Are Your Journey Patterns Obsolete? Rethink Them with JTBD Abstraction

Learn to identify your customer's "Meta-Job" for breakthrough innovations that create sustainable competitive advantage

Introduction: The Unseen Limitation of Existing Journeys

In our quest for innovation, we often focus on optimizing existing processes, shaving seconds off steps, or adding features to current solutions. We meticulously map customer journeys, identifying pain points and trying to smooth them out. But what if the journey itself—the very sequence of steps customers take—is the actual limitation? What if, by focusing on the trees (the individual tasks), we miss the forest (the customer's true underlying Job-to-be-Done)?

Many businesses fall into the trap of refining a journey that shouldn't exist in its current form. The real breakthroughs, the innovations that redefine markets, often come from elevating the level of abstraction. This means understanding the higher-context job the customer is trying to accomplish, enabling us to design solutions that consolidate or even eliminate entire stages of their current journey. This isn't just about doing things better; it's about doing better things, potentially with fewer visible features but far greater impact.

This post will explore how to identify these opportunities and radically reinvent customer journeys, creating unprecedented value and simplicity.

Understanding "Elevating the Level of Abstraction"

Before we dive into how to change journeys, let's clarify what we mean by "elevating the level of abstraction" in the context of customer needs.

What is a Customer Journey? (Brief Refresher)

A customer journey map typically outlines the stages a customer goes through when interacting with a company to achieve a goal. This includes everything from awareness and consideration to purchase, usage, and post-purchase support. These maps are valuable for understanding the current state, but they can also inadvertently lock us into thinking within that existing framework.

Defining the "Job" vs. Defining the "Tasks"

The core of Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) theory is understanding the "job" a customer is trying to get done in a specific circumstance. This is distinct from the tasks they perform or the solutions they currently use.

• Tasks are the individual steps or activities. For example, finding a recipe, buying ingredients, prepping food, cooking, cleaning up.

• The Job-to-be-Done is the underlying goal or progress they are trying to make. For instance, provide a nourishing and enjoyable meal for my family.

Elevating the level of abstraction means focusing on that higher-level "Job." If you understand the true job, you might find ways to achieve it that bypass many of the traditional tasks.

The Power of a Higher-Context Job

When you define a job at a higher level of abstraction, you open up a wider solution space. Consider the job of "maintaining a comfortable home temperature."

• Low Abstraction (Task-focused): Adjusting the thermostat, scheduling HVAC maintenance, changing filters. Solutions here are better thermostats or filter subscription services.

• Higher Abstraction (Outcome-focused): "Effortless ambient comfort." This could lead to solutions like smart home systems that learn preferences and automate everything, potentially integrating with energy providers for optimization, requiring far less active "management" by the user. The number of visible "features" for the user might decrease, but the value delivered increases significantly.

This higher-level view is where true innovation in customer journeys begins. It often involves a shift from a product-centric view to a customer-centric one, focusing on the "why" behind their actions.

Why Current Journeys Might Be Ripe for Disruption

Many existing customer journeys are artifacts of past technological constraints or business models. They are often complex not because the customer wants them that way, but because that's how solutions have historically evolved.

Identifying Pain Points and Friction in Existing Stages

While pain point analysis is common, viewing it through the lens of abstraction can be revealing. Is a pain point simply an inefficiency in a necessary step, or is it a sign that the step itself (or the entire sequence) is fundamentally flawed? For example, waiting in line isn't just an inconvenient task; it's a symptom of a lower-abstraction solution to "acquiring goods or services."

The "Necessary Evils": Steps Customers Endure, Not Desire

Think about the steps in a journey that customers tolerate rather than value. Filling out complex forms, waiting for approvals, navigating multiple interfaces—these are often "necessary evils." Customers don't want to do these things; they do them to achieve a higher-level goal. Each of these "necessary evils" is a prime candidate for elimination through abstraction.

