Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)

What most people mean

Clayton Christensen’s innovation framework, popularised by Bob Moesta and others. People don’t buy products. They “hire” them to get a job done. Understand the job, build the product. The milkshake story. The mattress story. It’s become a staple of product management and innovation thinking.

Where the definition breaks

JTBD is solid. It gets you to the goal. But it’s product-centric. Most marketers need the layer that JTBD purists skip: which obstacles on the way to that goal are being ignored by the alternatives, and how do you communicate that difference to a specific group of people?

The job is a critical ingredient in decision-making. Without it, your segment could be “in pain” without doing anything about it. As Alan Klement explains, “Imagine you’re in a raft, lost in the middle of the ocean. It’s an uncomfortable situation, but unless you make a choice on a direction to go or some way to get yourself out of it, you’ll just continue floating aimlessly.”

Your hair can be frizzy and out of control, but it only becomes top-of-mind when you know you’re going out this weekend. Unless you have a direction to go, you won’t bother sorting it out. The job gives direction. But direction alone doesn’t tell you where the existing paths fail.

How we define it at STFO

The job is one of six insight types in the STFO framework: job, alternatives, struggles, segment, category, triggers. It’s the foundation. But it’s not the whole building.

Three ground rules for defining the job:

• It must be specific enough to be within your control. Don’t promise the moon. Hotjar’s job was “understand user behaviour,” not “increase online conversions.” Conversions were outside direct control.
• Resist mentioning specific solutions or technologies. Solutions come and go. The job is forever. Humans have always wanted to connect with loved ones, but a few thousand years ago we were sending love letters on clay tablets.
• Phrase it using the customer’s language, starting with an action verb. “Stand the f*ck out.” “Control the frizz.” “Plan family vacation.” The job is an active process, and verbs imply action and intent.

Where STFO extends JTBD: after defining the job, you map the alternatives (broader than competitors), uncover the struggles those alternatives leave unsolved (especially the irrational ones), identify the segment that shares those struggles, choose the category where demand exists, and find the triggers that make people act. Six elements. The job is the first.

What it is NOT

• Not a complete positioning framework on its own (it’s one input of six)
• Not about your product (it’s about the customer’s goal)
• Not a “pain point” (the job is the goal, struggles are the obstacles)
• Not static (jobs are timeless, but how people try to fulfil them changes)
• Not something you define in a room without customer research