JTBD in a Nutshell
A Job to be Done describes the “better version of myself”. It answers the question of personal progress: “How are you better since you started using service or product?” Competition for a JTBD is defined from the customer’s perspective, and is a zero-sum game: When customers hire a new solution for a JTBD, they always fire something else.
Note: to me these are the essentials of the framework. Written without any examples or deeper explanations.
1. It’s damn customer-centric
The customers have a job to offer. They have a need to be fulfilled. You as a company desperately want to get that job. But it is their choice.
This linguistic trick fixes your thinking and the oftentimes broken relationship between company and customers. True is: one customer— many companies (not vice versa).
2. It’s THE empathy tool
The customer’s context is respected what is crucial. JTBD is always about the desired progress against a specific situation your value partner experiences. By understanding the JTBD slipping into your customer’s shoes gets a lot easier.
3. It’s purely problem space
In JTBD we are going behind observed emotions (pains, gains), behavior or thoughts. Fixing those things is scratching on the surface and will hardly help innovating. Only when an underlying need is uncovered the right solutions become more obvious. Practicing JTBD helps to resist going into the solution space too early.
4. It reveals true competition
One job can be done by many surprisingly different applicants. Those competing products have nothing in common when using standard analysis. Through a JTBD lens the real competition gets clearer.
5. It explains how customers switch
People switch from one solution to another. The JTBD force field explains the conflicts customers experience when attracted by a new solution. After understanding the job addressing those forces is the foundation for marketing efforts and for crafting a great value proposition.
Some further reading
Jan is an entrepreneur and product guy living with his family in Hamburg, Germany. As a consultant he helps companies with lean product management.
