Hiring the “Jobs to Be Done” Framework for Innovation at Opendoor

One February morning, product managers, designers, and engineers at Opendoor received an email from the CEO titled, “Recommended Reading.” In it was a link to one of his favorite works on product innovation, Competing Against Luck. That’s the book author Clay Christensen wrote to introduce Jobs Theory, that customers don’t simply buy products or services, but rather “hire” them to do a job. It’s a different way of thinking, and a good fit for Opendoor.

One of our operating principles is to start and end with the customer. The “Jobs to Be Done” framework does just that. It reminds us to take a step back from our products, services, and technology solutions, and refocus our attention on customers. What are they trying to get done and, more importantly, why?

Traditionally, businesses have defined customers in terms of demographics, such as age, education, or income. Jobs Theory defines customers by their context, such as “homeowners,” and their aspirations, such as “being free to move.” The Job to Be Done for any customer is to make progress toward their aspirations. They look for ways to get from “How things are today” to “How I want them to be.”

In an Opendoor customer’s world, “How things are today” might look like this:

• Stuck in my current home
• Scared to show my home during a pandemic
• Overwhelmed by the cost of home repairs
• Uncertain if and when I can move on

But our customer imagines a much better life. “How I want things to be” looks more like:

• Free to live where I want
• Safe from potential virus carriers
• Relieved of home repair time and costs
• Confident I can move on my schedule

The question is: How can we help customers progress towards that aspiration?

We can help customers progress at all levels

Progress can come in small ways or big ways. William T. Powers, an economist and scholar of psychology, theorized that all customer goals fit a hierarchy. The lowest level goals are activities we want to do. The highest level goals describe the kind of person we want to be.

While activities tend to change as technology advances, aspirations are more stable, ultimately driving our choice of activities. Jobs theory pushes us to always look for the customer’s higher-level aspirations — that is, the “why” behind the “what.” A homeowner doesn’t watch instructional videos to achieve the goal of having watched a video. The goal is at a higher level: to grow in understanding, and ultimately to become a more savvy homeowner. That Job to Be Done existed for homeowners long before videos were invented, and will continue after they are replaced with a new technology.

Looking at higher-level aspirations helps future-proof our thinking beyond current products and technologies. It all starts with understanding motivation. Bob Moesta, an author and entrepreneur who helped develop Jobs Theory, discovered that customers are motivated to switch solutions on four dimensions, which he calls Push, Pull, Anxieties and Allegiance.

It starts with a struggling moment

A catalyst pushes someone to action. For example, a growing family realizes their house is too small. They’ve heard on the news that the housing market is getting “hot,” but what does that even mean? They might want to move, but wonder, “Is now the right time? How much is our current home worth?” They wish they felt more confident in taking the next step — or even knowing what that next step is! That’s “How things are today” for our growing family.

In that struggle, they imagine a better situation. One where they understand their options. One where they feel confident about how to put their family into a more comfortable living space. Making progress towards that aspiration is their Job to Be Done.

Here’s how we might express it as a job statement:

“Show me where I stand in the housing market, so I feel confident making a decision about how to improve my living space.”

Recognizing that Job to Be Done, Opendoor’s product team has been creating a personalized Market Trends page. The page helps potential customers understand their home’s worth today, and how neighborhood housing markets are trending over time.

With this new solution in mind, let’s take a look at how Moesta’s “4 Forces for Change” — the Push, the Pull, Anxieties and Allegiances — might play out for our growing family.

Push

Their struggle, and the customer’s vision of a better situation, is the Push force. It pushes them to look for a new solution. Imagining their future selves as more informed and confident, they start shopping around for ways to make progress towards that goal.

Pull

Maybe they ask a few friends, “What’s up with the housing market?” Or, they set up time with a real estate agent to talk through options. The benefits each solution offers are the Pull force.

Maybe they follow an ad to Opendoor, and find a whole informational section about market trends. This page has a lot of Pull for them. It answers in plain language all their questions about today’s market. It’s local information, about their own neighborhood. It’s free, and endorsed by trusted sources. Great! … but what’s the catch?

