Review

This is a meta-study. A combination of other people’s frameworks and opinions. The author often presents multiple ways to do something. In hindsight I found that lack of opinion and authority frustrating.

Product management is an emerging field - and it shows in this book. I left it feeling like there isn’t a definitive end-to-end JTBD framework that could be successfully adopted. The book jumps around (from disruption to org design) which made ‘Jobs to be done’ feel like a hammer looking for a nail.

Other authors and books are referenced throughout, which will make you feel like you have more reading to do. I’m on a mission to learn my discipline inside out - this book didn’t hurt.

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Key Takeaways

The 20% that gave me 80% of the value.

• JTBD is not a single method—it’s a way of seeing
• A single customer interview can change how you think. So the question becomes how can you consistently translate insights into actionable intelligence?
• JTBD provides a way to understand, classify and organise feedback. It provides a clear stable unit of analysis: the job.
• JTBD focuses on what people seek to achieve in a given circumstance.
• People hire products and services to get a job done (not because they belong to a demographic)
• Jobs to be done aren’t about the solution (they’re independent of your brand and product).
• Focus on the outcome not the technology.
• Overall JTBD is about understanding the goals that people want to accomplish
• Jobs are motivators and drivers of behaviour
• Jobs predict why people behave the way they do
• This moves beyond mere correlation and stripes to find causality (vs demographics)
• Definition of a job: the process of reaching objectives on the given circumstances
• JBTD theory has two camps.
• Switch Theory by Bob Moesta - reverse engeers the motivation for changing solutions
• Outcome Driven Innovation (ODI) by Tony Ulwick - Pinpoints customer centred opportunities by finding unmet needs
• JTBD is about looking at needs and objectives rather than demographics and psychographics.
• Jobs are stable over time. Even as technology changes.

• The structure of a JTBD is what provides its strength:
• Job performer · Who · Executes the main job (is the end user)
• Jobs · What · The aim of the performer, what they want to accomplish
• Process · How · The procedure of how the job will get done
• Needs · Why · Their requirements or intended outcomes during the job process
• Or why the performer acts in a certain way while executing the job
• Circumstances · When/Where · The contextual factors that frame job execution
• You must distinguish the main job, from related jobs and emotional and social jobs
• the main job is the overall aim of the job performer. It should be
• functional and utilitarian
• an act that can be performed + have a clear end state.
• broad and straightforward
• Examples: Prepare a meal, listen to music, plan long-term financial well-being
• shouldn’t include adjectives like ‘quick, easy or inexpensive’ (those are needs)
• it isn’t your value proposition - which is likely to be more persuasive or emotional
• related jobs are adjacent to the main job - but significantly different
• they can help you understand the main job
• people have multiple goals which can collide, intersect and conflict/compete
• emotional and social jobs reflect how people want to feel while performing the job
• Emotional Example: feel confident that intruders won’t break in while away
• Social Example: avoid embarrassment in public
• Meet functional job needs first - consider the emotional and social aspects afterwards

• Job Maps - Illustrate the chronological map with a sequence of stages
‣
Example Map
• A job map is a view into the behaviours of individuals in the context of their daily lives - that may or may not include your solution