When the "Job Performer" is Limited by the Current Solution Paradigm

Sometimes, the current journey dictates who can perform the job. For example, complex financial planning might require a specialist. But if the job is abstracted to "achieve financial peace of mind," new solutions (like AI-driven robo-advisors with simplified interfaces) might empower individuals to achieve much of that job themselves, or with a vastly different, more streamlined type of expert assistance. The "Research Framework" highlights scenarios like "Core Market Disruption" where a new platform enables new customers to perform the core job of a specialist. This changes the job performer entirely.

Practical Methods for Spotting Abstraction Opportunities

How do you systematically uncover these chances to redefine journeys?

Method 1: "Five Whys" for Journey Stages – Digging to the True Goal

For each major stage or even individual step in a customer's current journey, ask "Why is this necessary?" repeatedly.

• Customer fills out form X. Why?

• To provide data for Y. Why?

• So we can process Z. Why?

You might find the ultimate "why" is a much simpler, higher-level need that could be met in a less convoluted way.

Method 2: Outcome-Driven Analysis – Are Outcomes Tied to the Journey or the Meta-Job?

Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) focuses on the customer's desired outcomes—what they want to achieve, independent of any specific solution. When analyzing a journey, ask:

• Are the key desired outcomes linked to the successful completion of each task in the current journey?

• Or are they more fundamentally linked to a "meta-job" that the entire journey serves?

If it's the latter, the journey itself is merely a means to an end, and a more direct means could be found. For instance, desired outcomes for "getting to a destination" might be speed, comfort, and punctuality. A traditional journey might involve booking flights, airport security, etc. A higher abstraction solution like high-speed rail or even future teleportation (extreme example) aims for the same outcomes by radically changing the journey.

Method 3: Cross-Industry Analogies – Who Solves a Similar Meta-Job Differently?

Look at other industries. Are there parallels to the meta-job your customers are trying to get done? How have other sectors abstracted similar underlying needs?

• Example: The job of "learning a new skill." Traditionally, this involved physically attending classes (a journey with steps like travel, fixed schedules, etc.). The Open University and later MOOCs abstracted this to "access quality education anytime, anywhere," dramatically changing the learning journey.

Method 4: "What if...?" Scenarios – Removing Constraints

Engage in speculative thinking:

• "What if this step cost $0?"

• "What if this step took zero time?"

• "What if there were no physical limitations?"

• "What if information was perfectly available?"

This helps break free from ingrained assumptions about how the journey must work.

Brainstorming Techniques for Novel Solutions

Once you've identified a higher-level job, how do you conceptualize solutions that deliver it?

Using Creativity Triggers for Journey Transformation

Tony Ulwick's "Creativity Triggers" provide a structured way to brainstorm. While some are for products or business models, many principles apply to journey redesign. For instance:

• Remove/Hide Something: Can you remove steps, handoffs, or entire systems from the customer's view? (e.g., "Conceal platform infrastructure that does not need to be visible")

• Combine (Integrated) vs. Separated (Modularized): Can you combine multiple journey stages into one seamless interaction? Or could modularizing a complex approval into parallel, self-service checks be faster?

• Change the Job Performer/Executor: Can technology (AI, automation) take over tasks currently done by the customer or your staff? (e.g., "Make the platform automatically perform physical activities" or "decision-making activities")

• Make it Virtual: Can a physical interaction be made digital and asynchronous?

Concept 1 (Working Today, Few Doing): AI-Powered Concierge Services – Consolidating Complex Planning

• The Old Journey (e.g., planning a complex event or trip): Multiple searches, comparing vendors, booking individual components, managing itineraries, coordinating with attendees. Many steps, high cognitive load.

• The Higher-Level Job: "Execute a successful and stress-free event/trip."

• The Abstracted Solution (Working Today): AI-powered concierge platforms where a user states their high-level goal (e.g., "Plan a 3-day team retreat for 10 people in City X with a budget of Y, focusing on collaboration and relaxation"). The AI handles the research, option generation, booking, and itinerary management, consolidating dozens of potential steps into a few conversational interactions. Fewer visible "features" for the user to manage, but the job is done more effectively.

Concept 2 (Novel - Complete Rethink): Proactive Well-being Ecosystems – The Invisible Hand Guiding Health

• The Old Journey (e.g., managing personal health): Tracking symptoms, scheduling doctor appointments, getting prescriptions, managing diet, fitness tracking, seeking specialist advice – a fragmented and often reactive process.

