Jobs to Be Done

10

GENERATEIDEAS

BEFORE WE WORK WITH clients to generate new ideas, we often show them an old AirTran Airways commercial that epitomizes the wrong way to brainstorm.¹ In the commercial, a “facilitator” prompts the team to come up with ideas for what they should be putting in their vending machines. The team sits around a table shouting out uninspired ideas, anchoring immediately on the initial ideas of chips and crackers. The only unique idea is also the worst idea—toast—and it results only in humiliation for the proposer. The commercial ends with a man raising his hand to make his only contribution: “You had me fly in for this?”

People often ...