Idea in Brief

What’s Wrong

Innovation success rates are shockingly low worldwide, and have been for decades.

What’s Needed

Marketers and product developers focus too much on customer profiles and on correlations unearthed in data, and not enough on what customers are trying to achieve in a particular circumstance.

What’s Effective

Successful innovators identify poorly performed “jobs” in customers’ lives—and then design products, experiences, and processes around those jobs.

For as long as we can remember, innovation has been a top priority—and a top frustration—for leaders. In a recent McKinsey poll, 84% of global executives reported that innovation was extremely important to their growth strategies, but a staggering 94% were dissatisfied with their organizations’ innovation performance. Most people would agree that the vast majority of innovations fall far short of ambitions.

A version of this article appeared in the September 2016 issue of Harvard Business Review.