• JTBD separates goals from needs. A main job could have 50-150 intended needs
• Circumstances: Adding contextual detail to the situation also helps greatly when designing a solution
• Time, manner and place.
• The Hierarchy in JTBD:
• Aspirations: An ideal change of state, something the individual desires to become
• Big Job: A broader objective (this is where ‘main jobs’ sit)
• Little Job: A smaller more practical job that corresponds roughly to stages in a big job
• Micro-job: Activities that resemble tasks but are stated in terms of JTBD
• Two simple questions can help you get the right altitude:
• Asking why moves you up the hierarchy
• Asking how moves you down the hierarchy
• Define the main job → Define the job performer → form a hypothesis about the job process and circumstances. Map out different levels of abstraction by asking “why?” to move up and “how?” to move down.
• Conduct jobs interviews
• Jobs are discovered. Prepare to do a lot of interviewing: it’s the key way you’ll uncover jobs.
• Find the right job performers - lead an open interview that encourages them to speak about their objectives
• Interview Format:
‣
Get background about the participant and the job
‣
Understand the main job and related jobs
‣
Understand the process of executing the job
‣
Find needs
‣
Probe on circumstances
• Ask why to go up a level, ask how to go down a level?
• Use the critical incident technique: Recall a specific incident, describe the experience, discuss the ideal state.
• The volume of feedback can be overwhelming. Have a plan for managing the data you capture
• Practice open interviewing: Create rapport, listen, avoid yes-or-no questions, follow interesting thoughts, minimise distractions, go with the flow, don’t interrogate, use pauses, have a note taker
• Run Switch interviews
• Recruit customers → Interview based on the switch timeline → Analyse the forces of progress
• Find the underlying motivation around buying and using a product.
• Take notes against the switch timelines makes analysis light work
• First thought → Passively looking → Actively looking → deciding → consuming → satisfaction
• What happened before that? Why did you make that decision?
• Keep separate the purchase decision from the jobs to be done
‣
Sample Questions:
‣
Types of opportunities
• Analyse the Four Forces of Progress: Four forces that drive behaviour of switching from one offering to another
• Problems with the current product →
• Attraction of the new product →
• Uncertainty and Anxiety of change ←
• Existing habits and allegiances ←
• Map the main job
• A job map visualises the flow of the main job - chronologically in a sequence of stages in a visual representation that shows underlying patters of intent.
• Not about mapping activities but goals
‣
8 universal set of stages:
• Job maps are the cornerstone of many JTBD approaches
• Build during interview process - finalise in following days
• It’s about JTBD not your solution, brand or customers
• Use the universal stages as a starting point - change the labels as needed
• You can have a branch or a loop
• Look for opportunities by considering the biggest drawbacks of current solutions at each stage of the map
• Finding unserved / unmet needs → identifying needs that are important but unsatisfied
• Gather all desired outcome statements
• Format: Direction of change + unit of measure + object + clarifier
• Survey Job Performers For each desired outcome:
• How important is this to you? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
• How well is this currently being satisfied? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
• Find opportunities
• Find the opportunity Score = Importance + Satisfaction Gap
• Satisfaction gap = Importance - Satisfaction
• Requires extensive jobs interviews to extract desired outcome statements
• Large surveys require big incentives and can take weeks to administer
• Create goal-based personas
• Alan Cooper thinks… personas should be based on the goals that users have, not their demographics
• Interview users and distill the key variables in goals - Stop when answers are predictable
• Map interviews to behaviour variables → Create sliders for key differences, and plot interviews on them
• Identify patterns in goals → Look for clusters of users with similar behaviours
• Describe the resulting persona based on common goals → bring through context - typical workdays etc
• Proto-personas are a lightweight alternative (they use current knowledge)
• Keep them alive by making them visible and using them in meetings
• Compare competing solutions
• Use JBTD to compare competition. But not feature to feature, instead about how good they are at solving different customer jobs
• Survey job performers to find out how they rank each need against the competitors
• For each desired outcome:
• How important is this to you? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
• How well is this currently being satisfied? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
• Compute the opportunity score for each need.
• Find your sweet spot in the competitive landscape - Determine the needs that are missed by others but
• Define a jobs-based value proposition
• Value Proposition Canvas is a simple tool to help you define it
• Understand the customer profile (Customer jobs, Pains and Gains)
• Discuss the solution profile (Products and services, pain relievers and gain creators)
• Ensure the fit between the customer and the solution
• Form a value proposition statement
• For (target job performers)
• Who are dissatisfied with (current alternative)
• Our solution is a (product or service)
• That provides (key problem-solving capability)
• Unlike (the product alternative)
• Create a development roadmap
• JTBD can help create roadmaps that focus on the value that the organisation intends to create and deliver for customers - focusing on customer needs, problems or JTBD
• Use JTBD to drive roadmap themes - and ensure efforts are aligned to customer needs
• Keep roadmaps high. level with indefinite delivery date
• Define the solution direction
• Use relative timings (now, later, future)
• Align the development effort to the roadmap
• Job stories can tie the overall project to customer needs
• Stakeholder wrangling is where the challenge is
• Don’t confuse roadmaps with project plans - instead think of them as painting the picture of the sequence of activities
• Job Stories - Format debated by the field
• When I [circumstance + job stage/step], I want to [micro-job], so I can [need]
• Example: When I am once of the top posters while updating my social media feeds daily, I want it to show on my profile so that I can increase recognition as an expert on the subject
• Job stories provide confidence that features and capabilities are grounded in fulfilling a need
• They won’t replace the user stories of agile development (keep those and measure burn-down on them) - They serve best as a design tool to create or determine concept directoin and design.
• Architect the solution
• Architecture here refers to the structure of how components come together conceptually. Matching the model of they system to the model of the job ensures better comprehension and usability
• The structure of a product or service should mirror the users work, rather than technology. If you support the users work, rather than technology. If you support the users work as best as possible, then you’ll have the best chance of adoption.
• Test Hypothesis / assumptions with JTBD
• Format: We believe that [type of customer] will be successful solving [problem] using [feature] while doing [job to be done]
• Who are our customers?
• What problems do they have?
• Will this concept solve their problem?
• Can they use this feature?
• Conduct cancellation interviews using the switch technique
• Use the switch interview format - but instead of asking why they switched to your solution, you ask why they switched away from your solution
• Add your insights to a switch timeline
• Consumption, cancel moment, active looking, passive looking, first thoughts
‣
Questions to ask the customers
• Focus on the barriers to getting the job done

