In our lives we come across jobs that require the completion of multiple activities or sub-jobs. In this article, I’d like to present an argument (not literally) that there is more that can be done, from a product experience perspective, to make mine (and many other users lives) easier when we seek to complete these jobs*.

As I’ve found in various roles and situations (from negotiating timelines with stakeholders, to selecting and agreeing next priorities, setting the approach for a new initiative, digging into data to solve an issue, and coaching team members, amongst others) different skills, knowledge and behaviours are required to get product done.

I want to do lots of jobs, some of which require the joining of a bunch of dots. Take going to a concert, the list of jobs might include booking tickets, going for a meal and drinks before and after, and getting to each of these locations and home. Booking the ticket makes me feel good, while organising everything else is mundane and unexciting!

For some of these jobs, some people have a personal assistant or adviser to do all them: all they do is ask (politely) and the rest just happens – well, the assistant does a lot of running around and the requester reaps the benefits of their hard work. I’d like something like this for all my currently disconnected jobs. But without having to pay someone (plus, I don’t like the idea of someone running around after or for me!). I want a single product or service to take care of this and a bunch of other jobs.

Today, many products are great at doing one thing – and in many instances they do that one thing very well. But that doesn’t always deliver the kind of experience I want.

Take my concert example: I might start by finding and then booking the ticket on Ticketmaster or Stubhub; then I’ve got to find and potentially book a restaurant via TopTable, TasteCard or direct; then I need to find a bar, and then I need to make my travel arrangements (which could include a mix of public transport and or booking an Uber). That’s potentially five jobs I need to complete, not to mention purchasing food, drink and merchandise at the concert.

“I face similar trials and tribulations when I try to complete other jobs…”

It’s not just when I go to a concert that I experience this, I face similar trials and tribulations when I try to complete other jobs such as:

• Booking a holiday (not just the hotel, flights and car hire, but organising and booking the activities I do, places I visit and eat in when away)
• Managing my personal finances (understanding my financial ecosystem and using this to support and make financial decisions, such as how to fund that holiday, which account to use when shopping, where and how much to save, etc.)
• Moving home (organising and actioning multiple activities including moving/finding new utilities and local services, getting insurance, moving my belongings, changing postal address/redirecting mail, informing friends and family, getting the basics for day 1, etc.)
• Organising an event or day out with family, friends and or colleagues (pulling it together including organising diaries, booking tickets, getting payment, arranging transport etc.)

Lots of jobs I’d like to do, but don’t feel I can easily do in the way I’d like today.

“I’d like an easier experience that reduces the level of frustration and wasted time…”

You could argue that some of these jobs are niche or infrequent, and you’d be right. But it still does not remove the fact that when I do them, they require a lot of effort and I’d like an easier experience that reduces the level of frustration and wasted time.

You could also argue that the individual jobs that make up the whole job (e.g. getting a taxi) are played out in multiple contexts, making it easier for the provider to let the user decide when and how they want to use them. However, I still contend that in specific contexts (such as those above), it makes sense that the tools needed to do the individual jobs are connected so my life is easier.

As the providers of the individual services, these present a conundrum around offering a great individual service vs doing extra work to integrate into other services. However, I say that with advances in technology we should be closer to resolving this!

Smart Assistants and Bots are promising to take us some way to a world where completing (whole) jobs is easier. Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, Facebook Messenger, Microsoft’s Bot, SlackBot, Kik and WeChat have or are starting to develop great capabilities in this space, with more likely to follow. However, some of the example use cases (I’m sure there are many more) don’t go far enough. Many of these provide easier access to, what I call, vertical experiences that improve single jobs. As mentioned earlier, this is great, but I want all those to be seamlessly joined up in a logical, horizontal experience (see below) that is simple and really makes my life easier (or at least eliminates or minimises jobs that I don’t get value or fulfilment from doing).

Back to my concert example, when I book the ticket (the anchor or most important part that everything else hangs off) I want to be able to book a meal, select and book the most appropriate transport between each location and home at the end of the night – all at the same time.

