The Jobs to be Done methodology (JTBD — work that needs to be done) is one of the most widespread in the field of marketing and product management. It emerged as a result of numerous attempts by specialists to offer a product that truly interests the market. Traditionally, managers studied demographic data, but this information did not explain the reasons why customers make purchases. According to the JTBD methodology, customers do not simply make purchases — they "hire" a product to perform certain tasks.
In the first article of the series, we will talk about the methodology and how it can be used to create hypotheses. In the second article, we will discuss why using Jobs to be Done can often be more important than introducing innovations and additional killer features into your product.
What is Jobs to be Done?
The JTBD theory has been explored by many authors.
Anthony Ulwick (Strategyn) believes that a person "hires" a product for work, and the process of completing the task itself is what matters:
I don't buy a drill, I buy a hole in the wall. I don't buy a lawnmower, I buy a mowed lawn.
Clayton Christensen, Bob Moesta, Alan Klement, and others believe that a person "hires" a product to become better:
I don't buy a drill because I want to drill a hole or because I need a hole in the wall. I want a beautiful home.
This methodology helps understand why people actually "hire" products or services. It is aimed at identifying the fundamental needs and goals that drive consumers when choosing a particular product.
How to Use Jobs to be Done
JTBD are created based on market research: surveys, in-depth interviews, analytics service data, and other digital marketing tools. Having obtained the data, specialists formulate JTBD statements based on a developed framework:
- Create JTBD statements — assertions that accurately describe what a group of people is trying to achieve or accomplish in a given situation.
- The job to be done can be a task people are trying to complete, a goal they are trying to achieve, a problem they are trying to solve, something they are trying to avoid, or something else they are trying to accomplish.
Important: jobs are not time-limited. Music lovers "hired" products for the job "I want to listen to good music on the go" in the time of cassettes, in the time of CDs, and continue to do so today, in the era of streaming services.
Seeing Everyday Life from a Different Angle
Let's take, for example, a food ordering app. At first glance, it seems that its main task is to help us order food when we're hungry. However, looking deeper from a JTBD perspective, customers "hire" such an app not just to satisfy hunger, but to solve more complex tasks:
- "I want to save time on cooking"
- "I want to avoid the stress of cooking"
- "I want to try something new and exotic without having to go outside"
Similarly, fitness tracker users may seem interested only in tracking steps or heart rate, but in reality they "hire" the device to achieve a larger goal — improving health, motivation to exercise regularly, or even social interaction with friends through online competitions.
Sometimes the same product can perform completely different jobs for many customer segments. For example, for top management, the JTBD list for the Darlean productivity system includes:
- "I want to be able to make important business decisions based on data in a timely manner"
- "I want to reduce software costs by giving up unnecessary subscriptions"
- "I want to manage my company sitting on a beach with a cool drink"
- "I want to be able to work from a single window"
Back-office employees, in turn, would formulate their JTBD as "I want to reduce manual work and routine."
Thus, even the most ordinary products and services can have deep and multifaceted "jobs" they perform for their users, going beyond their original functional purpose. Understanding these hidden tasks and striving to implement them can be the key to creating truly valuable and in-demand products in the market.