• Don’t overreact to disruption by dismantling a still-profitable business. Instead strengthen relationships with core customers while creating a new team focused on growth opportunities that arise from the disruption
• By knowing which solutions get the job done cheaper, and quicker, organisations can use JTBD to achieve more predictable growth.
• JTBD Growth Strategy Matrix by Tony Ulwick and Strategyn
• The 5th strategy, the sustaining strategy represents offering that get a job done slightly better or slightly cheaper. It’s a bad strategy for a market entrant, but might help an incumbent retain existing customers

• Organise Around Jobs: Try making JTBD one of your organising dimensions - putting the focus directly on customer-centred thinking in a way that’s inherent to the company structure
• Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) - Tony Ulwick
• ODI has four phases:
1. Identify the job. The main job is a broad functional objective with a portfolio of desired outcomes (i.e., needs) with emotional and social dimensions. Jobs are discovered through in-depth primary research with job performers
2. Create a job map. The job is represented as a process, not a static point in time, captured in a visual diagram to show how it unfolds. The job map becomes a key model to organise insights throughout the process.
3. Define the desired outcomes. Needs are seen in relation to the main job, and each main job may have 50 to 150 desired outcome statements that are uncovered through the research.
4. Quantify the market. Using a survey to find unmet needs.
• The Problems with ODI:
• There are 84 detailed steps - taking shortcuts will skew results
• The survey is challenging for people to take - you need a big incentive
• It’s hard to do without training, guidance and practice (which makes me skeptical)
• Conducting interviews and creating a job map may be enough in most cases. The job map provides value on its own

Deep Summary

Longer form notes, typically condensed, reworded and de-duplicated.

Background and Introduction to JTBD

• Businesses create value for the customer (in satisfying needs). They can extract some of that value to earn revenue and profit
• The process of providing solutions to customers can be defines as:
• Innovation (Discover + Define)
• and Go-To-Market (Design + Deliver)
• JTBD is not a single method—it’s a way of seeing
• A single customer interview can change how you think. So the question becomes how can you consistently translate insights into actionable intelligence?
• Desires and emotions are hard to measure and quantify
• JTBD provides a way to understand, classify and organise feedback
• It provides a clear stable unit of analysis: the job
• JTBD focuses on what people seek to achieve in a given circumstance.
• People hire products and services to get a job done (not because they belong to a demographic)
• Jobs to be done aren’t about the solution (they’re independent of your brand and product).
• Focus on the outcome not the technology.

