Index

Strategic Frameworks

Jobs to Be Done

A framework that defines markets around the functional, emotional, and social jobs customers are trying to accomplish, rather than around product categories.

Jobs to Be Done shifts focus from demographic segments to the underlying progress a customer is trying to achieve in a given context.

Core question

What progress is the customer trying to make, and what circumstances trigger them to look for a solution?

Example

A project management tool discovers users aren't hiring it for task tracking — they're hiring it to reduce the anxiety of not knowing project status. The team redesigns the dashboard around confidence signals rather than adding more task features.

How to apply

  1. 1.Interview customers about the circumstances that triggered their search for a solution.
  2. 2.Map the functional job, the emotional job, and the social job behind the purchase.
  3. 3.Identify where current solutions under-serve or over-serve the job.
  4. 4.Prioritize features and messaging that directly advance the core job.

Pitfalls

  • ·Defining the job too broadly so it loses actionable specificity.
  • ·Confusing feature requests with underlying jobs.
  • ·Ignoring competing solutions from entirely different categories that satisfy the same job.

Questions

How is Jobs to Be Done different from personas?

Personas describe who the customer is. JTBD describes what the customer is trying to accomplish. The same persona may have different jobs in different contexts.

Can JTBD apply to internal tools or B2B?

Yes. Internal stakeholders hire tools and processes to make progress too. The interview method works the same way.

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