Anxieties

The “catch” is the Anxieties force coming on. When considering different solutions, customers tease out the trade-offs: “How much time will this take? Is there a cost? Can I trust this?” One way to increase our chances of getting “hired” is by addressing these anxieties.

For example, in the past, on the Opendoor site, we required home sellers to enter a phone number in order to see our preliminary offer to buy their home. For some sellers, that requirement caused anxiety. They weren’t sure they could trust Opendoor just yet with their phone number. So they left the page, and we didn’t get “hired.” After learning about this anxiety, we reconsidered the requirement. It’s now optional. As a result, more people are moving forward, seeing our offers, and ultimately “hiring” Opendoor.

Allegiance

The other force against customers making a change is Allegiance. Changing behaviors is hard! The status quo can feel reassuring, and might even come with entanglements. For example, when compared to asking friends and family, or my last real estate agent for advice, “hiring” Opendoor to give me that advice might feel like disloyalty.

Hiring leads to more hiring

For our growing family, the Job to be Done is to make progress towards understanding their home’s worth, and their options for changing their living space. If they believe Opendoor is their best source of information about those options, they will hire us for that job. That means every time they want to know what’s happening in their local housing market and where they stand in it, they will come to Opendoor.

By getting hired, Opendoor will have just solidified our relationship with this customer. One that gains their trust to hire us for other Jobs to Be Done. That’s a huge benefit to us!

After hiring Opendoor to help them understand market trends and their options, our growing family becomes more and more confident to make a decision. In fact, they might now imagine themselves in an even better situation — living in a different neighborhood. They now know they could afford more living space there if they sell their current home first. This is their new Job to Be Done. And guess who’s in the perfect spot to help? Opendoor.

Helping customers make progress towards their immediate Job To Be Done actually unlocks new jobs to be done for them, creating new demand for Opendoor solutions.

Jobs to Be Done aligns teams across our organization

Jobs Theory is role agnostic. It doesn’t originate from one particular discipline, so all teams can adopt the approach.

Product managers use it to find improvements that customers actually value. Some improvements remove constraints, such as that anxiety-causing phone number requirement I mentioned before. We also pay attention to how our best customers adapt around constraints to get their jobs done. We learn from their workarounds how to keep others from giving up.

Our product teams also use Jobs Theory to find opportunities for innovation. Zooming out to understand customers’ higher-level aspirations, we find new ways to combine or altogether skip the lower-level activities. Opendoor’s “self-guided home walkthrough,” for example, relieves home sellers of the multiple showings and inspections that a traditional sale requires. We also look at the demand cycle, forward and backward, to determine whether progress in one Job opens up other Jobs to Be Done.

Our marketing teams use Jobs Theory to create more effective campaigns. Looking at our customers through the Jobs to Be Done lens helps us shift from messaging features to aspirations. That helps us attract new customers who have the same job as our current customers, but may not be aware of us yet as a possible solution.

Jobs Theory also causes us to define competition differently, no longer confined to our own industry. Rather, competition is whatever alternatives our customers see as viable solutions. For someone looking to get unstuck from their currently cramped living space, we aren’t just competing against other home buyers and real estate firms, but maybe also rental services and renovations contractors.

Our sales and customer experience teams use Jobs Theory to make conversations more fruitful. Customers aren’t inherently interested in our products. They are completely, 100% focused on their own goals and struggles. Jobs to be Done thinking helps bridge that gap, by paying attention to a customer’s context and aspirations. That is, what’s their situation, and how do they wish life really were instead?

So we look for those struggling moments, the ones charged with energy and emotion. Or sometimes exasperation. When we hear that energy, we tune in and really listen. Not only for the Push that is leading them to look for a better solution, but also the Anxieties that come up, and the Allegiances holding them back. Most importantly, we pay attention to our customers’ aspirations — their vision of “How I want things to be.” Only then can we recommend the right products for right now, and begin to envision the innovations that will pull us all forward.