What Kind of Evidence Person are You?

Outcome-Driven Innovation® (ODI) is first and foremost about uncovering hidden segments of customers. On a recent journey back from a result presentation with a client, my mind started wandering about, as I watched the hustle and bustle of a busy train station waiting for my connection to Vienna: what segments of clients do we actually see in our projects? What’s important to them with respect to the evidence we deliver to them? What job-to-be-done do they have once the ODI research they commissioned is done and delivered?

 

ODI clients have different information needs

One could argue that there are roughly three types of roles in clients’ organizations with regard to the needs they have around ODI data:

• There are those roles at clients who want to be told what to invest or divest in – the simpler the better. Decision takers like them, don’t have the time for the gory details of scores, the exact formulation of outcome statements let alone the methodology – ODI of course – that was employed to come up with recommendations. There are only three things that count: practical consequences, action, non-action.
• Then there are those roles at clients who need to take a somewhat deeper dive into the data that supports a recommendation for an innovation strategy. Make no mistake, their goal is also to derive practical conclusions, but they feel more comfortable with recommendations when they understand where they originate from. They may, for instance, want to come up with differentiated conclusions for particular customer groups.
• And finally, there are people who fill a third role: Again, they are happy to be presented with recommendations from an independent consultant. However, they also bring to the conference table a deep conviction that looking at the underlying data with their own eyes will lift their knowledge about their customers to a new level. Very often, these are the subject matter experts who prepare decisions for others to take.
  They appreciate the possibility to dig through data tables, create cross-sections of datapoints or filter down opportunity scores to subgroups of their choice. Very often they also want to involve others in the organization, get them engaged with first-hand and prioritized customer needs to help them stay in touch with the ones that pay their salaries – their customers.

Which group do you belong to? Which role do you need to fill? Do you prefer highly aggregated insights or are you rather at the other end of the continuum, comfortable with digging into the details of customer need data?

 

Data should be presented at different formats and levels of detail

Each client group needs their own format of results, and one size does not always fit all: While posters are a perfect format to condense strategic recommendations for the first group, the second group of clients are typically happy with a report and Excel-sheet providing the detail down to the outcome level in a preorganized sequence. The third group requires a format that allows them to interact with the data, sift through the gravel – and come up with the gold nuggets in the market.

As consultants who use market research data to build our innovation recommendations, we have access to and the knowhow to operate sophisticated research tools. These tools can help with the number crunching needed to deliver evidence-based innovation strategies. Many of our clients do not. Either because their IT (budget) does not allow for it or they cannot be bothered to learn how to use an analysis tool that they will switch on only every now and then.

 

The ODI Needs Data Dashboard lets non-data-scientists interact with data

If you belong to that group of people who are required to dig into the data, keep reading: Inspired by a large client, we at Edizon accepted the challenge and co-developed together with Roche Diagnostics an ODI Needs Data Dashboard that let’s non-data-scientists interact with the data at their own pace and at the aggregation level of their choice.

Spurred by the great feedback we got out of that project – thank you, Evgenia Litvinova, for making all of this possible 😉 – we decided to take the idea to the next level and launch an internal innovation project to develop version 2.0 of the ODI Needs Data Dashboard. 

As of autumn 2022, we will be able to offer our clients a user-friendly tool to democratize ODI data in the organization and thereby proliferate the spirit of Jobs-to-be-Done thinking beyond the innovation management department.

 

But what does ODI data model do for your organization?

Firstly, the ODI data model can help you align all core functions of the organization around customer needs. As you know, culture eats strategy for breakfast: thus, aligning the organization along a common language of innovation is key in order to be successful in all following innovation activities.

Secondly, the data model holds the full set of prioritized needs that exist in a market and thereby serves as the basis for a customer-centric product, service and business-model innovation strategy.

Thirdly, further down the innovation management funnel, the ODI data model helps you reprioritize existing innovation initiatives and create and test solution concepts based on the most critical customer needs metrics.

No matter which group you belong to, watch out for the upcoming JTBD Virtual Master Class Basic on June 22-23, 2022: Here we will explore how to create a customer-centric product strategy with the ODI data model. Don’t forget to register and have a look at our 2+1 offer!