People don't want a quarter inch drill, they want a quarter inch hole Theodore Levitt

• Clayton Christensen popularised the term in the ‘Innovators Solution’
• Overall JTBD is about understanding the goals that people want to accomplish
• Jobs are motivators and drivers of behaviour
• Jobs predict why people behave the way they do
• This moves beyond mere correlation and stripes to find causality (vs demographics)
• Definition of a job: the process of reaching objectives on the given circumstances
• The word ‘objectives’ best describes the functional nature of JTBD
• JBTD theory has two camps.
• ODI is better for greenfield innovation. Switch is a helpful lens for evaluating existing products or services - and why people ‘hired’ them to get a job done
• Switch Theory by Bob Moesta
• Seeks to reverse engineer the underlying motivation for changing from one solution to another. Researchers deduce why people hire a solution to get a job done and analyse the forces of change. The aim is to increase demand for a given product or service.
• Outcome Driven Innovation (ODI) by Tony Ulwick
• Is about pinpointing customer centred opportunities. Using qualitative interviews to uncover the desired outcomes that people want from getting a job done in a given domain. Desired outcomes are then prioritised - using a quantitative survey. ODI helps create products that address unmet needs
• Your goal is to make products people want and to make people want your products
• JTBD is about looking at needs and objectives rather than demographics and psychographics.
• JTBD theory predicts human behaviour. Built on the premise that individuals are motivated to make progress toward an objective. If you know what drives customer behaviour, you’ll have a better chance at creating successful solutions.
• Principles of Jobs To Be Done:
• People employ products and services to their job done. They don’t want to interact with your organisation. Understand problems before coming up with solutions.
• Jobs are stable over time. Even as technology changes.
• People value being able to do jobs in a way that’s faster and easier, or gets more done
• Different disciplines can benefit from using JTBD in different ways. Having a consistent approach to understanding what motivates people is valuable
• Jobs as a unit of analysis make innovation more predictable.
• Using empathy as a unit of analysis is problematic (as in design thinking). It’s less concrete. JTBD starts with the job as the objective - empathy can be incorporated later
• Benefits of JTBD:
• Helps you focus on customer needs
• JTBD are stable - so your research will be relevant for longer
• JTBD shows causality - which can reveal opportunities.
• Use JTBD thinking to find solutions that have good product-market fir
• Common language can break down organisation silos.
• Compatible with design thinking, agile and lean. You can turn JTBD into ‘How might we…” statements to kick off empathy building exercises and ideation

Core Concepts of JTBD

• The structure of a JTBD is what provides its strength:
• Job performer · Who · Executes the main job (is the end user)
• Jobs · What · The aim of the performer, what they want to accomplish
• Process · How · The procedure of how the job will get done
• Needs · Why · Their requirements or intended outcomes during the job process
• Or why the performer acts in a certain way while executing the job
• Circumstances · When/Where · The contextual factors that frame job execution

