本文探讨了无人机配送服务，特别是爱尔兰公司Manna在南都柏林引入快餐、咖啡订单及非必需品配送的计划。作者质疑了无人机配送是否真的比现有方式更便宜或更快捷，并引用了克莱顿·克里斯坦森的“待办工作”理论。文章提出，无人机配送的真正价值可能在于提供娱乐或新奇感，而非单纯的物流效率，竞争对手可能是TikTok、Netflix等娱乐平台，而非传统的配送方式。作者强调，理解用户真正需求，即“待办工作”，是创新的关键。

❓ **无人机配送的实际价值存疑**：文章作者对爱尔兰公司Manna推出的无人机配送服务提出质疑，认为缺乏定性数据支持其比现有配送方式（如自行车配送）更便宜或更快捷，特别是在非处方药配送等领域。这表明无人机配送在实际应用中，其成本效益和效率优势尚未得到充分证明。

💡 **“待办工作”理论的视角**：引用克莱顿·克里斯坦森的“待办工作”理论，文章类比了“为早通勤雇佣的奶昔”的案例，指出人们雇佣产品是为了完成某项“工作”。作者推测，无人机配送可能解决的并非仅仅是物流问题，而是人们生活中对新奇感和娱乐的追求，其竞争对手可能是TikTok、Netflix等娱乐平台，而非传统的配送服务。

🚀 **用户中心的设计与颠覆性创新**：文章强调，理解无人机真正要完成的“工作”是实现颠覆性创新的关键。通过用户中心的设计方法，观察并倾听用户需求，才能发现无人机配送的真正潜力所在，从而在市场中取得竞争优势。这暗示着未来的创新应更侧重于满足深层用户需求，而非仅仅技术升级。

Drones, Design, and Jobs To Be Done. What is the problem being solved?

Dontcha love design stakeholders? I read about the furore over plans to introduce drone delivery for fast food, café orders, and non-essentials (I couldn’t make it work for prescription medicines) to homes in South County Dublin (B2C, or D2C, if you prefer). The Irish company involved is called Manna (good luck with the international expansion into the Middle East). What could possibly go wrong? Everything, it seems.

Regardless, the question arises: exactly what problem is being solved by home delivery drones? The qualitative data I’ve seen does not support the claim that drones are significantly cheaper or a faster end-to-end delivery solution for fast food consumers.

Clay Christensen’s famous Harvard Business Review “Jobs To Be Done” framework example of the “milkshake hired for the morning commute” showed how the problem being solved for drivers was not hunger, but boredom during the journey.

https://medium.com/media/a496a0d1576fd7cced7bb40debf390f0/href

Could it be that the problem that home delivery drones solve is not just logistical, but the lack of decent entertainment or novelty in people’s lives? Could it be that the real competitive edge for home delivery drones isn’t against bike delivery or takeaways, but TikTok, Netflix, Spotify, and bouncy castles? The JBTD approach should be looked at. Therein is real disruption, perhaps.

Christensen had his milkshakes. Ireland’s innovators might shake the market up more by exploring what problems drones really solve, more about “drones to be done”, if you like. That’s where user-centred design can help: watch and ask people first.

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All Manna of Drone UX Design was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.