BoS Hangout: Developing Your Innovation-Building Muscles With Bob Moesta

This session unpacked the keys to building innovative products. Bob outlined five core skills: empathetic perspective, uncovering demand, causal structures, prototyping to learn, and making trade-offs. He then explored applying these skills to product development.

The conversation shifted to product development strategies, with a focus on testing concepts and gathering customer insights. Bob highlighted the importance of clear communication and managing biases within teams.

Real-world examples highlighted the importance of customer focus and continuous learning. Strategies for testing concepts with low volume, high-insight methods were also discussed. Bob emphasized the value of qualitative insights for effective prototype development. Bob stressed contrasting concepts and using sensory profiling. Common pitfalls in prototyping were identified.

The session concluded with Bob discussing methods to address internal challenges and mitigate bias, followed by a focus on continuous learning through workshops and conferences.

Bob Moesta

co-Founder, The ReWired Group

Entrepreneur, innovator and ‘the milkshake guy’ from Clayton Christensen’s famous example of Jobs-To-Be-Done, Bob was one of the principal architects of the JTBD theory in the mid 1990s.

Bob is the President & CEO of The ReWired Group and serves as a Fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute. A visual thinker, teacher, and creator, Moesta has worked on & helped launch more than 3,500 new products, services and businesses across nearly every industry, including defence, automotive, software, financial services and education, among many others. The Jobs to be Done theory is just one of 25 different methods and tools he uses to speed up and cut costs of successful development projects. He is a guest lecturer at The Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Entrepreneurship and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Check out Bob’s other talks here.