1999 Ulwick changes his company name to Strategyn and the name of his process to Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI).
1999 Ulwick introduces his ODI process to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen in a series of meetings in Cambridge where he explains the benefits of focusing on the underlying process, not the product or customer.
2000 Ulwick completes his 50th engagement using the Outcome-Driven Innovation process.
2002 HarvardBusiness Review publishes “Turn Customer Input Into Innovation”. Authored by Tony Ulwick, the article introduced the ODI process and used the Cordis example to illustrate its effectiveness.
2002 HarvardBusinessReview recognizes Strategyn’s thinking as one of the best business ideas of the year, declaring it one of “the ideas that will profoundly affect business as we forge ahead in today’s complex times.”
2003 In his book The Innovator’s Solution, Clayton Christensen introduced the notion that “people buy products and services to get a job done”. This book popularized what has become known as “Jobs-to-be-Done” theory. Professor Christensen graciously cites Strategyn and Ulwick as originators of these practices and their work in job and outcome-based thinking, market segmentation, and the ODI process.
2004 Strategyn publishes 3 landmark case studies that demonstrate how ODI was used to successfully drive growth at Kroll Ontrack, Microsoft, and Bosch.
2005 Tony Ulwick introduces What Customers Want, a best-selling business book published by McGraw Hill that explains how Outcome-Driven Innovation transforms Jobs-to-be-Done theory into practice.
2005 HarvardBusinessReviewpublishes “Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and
the Cure.” Authored by Clayton Christensen, the article explained how a jobs focus can help a company in growing a product category.
