What Getting Laid Off Taught Me About My Own Jobs to be Done
It was a cold Tuesday in January when a colleague called to tell me that layoffs were happening the next day. He didn’t know if I was on the infamous list, but he wanted me to be prepared. I had spent months expecting this moment, but now that it had arrived, I found I desperately wanted to keep my job. I loved the problem we were working to solve, and the people were smart and talented. When Wednesday morning came, I got a message from HR asking to meet with me, and I knew that was it.
It’s hard to express the range of emotions I felt that morning. They told me it wasn’t about performance, but I kept thinking about how I had failed. What if I had just worked harder? As I drove home at 10:30 am on a weekday, I felt like part of my identity had been ripped away.
In need of some confidence and direction, I asked one of my mentors to meet with me. He has talked to hundreds of people about their career, long-term goals, and what drives them. As a result, he knows how to ask penetrating questions that help people discover what really matters to them. That was the kind of clarity I wanted.
As we sat down to lunch, he pulled out his pen and large notebook paper.
“Tell me about your journey,” he said.
Why I work
My journey, like so many others, didn’t have a direct path to product. I’ve always had an affinity for technology but also felt a pull to psychology and design. I spent years working at advertising agencies before I switched to UX and then switched again into product.
I felt like I was rambling as I talked about deciding on a major, being told I couldn’t be successful in New York City, but moving there anyway, and realizing I didn’t love my career in advertising. I told him about how I felt like I was always trying to reinvent myself and my career trajectory.
He listened while mapping out my story, occasionally stopping me to ask for more detail. When he saw that I had a lot of passion for UX, he challenged me about why I wasn’t pursuing a career in that. He asked why I wanted to be a product manager. He asked questions to help identify my drivers — those innate desires that push my decisions.
By the end of the conversation, I had the beginning of a list of things I was looking for in my next role. I had clarity on my wants, needs, and ideal situation — my “jobs to be done.”
Jobs to be done (JTBD)
Jobs to be done is a concept popularized by Clayton Christensen, based on the idea that people “hire” a product to accomplish a goal or create an experience. A job to be done is more than a task; it’s about the goal someone is trying to achieve and the emotional, social, and functional drivers of that decision. It’s about context, circumstances, and progression.
During my time working at advertising agencies, we always talked about buyer personas. They would include demographic information, what a “typical” day looked like, and the media our buyer consumed. It was helpful, but also missed the deeper understanding of the job our product was solving. It led to ads that missed the mark. The same thing can happen in product development.
Identifying a job to be done can be difficult. It often takes someone who is willing to keep asking why and listen to what is said and what isn’t said. But it’s worth the effort; digging deeper can lead to interesting new insights, which can result in innovation and product-market fit.
Discovering my own Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)
I’ve spent a lot of time reading about jobs to be done and how to interview customers to find those insights, but I didn’t realize until later that my mentor was giving me the best lesson. He wanted to know the context of my situation, understanding that the context started long before the day I got laid off. He wanted to know why I had been drawn to UX and why I was working in product management. He wanted to know if I wanted to continue a career in product and if so, why. He asked me the questions that helped me discover what I wanted and what expectations I had for my next role. It wasn’t about a job title, compensation, or benefits (though all of those are nice); I was looking for a role that would teach me very specific skills. I would be “hiring” a job to accomplish my own job to be done.
The idea of jobs to be done had never made more sense to me than it did at that moment. I could see how I was looking for a role that would help me to progress in a way that I had already subconsciously defined. That realization gave me the confidence to go after jobs that I might have felt intimidated by before.
After my meeting with my mentor, I wrote my own, unconventional “job listing” so I wouldn’t forget what I wanted to get out of my next job.
My Job Listing / Jobs to be Done:
People are the drumming heartbeat of my life. I believe every human has a story to tell. I’m learning to ask and truly listen to each story and then see patterns in those collective stories. Those insights, when paired with technology and business, create magic and impact.
While I’m still learning the craft of product management, listening, building empathy, collaborating, and problem-solving are skills I’ve been developing my whole career. They are the foundation that I continue to hone while I layer on new skills.
I thrive when I’m thrown into the deep end. I have a constant drive towards learning and growth. I’m looking for an opportunity that will provide the autonomy to truly own but also has the support and mentorship of great leaders so I can continue to learn, grow, and build something impactful.
Final Thoughts
I’m one month into my new job at Weave and it’s already fulfilling the jobs I hired it to do. Weave’s product team strikes a great balance between process and autonomy. Leadership provides meaningful strategy and input, and then trusts its people to drive outcomes. It’s customer-focused and collaborative. I’m being challenged to deepen my technical knowledge and finding colleagues willing to help and support me. By taking the time to reflect and understand what I wanted to get out of my next job, I was able to make a choice that resulted in a great fit and will help me become a better product manager.
We can do the same thing for our customers. When we take the time to understand their world, goals, and motivations, and then build a product around those insights — we can make a meaningful impact.
I’ve been amazed at how Weave is striving to do just that during all of the changes caused by COVID-19. Our teams are asking customers about their worries and concerns and then showing how the product can be hired to solve some of those problems. That is the heart and soul of Weave, and that is why I’m grateful that I hired Weave and that Weave hired me too.