• The Higher-Level Job: "Maintain optimal health and well-being with minimal effort."

• The Abstracted Solution (Novel Concept): An integrated well-being ecosystem. Wearable sensors continuously monitor vitals. AI analyzes data, identifies potential issues before they become serious, and proactively coordinates interventions. This might involve automated scheduling of telehealth consults if anomalies are detected, personalized nutrition plans delivered via integrated meal services, or even dynamic adjustments to home environments (lighting, air quality) to support well-being. The "journey" becomes largely invisible to the user. The system performs the job, requiring few explicit actions or visible features for the user, making it radically simpler and more effective. This is akin to creating a new platform that enables new customers (or even the system itself) to perform the core job previously done by specialists or through many manual steps.

Case Study Snippet: From Owning Music to Accessing Sound

Consider the music industry.

• Old Journeys (Owning Music):

  1. Go to a record store (travel, search, browse).

  2. Purchase a CD/cassette/vinyl (transaction).

  3. Store physical media (manage collection).

  4. Play on specific hardware.

• Higher-Level Job: "Access and enjoy music I love, whenever and wherever I want."

• Abstracted Solution (Streaming Services like Spotify/Apple Music):

  1. Open app.

  2. Search/browse (vastly expanded choice).

  3. Play.

The journey is dramatically consolidated. The need to physically acquire, store, and manage individual units of music (the old features) is largely eliminated. The new solution offers fewer types of visible features related to ownership but delivers massively on the core job.

The Benefits of Getting It Right

Focusing on higher levels of abstraction isn't just an academic exercise; it's a pathway to significant competitive advantages.

• Massive Simplification and Enhanced Customer Value: By eliminating or consolidating steps, you reduce customer effort, save them time, and decrease frustration. This inherently increases the value of your offering.

• Creation of New Market Space (Blue Ocean): Often, these abstracted solutions don't just improve on existing offerings; they create entirely new ways of meeting needs, potentially tapping into new customer segments or rendering old paradigms obsolete. This is the essence of creating "blue oceans" of uncontested market space.

• Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Solutions built on a deep understanding of the customer's higher-level job are harder to replicate than those based merely on feature parity. This understanding becomes a core strategic asset.

Challenges and Considerations

While the upsides are huge, this approach isn't without its difficulties.

• Overcoming Internal Resistance to Rethinking Core Processes: Companies often have significant investments (technological, human, cultural) in existing journeys. Proposing to dismantle or radically alter them can meet with internal resistance. Strong leadership and a clear vision are crucial.

• Ensuring the "Elevated Job" is Genuinely What Customers Value: It's possible to abstract too far or to misinterpret the core job. Rigorous customer research (like JTBD interviews and ODI-style quantification) is essential to validate that the new, simplified journey truly aligns with what customers value most.

• Technological Feasibility vs. Vision: Some highly abstracted visions may be ahead of current technological capabilities. However, even defining that future state can guide innovation roadmaps and R&D efforts towards it. The key is to balance a bold vision with pragmatic steps.

Conclusion: Stop Optimizing Steps, Start Redefining Journeys

The pursuit of incremental improvements to existing customer journeys has its place. But for breakthrough innovation, we must lift our gaze to a higher level of abstraction. By deeply understanding the true job customers are trying to get done, we can identify opportunities to radically simplify, consolidate, or even eliminate the convoluted paths they navigate today.

This isn't about adding more features; it's often about achieving more with less visible complexity. It's about transforming the customer experience from a series of tasks to endure into a seamless flow towards their ultimate goal. The businesses that master this will not just win market share; they will define the future of their industries.

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What current customer journey in your industry feels overly complex and ripe for abstraction? What's the real higher-level job customers are trying to achieve?

Share your thoughts and examples in the comments below! Let's discuss how we can all move beyond optimizing steps to truly redefining journeys.

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I believe that an innovation consultant should eat their own dog food. Therefore, we must always strive to:

• Get more of the job done for our clients

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