Competing Against Luck book club questions

1. 1.

   What job does a product you use regularly actually do for you? Is the product explicitly designed for that job, or did you adapt a product designed for a different job?

2. 2.

   Christensen says the competing hire is what customers would use if your product didn't exist. What are the real competing hires for a product in your market, and are any of them surprising?

3. 3.

   The functional-emotional-social job distinction is one of the most useful in the book. Think of a brand loyalty you have: which dimension of the job is driving it?

4. 4.

   What does Jobs-to-Be-Done research look like in practice? What questions would you ask, and how would you analyze the answers to identify the job versus just the stated preference?

5. 5.

   Christensen argues most product failures are due to solving the wrong job. What is a product you've seen that was well-executed but failed because it addressed the wrong job?

6. 6.

   The milkshake example is famous and compelling. What is a product in your industry where similarly non-obvious competing hires or job dimensions would change your product strategy?

7. 7.

   How does Jobs to Be Done interact with Agile and iterative product development? Can you run short sprints when the goal is to understand the job rather than to ship features quickly?

8. 8.

   Christensen says big data can't reveal causation — it can't tell you why. What types of research complement big data to provide the causal insight Jobs-to-Be-Done requires?

9. 9.

   What would it take to build Jobs-to-Be-Done as an organizational capability rather than as a one-time product research technique? What would you need to change?

10. 10.

    How does the Jobs framework apply to B2B products, where the buyer is often not the end user and the job may be organizational rather than personal?

11. 11.

    Christensen's theory has both academic and practitioner adherents, but also critics who say it is too vague to be falsifiable. What would make you more or less confident that you've correctly identified a customer's job?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.