The 4 Critical Steps to Unpacking a Job-to-be-Done

When you need an expert to help you “unpack” a concept, it wasn’t properly packed in the first place

When you need an expert to help you “unpack” a concept, it wasn’t properly packed in the first place

Hypothesis: If we create a job story, it requires the assistance of a highly paid consultant to explain to us what it means, and how it will create value…yet we’re still confused

I hear this term “unpacking” way more than I want to these days. It’s become another addition to a nauseating consulting dictionary of over-used terms that eventually go away…or get reset to their original purpose and context again — like unpacking boxes after a moving into a new home.

To me, the fact that information needs to be unpacked means someone packed it in such a fashion that the contents (value) cannot be seen without some sort of interpreter (that would be a paid consultant). It means it’s too abstract to actually use on your own. I find that extremely disappointing after all of the jobs-to-be-done “lite” workshops and training classes being bandied about these days. ‘Nuff said on that topic.

What you s…