In this Topical Zoom episode, I speak with Karen Dillon, former editor of Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, co-author of Wall Street Journal best-seller Competing Against Luck with Clayton Christensen about Product Strategy and Jobs To Be Done.
Who is Karen Dillon?
Karen Dillon is the Co-author of Wall Street Journal best-seller Competing Against Luck: the Story of Innovation and Customer Choice, with Clayton Christensen. Co-author of New York Times best-seller How Will You Measure Your Life also with Clayton Christensen, and author of the Harvard Business Review Guide to Office Politics. Former editor of Harvard Business Review, Inc. magazine, Legal Business magazine, and The American Lawyer. Global Ambassador for the Legal 500. Named one of the world’s most influential women as part of Ashoka’s ChangemakeHers inaugural list in 2011. A 2016 ”Top Influencer”, Product Management Year in Review.
What you will learn – How choices affect product strategy and more!
Karen talks about something that’s core to every product manager, designer and entrepreneur – power of choices and looking for what our customers are “firing”. She goes on to talk about the power of “Why” in being able to get to the bottom of understand customer behavior. (Related Read: Getting To Why)
She inspires with her story of quitting her high-profile job as the editor of Harvard Business Review and doing something that is more aligned to her personal priorities.
- Can you share how you designed your career from your early days from journalism to the editor of magazines and now quitting your job to write books?
- What was your thought process when you decided to quit your job as the editor of HBR?
- You’ve been an editor for magazines like HBR, Inc., and more. You’ve written two books with Clayton Christensen. Can you share your experience putting the Jobs To Be Done theory to practice as an editor at HBR?
- Let’s now talk about the Jobs To Be Done theory in your book Competing Against Luck. You also talk about the importance of knowing what customers “fire”. Could you help us understand that a little better? Is there a way my listeners can understand what their customers “fire”?
To be continued in Episode 113.
Useful Links
- Karen Dillon on the interwebs
- Twitter @kardillon
- Competing Against Luck (Book)
- Twitter @CompetingvsLuck
Getting Started & Resources
- Tiny Book Of Triggers for actionable triggers to learn fresh new Product Management & Design skills & more. (click here to download)
- Get Started with Design Your Thinking (click here)
- Handpicked Resources (click here)
