Competing Against Luck

What Hacker News says

1. billmalarkyApr 2025
   ^ this guy knows Jobs To Be Done theory ;)

   For those who don't, reading "Competing Against Luck" by Clayton Christensen will dramatically improve your ability to create successful products/services.

   thread
2. te_chrisJan 2025
   Competing against luck by Clayton Christensen, how brands grow by Byron Sharp
   thread
3. cl42Jun 2024
   1. "Show, don't tell." If you have to explain in detail your value prop and rationally convince a potential user that they will be better off using your product, then you might be wrong about how good the product is. If you're truly solving a problem for them, you should be able to show them quickly how you automate a process or generate a helpful result.

   2. Ask for feedback, and specifically, try to see if the problem you are solving is truly relevant to them. Most users have dozens of "problems" they have every day, and they choose NOT to solve most of those problems because they have better things to do. Are you sure you're not solving a problem so low on their list of priorities that they simply don't care?

   3. Go to where your users are -- conferences, events, web forums, whatever. If you validated #1 and #2, then showing them or presenting to them will get them excited and will get you users.

   I find reaching out to people to get feedback via LinkedIn (I do enterprise sales) is a great way to validate a problem, and only then worry about scaling or getting them to try.

   Books that might be helpful: [1] "The Mom Test", for interviewing users, and [2] "Competing Against Luck", which introduces 'jobs to be done' and talks about how your biggest competition isn't another product, but users deciding to do NOTHING.

   Show morethread
4. dilippkumarFeb 2024
   I can offer a reading list. Hope this helps.

   1. The Mom test - Rob Fitzpatrick

   2. Never eat alone - Keith Ferrazzi

   3. The Tim Ferriss podcast - Episode #717 with Noah Kagan

   4. Crossing the chasm - Geoffrey Moore

   5. Competing Against Luck - Clayton M. Christensen

   Show morethread
5. mch82Dec 2023
   “Chapter 1: The Milkshake Dilemma” from “Competing Against Luck” (Christensen 2016) cited in the article is one of my favorite nonfiction book chapters of all time. The milkshake case study perfectly illustrates the jobs-to-be-done concept that the vertical axis of the disruptive innovation graph measures.

   Coincidentally, I listened to the Competing Against Luck audio book on a long walk today. Fun to see it on HN.

   thread
6. anon2020dot00Feb 2022
   Not for everyone, but some people would probably benefit from reading Clayton Christensen's books such as The Innovator's Dilemma, Competing Against Luck and How Will You Measure Your Life?

   His explanation of Correlation vs Causation while likely obvious to some was eye-opening for me as well as his idea of looking at products from what Job they fulfill standpoint

   thread