Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)

Overview

A thinking model based on the principle that customers don’t simply purchase products; they “hire” them to perform a specific “Job” to achieve progress in a given circumstance. By focusing on the “progress” a person is trying to make rather than their demographic attributes, you can uncover the true drivers of consumer behavior.

Rating (1–5)

• Applicability: 5
• Immediacy: 3
• Difficulty to Understand: 4
• Misuse Risk: 4

Evaluation Comment

A powerful perspective that deepens customer understanding. However, if confused with mere “needs” or “wants,” the analysis often ends up being superficial and fails to uncover structural desires.

The First Question

“What specific ‘progress’ is this person trying to achieve that causes them to ‘hire’ this solution?”

Objectives

• To focus on “Progress” rather than just features or user attributes.
• To dig beneath surface-level needs into structural desires.
• To identify non-obvious competitors that solve the same Job.

Poor Questions

• “Who is the target audience for this product?” (Focuses on demographics rather than circumstances)
• “What features are they looking for?” (Focuses on the solution rather than the Job)

How to Use (Step-by-Step)

1. Describe the Circumstance

   • Vividly map out the specific situation or context in which the person is struggling.

2. Verbalize the “Progress”

   • Define the “Job” in terms of the desired progress. What does “winning” or “moving forward” look like for them?

3. Identify Alternatives Broadly

   • List all potential solutions (competitors) the user might hire to do that Job—even those in entirely different product categories.

4. Analyze the Forces of Progress

   • Identify the “Pushes” (struggles with current solutions) and “Pulls” (attraction to the new solution).

Output Examples

1. Job Statement Log

• Situation: When I am commuting a long distance and feel bored/hungry.
• Struggle: I need something to consume that isn’t messy and lasts a long time.
• The Job: Hire a “Milkshake” to make the commute more interesting and keep me full until lunch.

2. Visualization

• Circumstance → Job → Alternative Matrix: Comparing different solutions for the same Job.
• Feature vs. Progress Contrast Table: Highlighting the difference between what a product is and what it enables.

Use Cases

• Business: New business design, product improvement, and strategic marketing.
• Daily Life: Understanding the underlying reasons for your own choices and consumption habits.
• Judgment / Thinking: When customer perspective feels vague or trapped in internal logic.

Typical Misuses

• Treating “Jobs” as “Needs”: Using the term but only describing basic functional requirements.
• Stopping at Demographic Segments: Thinking that “males aged 20-30” is the reason for the purchase.
• Reverting to Feature Improvement: Focusing on making the tool better without checking if it’s still the right tool for the Job.

Relationship with Other Models

• Related: Customer-Centric Thinking, Hypothesis-Driven Thinking.
• Complementary: Issue Tree (for structuring), Bayesian Thinking (for verifying Job hypotheses).