• There maybe other roles in the ecosystem. Approver, reviewer, technician, manager, audience, assistant. Map out the relationships to the job performer.
• You must distinguish the main job, from related jobs and emotional and social jobs
• the main job is the overall aim of the job performer. It should be
• functional and utilitarian
• an act that can be performed + have a clear end state.
• broad and straightforward
• Examples: Prepare a meal, listen to music, plan long-term financial well-being
• shouldn’t include adjectives like ‘quick, easy or inexpensive’ (those are needs)
• it isn’t your value proposition - which is likely to be more persuasive or emotional
• related jobs are adjacent to the main job - but significantly different
• they can help you understand the main job
• people have multiple goals which can collide, intersect and conflict/compete
• emotional and social jobs reflect how people want to feel while performing the job
• Emotional Example: feel confident that intruders won’t break in while away
• Social Example: avoid embarrassment in public
• Meet functional job needs first - consider the emotional and social aspects afterwards
• Formulating Job Statements
• Consistency is key. Follow this formula
• Verb + Object + Clarifier
• Examples:
• Visit family on special occasions
• Listen to music on a run
• Imagine a silent ‘I want to…’ in front to help you generate them
• Reflect the individual’s perspective
• Don’t refer to technology or solutions
• Clarify with context if needed
• Start with a verb
• Steer clear of methods or techniques
• Don’t reflect observations or preferences
• Avoid compound concepts (ANDs or ORs)
• Make sure it’s formulated in a way that it has an end state
• Job Maps
• Are a view into the behaviours and needs of individuals in the context of their daily lives. That may or may not include your solution.
• Illustrate the chronological map with a sequence of stages
• Each stage is a smaller job within the main job
• Think of the job as having a beginning, middle and end stage
• Once you have the main sequence - specify the smaller steps or sub-jobs
• You can also map the social and emotional aspects that relate to the main job
• Example Map:

• A job map is a view into the behaviours of individuals in the context of their daily lives - that may or may not include your solution
• Needs
• Why do the job performers ac the way they do while getting the job done.
• A need is seen in relation to getting the main job done
• E.g: For ‘File taxes’ a need might be ‘minimise the time it takes to gather documents’
• The job is the overall aim. the needs are the success criteria.
• Desired outcome statements are how we express needs:
• Direction of change + unit of measure + object + clarifier
• Direction of change: e.g: minimise, decrease, lower, maximise, increase
• Unit of measure: e.g Time ,effort, skill, probability
• Object: what is the need about
• Clarifier: what else is needed to understand the need?
• Example Need Statement Formulations
• Jobs to be done separates goals from needs.
• Need statements should be atomic
• A main job could have 50-150 intended needs
• Circumstances:
• Adding contextual detail to the situation also helps greatly when designing a solution
• Time, manner and place.

Example of the Job to be done elements:

• The Hierarchy in JTBD:
• Aspirations: An ideal change of state, something the individual desires to become
• Big Job: A broader objective (this is where ‘main jobs’ sit)
• Little Job: A smaller more practical job that corresponds roughly to stages in a big job
• Micro-job: Activities that resemble tasks but are stated in terms of JTBD
• Aspirations aren’t really jobs. There is no ‘done’ state.
• Two simple questions can help you get the right altitude:
• Asking why moves you up the hierarchy
• Asking how moves you down the hierarchy
• You need to set the right level of altitude and the boundaries of the job
• Define the main job, define the job performer, make a hypothesis about the process and circumstances
• Defining a main job that’s one level broader than your current capabilities provides and exist strategy and path toward growth.
• Get the phrasing right
• Ensure there is a purpose
• Reflect an end state
• Separate jobs from needs.
• Checklist:
• Does the statement reflect the job performers perspective?
• Does the job statement begin with a verb?
• Is there a beginning and end point of the goal?
• Would people have phrased the JTBD like this 50 years ago?
• Finding the main job:
• What business are you in? Sector, industry, category
• What customer problems do you want to solve?
• What impact do you hope to generate? What benefits do you aim to bring to customers?
• Identify related jobs too - get a sense of potential variety of goals that people have.
• Defining the job performer
• Who holds the insights we need to uncover?
• Keep it simple - if the main job is to attend the conference, the job performance is the attendee.
• You can still interview experts around the job performer - as that will help your understanding
• Form a hypothesis about the process and circumstances.

