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Competing Against Luck

Clayton M Christensen

At its core Competing Against Luck introduces the theory of Jobs to be done.

The lead author, Clayton Christensen, is an inspiring figure born who has dedicated his life to understanding innovation in business.

He looks to frame innovation in a way that aligns to a customers need to progress with a 'thing' in their life. Whether it to be a great dad or to get a better nights sleep. He tries to break down the perceptions of what a product or service competes against and opens it out to a far broader set of competitors including doing nothing.

The concept of hiring and firing a product to do a job for the user is useful when framing what your product does and why it may fail.

There are plenty of case studies in this book to help frame the problem and it talks about innovation in organisations at an abstract level too.

I haven't read the Innovator's Dilemma but this more recent work feels polished and insightful.