTBD approach, popularized by innovation theorist Clay Christensen, addresses a trap many innovators fall into: unleashing their creativity on the market without understanding what the market really wants.

In entrepreneurial circles, this common hazard is often called “falling in love with the solution.” 

In the realm of strategic communication and knowledge mobilization, a similar risk shows up: falling in love with “outputs.”

Let me share a couple of examples to illustrate these parallel problems and show how shifting thinking to a JTBD perspective can correct the issues.

The lure of invention

Let’s start with an entrepreneurial situation. Imagine you’re an engineer who enjoys tinkering with routers. You’re also an accomplished drummer; rhythm is in your blood. You decide to design a router that can be configured without any input from a keyboard. All the user has to do is tap a certain rhythm out on a hard surface, such as a desktop or counter, using a pen or pencil. Think Morse Code for setting up and maintaining your Internet connection.

Brilliant, right? And the best part is that the rhythm can be customized. You can program the router to respond to the beat of your favorite tune or to spell out a word in Morse Code.

Of course, as a bonus, the router technology has the potential to be applied to many other technical devices. The prototype is just the beginning….

Now, if you’re not an engineer with a passion for drumming, you can instantly spot the flaw in the logic. Is there an actual need for the novel router? Who would use it? Why would they use it?

Our ambitious inventor should have started by considering the people who use routers, especially those tasked with configuring them. What router-related jobs do they truly need help with?

Perhaps resetting a router without having to touch the device is something that needs to be done. Or maybe not. Maybe the IT technician in an office welcomes the opportunity to get up from behind their monitor and walk across the room or down the hall to correct a setting. (During a typical workday, I’m glad of any chance to stretch my legs!)

In this story, the moral is clear: beware the lure of invention for invention’s sake. However, when you’re responsible for “inventing” creative communication products, it can be so easy to slide into the same mistake our fictional engineer made.

The peril of creativity for creativity’s sake

Let’s imagine a situation that strikes closer to home. Joelle works for a research institute, and she’s just been asked to develop a communication plan for the next year.

“Let’s come up with some creative approaches,” Joelle’s director has said. “I want to see some really eye-popping communications this year. Maybe some video. Have you seen what AI-generated avatars can do now?

We have excess funding in our outreach budget, so let’s spend it on some innovative campaigns.”

“Ah, finally video!” Joelle thinks. She’s been wanting to exploit this medium for a while, and time and budget constraints haven’t allowed her this creative opportunity. Now, it looks like the pathway has just opened up!

So after spending a couple days researching emerging tools and best practices, Joelle draws up a detailed communication plan with AI-enabled video at its core. The plan includes an ambitious social media calendar, regular posts on YouTube, and an email campaign to distribute the videos to school districts.

I have to admit, this sounds like a lot of fun. Personally, I get excited about trying out new media. In fact, I can quickly fall prey to the same temptation that’s taken hold of Joelle.

Can you see the danger here?

In her enthusiasm for producing creative “outputs,” Joelle hasn’t stopped to consider the outcomes. She hasn’t considered the “job” each communication product needs to do for her audience so it can achieve the institute’s strategic goals.

If I were coaching Joelle, I’d invite her to articulate the reason for making the videos in the first place? What practical outcomes are they intended to achieve?

I’d also ask her to think about the target audience and how they’d be interacting with the videos. What would they be looking to gain from them? What “job” would the audience be trying to achieve by interacting with the videos?

Working with JTBD guardrails

The JTBD concept provides helpful guardrails to keep your creative energy focused on the impact, not the number of social posts or fact sheets, you’re producing.  Here are four job-related questions it’s useful to ask before creating any communication product:

• What strategic outcome do you want the communication product to achieve? (Examples: elevate our profile, send people to our new website, get us a meeting with the Deputy Minister)
  
  
• To achieve the desired strategic outcome, what job must the communication product enable the intended audience to do? (Examples: see us as the leading authority on the topic, find up-to-date information on their health issue, reach out to schedule a meeting with the Deputy Minister)
  
  
• How else could you fulfill the audience’s need to perform those jobs? (Generating alternative possibilities will ensure you choose the best idea rather than the first idea that comes to mind.)
  
  
• How will you know the communication product is successfully enabling the audience to do the intended job? (How will you gauge impact?)

Remember the engineer-drummer from the first story I shared? He needs to stop falling in love with his solution and start falling in love with his audience and the jobs they want done.

The same goes for those of us who are engineering communication products to drive change. If your communication products are failing to deliver results, then you may need to fall in love with your audience more deeply and think more strategically about helping them achieve their goals.