The third route to Disruptive Innovation - finding and fulfilling underserved needs better.
Disruptive Innovation has long been seen as an effective playbook in business strategy for brand growth, typically unfolding in two ways - by offering a cheaper alternative for cost-conscious consumers or by creating a new market for previously underserved audiences. But there’s a third path that is behind many of today’s thriving brands.
The Missing Route to Disruption: Why Jobs to Be Done and Experiential Needs Matter
Disruptive Innovation is a widely discussed concept in business strategy. Coined by Clayton Christensen, it explains how smaller companies can challenge industry leaders by offering simpler or more affordable alternatives, gradually improving until they surpass incumbents. While this framework has been useful in explaining market shifts, it overlooks a crucial path to disruption for newer brands and growth opportunities for established brands.
Traditionally, market disruption has been understood in two ways:
Low-End Disruption – Capturing customers who don’t require premium features and prefer a lower-cost alternative. For example, Zoom disrupted the business communications space by offering a low-cost, easy-to-use alternative to enterprise platforms like Webex and GoToMeeting.
New-Market Disruption – Expanding a market by making a product or service accessible to those who previously couldn’t afford or use it. Duolingo, for instance, made language learning accessible to millions by offering a free, gamified experience that appealed to people who wouldn’t typically invest in paid courses or private tutors.
Both of these routes have reshaped many other sectors. However, some of the most significant disruptions or recent times haven’t been about lowering costs or reaching new audiences. Instead, they’ve come from companies that simply deliver a far better experience - solving people’s needs or Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) in ways that incumbents, who are often set in their ways, failed to appreciate.
The Third Route: Winning by being better
Jobs-to-Be-Done, which originates from the same school of thought as Disruptive Innovation, refers to the underlying reason why someone chooses a product or service — what they want to get done or the progress they are trying to make in their lives. Jobs-to-be-Done had been originally presented as an overlay or parallel route to delivering business strategies, alongside Disruptive Innovation, but we’d argue that it should be seen as a third-route to disruptive innovation in itself - one that prioritises understanding and addressing the real needs of audiences and consumers as the starting point of their strategy.
Some of the most successful disruptors in recent years haven’t gained traction by being the cheapest or serving overlooked consumers. They’ve come from nowhere to being the brands of choice by understanding underserved needs and identifying key pain points and creating seamless, superior solutions to address them.
Examples of the Third Route to Disruption
Spotify vs. iTunes and Piracy – Spotify didn’t win because it was cheaper than iTunes or because it targeted new listeners. It succeeded by transforming the music experience. Instead of buying individual tracks or dealing with unreliable downloads, users gained instant access to a vast library of music, personalised recommendations, and seamless cross-device listening. It fulfilled the JTBD of easily discovering, organising and enjoying music more effectively than any previous option.
Monzo vs. Traditional Banks – The UK challenger bank Monzo didn’t disrupt banking through lower fees alone. It redefined how people manage their finances by addressing frustrations traditional banks had ignored. Instant transaction notifications, spending insights, and intuitive budgeting tools gave customers real-time control over their money, making personal finance management more transparent and stress-free.
Peloton vs. Home Fitness Equipment – Peloton isn’t the cheapest home workout option, nor did it create an entirely new market. Instead, it disrupted home fitness by combining high-quality equipment with interactive, community-driven workouts. It wasn’t just about exercise—it addressed the need for motivation, structured training, and social connection, all key factors in maintaining a fitness habit.
Why This Matters for Businesses and Innovators
For companies looking to drive meaningful change, the key question isn’t just “How can we be cheaper?” or “Who can be brought into the market?” Instead, they should ask:
What are people actually trying to achieve?
Where are people underserved by current solutions?
How can we make life even easier, better, or more enjoyable?
By focusing on Jobs to Be Done and experiential needs, businesses can create disruption not by cutting costs or finding new audiences, but by delivering solutions that people genuinely value.
The Takeaway
Disruptive innovation in broader, lower-case, terms is more than just offering lower-cost alternatives or tapping into new markets. These routes are still valid routes to success but they are starting to showing their limitations. Today, some of the most transformative businesses have succeeded by simply serving existing customers better. When companies deeply understand what drives customer choices and frustrations, they don’t need to chase disruption—it happens naturally. Future success can come from businesses that focus on creating solutions that make people’s lives simpler, more efficient, and more rewarding.
Read more about ‘Jobs-to-be-Done’ and this human-centred approach can benefit brands looking to disrupt and grow: Applications of Jobs to be Done
