Book Review: When Coffee & Kale Compete

On May 4, 2017May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Book, Business Analyst

When Coffee & Kale Compete: Become Great at Making Products People Will Buy by Alan Klement

I finished this book a month ago. That I keep going back to the book as a reference, and that I have started to use the language of the book is a testament to value and lessons in the book. On that basis alone it is worth a read.

However, I can’t give the book five starts. At times it was difficult to read. The writing is clear, but there are sections where his desire to have a dig at someone and push a parallel agenda gets the better of him. Getting personal detracts from the text, and does not add any value to me as the reader.

In those moments I felt like I was reading a blog, and not a book. If I had paid for this book (I downloaded the free ebook) I would have stopped reading.

When he stayed on topic, and served me the reader wanting to learn about JTBD, the book was easy to read and has a lot to give. (There is some irony in the fact that those sections where he diverts his focus to push his own agenda, did not help me get the Job-Done. And that in that way he did not follow his own advice.)

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Just Enough, then Out of the Way

On March 22, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Behaviour

“We rely on simple, efficient thought processes to get the job done—not so much out of laziness (though there is some of that, too), but out of necessity. There is just too much going on, too much to notice, understand, and act on, for us to give every individual and every occurrence our undivided, unbiased attention. So not only are you innately hard to understand, but the people observing you are hoarding their attention.”

From No One Understands You and What to Do About It by Heidi Halvorson

I couldn’t resist this quote when I read it earlier this week. On Tuesday, the 15th, I gave a presentation to a Business Analysts Meetup Group in Brisbane on the core concept of the Jobs to be Done framework, the Job.

The words “get the job done” stood out straight away.

I was primed to see them.

Specifically, the link between getting the job done and being a cognitive miser caught my attention.

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When everything fees like a Root Cause

On March 15, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Asking Why?

I am preparing a talk on Jobs-to-be-Done for the Brisbane Business Analysts Meetup in March. For this particular talk, I am re-telling the Milkshake Story as told by Clayton Christensen to introduce the mental model of a Job to my fellow Business Analysts.

I know what it means to me and how I apply it to work. That is what I plan to share.

As I work on it the same thought keeps popping into my head. How is this different to a Root Cause Analysis? Essentially how is this any different to asking a lot of why’s to get to the important point.

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