I don’t think I’m asking for too much, so I have a few more requests. I’d like:

• Best in class or my preferred choice of service provider for each job
• All costs (maybe with the exception of variable costs such as the meal) to be combined into one so I can manage my finances and know how much the night out is going to cost up front (maybe I could get a discount for booking them all together, or am I being greedy!)
• All activities to be booked at times that align with each other. For example, a taxi to get me to the restaurant in time for my booking and then to take me to the bar 15 minutes after the concert ends
• An itinerary that tells me where I need to be and when (right down to telling me when I should leave home or the office to get my transport)
• A notification, coupled with an alternative plan, if anything happens that will impact the original plan. For example, if a train is delayed or the show starts late. Plus, the ability to change the plan with all the other parts simultaneously realigned
• Personalised suggestions based on my preferences and previous choices (plus a little bit of serendipity). In fact, notifications that a show I like is coming up alongside a plan and costs for how I make it into a night out
• A way to organise this as a group

I get it that products should focus on doing one job very well, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want the related sub-jobs that make up my whole job to be connected.

I don’t just want this for my concert booking, I want it whenever there are multiple interlinked jobs to be done (see list above). Let’s talk about finances for a moment. For most people, if they want to get a full picture of their financial situation, they typically have to grab a pen and paper and start writing: income is £x, savings are £Y, loans are £z, mortgage is £x, pension is £x etc. etc. It’s just painful, there is no one place that provides a full and accurate picture.

What’s more, I want to go further and get help to manage my finances. So if I want to book a holiday or make a larger than normal purchase, I want to be given advice about the best way to fund it. Be that taking money from my savings, taking out a loan, remortgaging, etc. Ok, on this one initiatives, like Open Banking and PSD2 are starting to open up the possibilities, but are our banks and financial institutions thinking about end-to-end financial management!

If we can connect jobs and overcome a few challenges

In order to deliver this experience these jobs need to be connected. This could be via:

• Smart Assistants, Bots etc. provided by new and existing companies with a play in these spaces e.g. Microsoft, Google, Apple, Slack, Amazon, WeChat, Facebook etc.
• Service providers creating links between each other
• Something new e.g. a new interface or layer (web page, app or voice assistant – it doesn’t really matter what) that brings all the elements together

Whichever it is, if I were drawing a very simple picture of the layers it might look something like…

Layers that come together to connect the dots

A number of products have started to deliver some amazing experiences that aggregate data via APIs. For instance, holiday booking services (Expedia, Travel Republic, Kayak, etc.), property search services (Rightmove, Zoopla), transportation services (Citymapper, etc.), news services (News Republic, Flipboard, etc.). Yet I think we are ready to up the ante and create even better customer experiences that make our lives even easier.

The prospect is exciting, however there will be obstacles to overcome first. Including challenges around data privacy, companies finding ways to work together, liability for transactions, pricing and revenue models, ownership of the customer relationship, customer points of contact, etc. Withstanding these (non-minor challenges), the benefits are there and the improvement in the customer experience could be enormous.

It’s not going to happen overnight (aspects of this are complex), but I’m looking forward to a time when products in the form of smart assistants, bots, a layer, an interface or something else delivers experiences that help me complete my jobs in ways that make my life that much easier.

What do you think?

Asomi

P.S. Before I close, I have to mention a personal debate (that I have with myself and others) on the role of technology and its potential to reduce our cognitive abilities. In this dichotomy, I ask myself if the increased use of technology to do jobs (and make our lives easier) has the potential to reduce our need to think and in doing so reduce our cognitive ability. As we remove or simplify jobs, at a rapid rate, do we need to find other ways to occupy our minds or is this not an issue as there are so many other (mentally tough) things we would and will spend our time doing? It’s a topic for another blog, but one I find myself thinking about…

*I wrote this article a few years ago to illustrate a thought pattern on experiences and the potential role of smart assistants in making them easier. I did not publish it at the time, however I think a number of the points are still relevant and worth airing. So please have a read and let me know what you think.

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Asomi Ithia is a Product Guy, author of the Product Management Series of Books and Co-organiser of Product Group London.

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