Getting Started

Start with scoping the JTBD domain:

• Steps:
1. Define the main Job
2. Define the job performer
3. Form a hypothesis about the job process and circumstances
• Get the main job and job performer at the right level and well-formulated is key.
• Involve the entire team and spend time getting the right
• You will need access to key decision-makers to define the primary target.
• Getting the right level of abstraction is critical. Scope the main job broad rather than narrow if you’re not sure.
• Ask a few customers about what they are trying to do.
• Map out different levels of abstraction by asking “why?” to move up and “how?” to move down.
• Formulate an answer in a way that is devoid of technology and stable over time.
• Discuss the main job with colleagues and see if it resonates with them

Discovering Value: Find the right problem to solve for the people you serve

Conduct jobs interviews

• Jobs are discovered. Prepare to do a lot of interviewing: it’s the key way you’ll uncover jobs.
• You will need to be able to recruit participants for in-depth sessions.
• Find the right job performers - lead an open interview that encourages them to speak about their objectives
• Conveniently the job performers you interview don’t have to know or use your brand. Avoid interviewing people who feel they can speak to the job performers
• Interviews are typically 30mins to 2hrs, can be remote or in person
• Interview 6–20 participants
• Use a recruitment agency, co-create the recruitment scripts: Intro, questionnaire for qualification, schedule
• Interview Format:
‣
Get background about the participant and the job
‣
Understand the main job and related jobs
‣
Understand the process of executing the job
‣
Find needs
‣
Probe on circumstances
• Ask why to go up a level, ask how to go down a level?
• Use the critical incident technique: Recall a specific incident, describe the experience, discuss the ideal state.
• Debriefing sessions are needed.
• The volume of feedback can be overwhelming. A 60 minute interview could create 30 pages of text.
• Have a plan for managing the data you capture
• It takes practice to recognise jobs and draw out the key, relevant information you need.
• Practice open interviewing.
• Create rapport, listen, avoid yes-or-no questions, follow interesting thoughts, minimise distractions, go with the flow, don’t interrogate, use pauses, have a note taker

Run Switch interviews

• Steps:
• Recruit customers
• Interview based on the switch timeline
• Analyse the forces of progress
• The Switch method is an alternative to jobs interviews.
• The goal is to find the underlying motivation around buying and using a product. We’re not just interested in what people are saying - but what they’re doing.
• Great when you have a known product you want to improve or create demand for
• Recruiting 6-12 participants for in-depth interviews of 15-60mins.

• Keep separate the purchase decision from the jobs to be done

Analyse the Four Forces of Progress

• Four forces that drive behaviour of switching from one offering to another
• Problems with the current product →
• Attraction of the new product →
• Uncertainty and Anxiety of change ←
• Existing habits and allegiances ←
• Steps:
• Conduct research
• Extract insights around each of the forces
• Find your opportunity

Map the main job

• A job map visualises the flow of the main job - chronologically in a sequence of stages in a visual representation that shows underlying patters of intent.
• Not about mapping activities but goals
• Pioneered in Outcome Driven Innovation (ODI)
‣
You can use your own stages - but there are considered to be 8 universal set of stages:
• Job maps are the cornerstone of many JTBD approaches
• Build during interview process - finalise in following days
• Don’t conflate job maps with customer journey maps or service blueprints
• It’s about JTBD not your solution, brand or customers
• How to create one:
• Start with beginning, middle and end
• Group the jobs into about 8 stages
• Use the universal stages as a starting point - change the labels as needed
• You can have a branch or a loop

Defining Value: Set the direction for addressing the problem you’ve identified.

Find Unserved / unmet Needs

• Finding unserved needs → identifying needs that are important but unsatisfied
• Simple in theory, but harder in practice
• Steps:
• Gather all desired outcomes
• Format: Direction of change + unit of measure + object + clarifier
• Direction of change: e.g: minimise, decrease, lower, maximise, increase
• Unit of measure: e.g Time ,effort, skill, probability
• Object: what is the need about
• Clarifier: what else is needed to understand the need?
• Formulate desired outcome statements
• Survey Job Performers
• For each desired outcome:
• How important is this to you? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
• How well is this currently being satisfied? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
• Find opportunities
• Find the opportunity Score = Importance + Satisfaction Gap
• Satisfaction gap = Importance - Satisfaction
• High Effort
• Requires a full needs analysis following ODI can take months to complete
• Any given main job may have dozens or even a hundred or more needs
• Prioritising them is key
• Extensive jobs interviews to extract desired outcome statements
• Then survey a large sample that can take weeks to administer
• Difficult to uncover all needs and formulate statements
• Hard to incentivise a large number of people to take a long survey

