"What new technology does is create new opportunities to do a job that customers want done"

Technology has no intrinsic worth; its value emerges when it helps people achieve outcomes they already care about, faster, cheaper, safer, or with more joy. The north star isn’t novelty but the “job” a person is trying to get done: getting from A to B, finding trustworthy information, managing cash flow, learning a skill, expressing creativity. When a new tool arrives, the right question isn’t “What can it do?” but “Which job does it unlock or transform?”

New capabilities expand the opportunity set by removing constraints of time, place, expertise, and coordination. GPS, mobile broadband, and payments didn’t just make maps digital; they enabled ride-hailing, real-time delivery, and location-based services that reimagined the job of “getting a ride now.” Cloud computing turned capital-intensive IT into on-demand infrastructure, changing the job of “deploy software reliably.” Generative AI lowers the cost of first drafts, prototypes, and analysis, reframing jobs around iteration speed and creative exploration.

For builders and leaders, the mandate is to translate technical possibility into customer progress. Look for nonconsumption, people cobbling workarounds or settling for poor substitutes. Measure improvement in the dimensions customers hire for: time-to-completion, accuracy, convenience, confidence, and control. Design business models that mirror those jobs: usage pricing for variable needs, subscriptions for ongoing jobs, marketplaces when the job requires matching supply and demand. Build ecosystems and APIs so others can discover adjacent jobs you didn’t foresee.

The trap is feature worship and solutionism. Shiny tech that doesn’t advance a job will struggle to find pull. Ground innovation in real contexts, test with real users, and let adoption be your signal. When technology reliably creates new opportunities for people to accomplish the progress they seek, markets grow, new behaviors emerge, and tomorrow’s infrastructure takes shape. The winners are those who obsess over the job and let technology be the lever.