The Statue in the Stone: Decoding Customer Motivation with the 48 Laws of Jobs-to-be-Done Philosophy

by Scott Burleson

THE STATUE IN THE STONE is a complete treatise on Jobs-to-be-Done philosophy. While many have contributed to the ideology, the founding fathers are (in alphabetical order): Lance Bettencourt, Clayton Christensen, Theodore Levitt, and Anthony Ulwick. Clayton Christensen taught that “A customer "hires" a product to accomplish a job.” The customer’s job is a goal, objective, or problem to be solved. Built upon this basic truth, jobs-to-be-done philosophy is the most powerful framework ever created to understand customer motivation. It turns out that customers do not care about brands, companies, products or technologies. However, they will reliably gravitate to the product that helps them to get their job done the best. This understanding will help marketers, innovators, business leaders, product managers and practitioners of all sorts to boldly create customer value.Though many are familiar with the phrase "jobs-to-be-done" (JTBD), few have significant experience in applying it to real markets. Even fewer have worked in enough diverse industries to understand the principles at play.This book presents the theories along with practical frameworks to apply jobs-thinking into any market. It’s a complete resource, with all the "job-to-be-done" secrets that only the most experienced practitioners could know.

255 pages, Paperback

Published March 3, 2020

Reviews

[Andrea Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about reading Yet Another Jobs to be Done book, but this one was really slightly different, and I'm glad I picked it up.

The metaphor in the book title is carried through the book, and helped it stand apart from more 'clinical' books about the subject matter. It's clear that author Scott Burleson is an evangelist of this approach, and his voice and enthusiasm shines throughout the text. This made the book really enjoyable to read, as I felt like there was a real person sharing his knowledge with me.

In the book, Burleson shares the 48 laws of the JTBD philosophy, which made for a nice list to refer back to later. He directly addressed some points of contention in how JTBD has been discussed online, which gave me confidence in his understanding of the approach and helped resolve some of my own questions.

Ironically, it's the metaphor and discussion of this as a philosophy that makes this book stand out, but also causes me to shy away from giving it 5 stars. While I enjoyed the book, I'm not sure it'll appeal to everyone.

[Alec Fokapu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not new but simpler to understand

+80% of the content of this book can be found in Ulwick book “What customers want”.

What is different
- more accessible and easy to wrap your mind around JTDB concepts
- makes it easier for the reader to sell JTBD methodology internally