Create goal-based personas

• Personas are archetypal representations of users. Used in various areas of a business to instil customer-centric decision making. They’re a communication tool.
• Alan Cooper thinks… personas should be based on the goals that users have, not their demographics
• Steps:
• Interview users and distill the key variables in goals
• 12 hour long interviews should be enough
• Stop when peoples answers become predictable
• Map interviews to behaviour variables
• Create sliders for key differences, and plot interviews on them
• Identify patterns in goals
• Look for clusters of users with similar behaviours
• Describe the resulting persona based on common goals
• Bring through context - typical workdays etc
• Primary research to create the goals can be a lot
• Time required can take from days to weeks
• Proto-personas are a lightweight alternative based on current knowledge in your team and assumptions
• Try to keep them alive - by making them visible and using them in meetings
• After interviewing the jobs-based personas that reflect the different outcomes each has

Compare competing solutions

• Use JBTD to compare competition. But not feature to feature, instead about how good they are at solving different customer jobs
• Survey job performers to find out how they rank each need against the competitors
• Looking for differentiation opportunity (based on JTBD)
• Steps
• Determine alternatives to compare
• Determine the needs or the job steps to compare (doesn’t need to be the full set)
• Rank how well each solution meets those needs
• Send a survey
• For each desired outcome:
• How important is this to you? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
• How well is this currently being satisfied? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
• Compute the opportunity score for each need.
• Find your sweet spot in the competitive landscape
• Determine the needs that are missed by others but
• If you’ve already uncovered needs - competitor comparisons are easy
• Surveying customers directly on how they compare solutions is effortful
• Do research on the job performers else results aren’t accurate
• Consider all of the ways people get the main job done related to your solution
• Take a subset of needs or process steps and put them on a table
• Select two or three solutions to compare - discuss how well each one performs relative to the other.
• Then Ask: Where does your solution fall in comparison? Where might you improve? What steps are most strategic to address?

Define a jobs-based value proposition

• A value proposition is an explicit definition of the value you’ll offer customers
• Value Proposition Canvas is a simple tool to help you define it
• Steps
• Understand the customer profile (Customer jobs, Pains and Gains)
• Discuss the solution profile (Products and services, pain relievers and gain creators)
• Consider before, during and after getting a job done
• Ensure the fit between the customer and the solution
• Form a value proposition statement
• For (target job performers)
• Who are dissatisfied with (current alternative)
• Our solution is a (product or service)
• That provides (key problem-solving capability)
• Unlike (the product alternative)
• The canvas is a good tool to kickstart conversations around value propositions
• If you’ve done JBTD research already - it’s easy to get started
• Put some rigor into the information you use - especially the jobs to be done

Designing Value: Create solutions that are desirable, viable, and useful.

Create a development roadmap

• Don’t think of roadmaps as a project plan. JTBD can help create roadmaps that focus on the value that the organisation intends to create and deliver for customers - you can create a roadmap that focuses on customer needs, problems or jobs to be done.
• Roadmap: How customers benefit + how that aligns to the business objectives + sequence work and set broad timelines + themes/ key problems of customers
• Use JTBD to drive roadmap themes - and ensure efforts are aligned to customer needs
• Keep roadmaps high. level with indefinite delivery dates
• Steps
1. Define the solution direction
• These will help: Mission + Values + Business Objectives
2. Determine the customer needs to pursue
• Roadmaps should be about expressing customer needs
• Think about what level of job you want to pursue
3. Set a timeline
• Relative timings are better (Now, later, future).
4. Align the development effort to the roadmap
• Job stories can tie the overall project to customer needs
• Once you’ve got the roadmap format - it’s quick to update
• Stakeholder wrangling is where the challenge is
• Don’t confuse roadmaps with project plans - instead think of them as painting the picture of the sequence of activities
• Keep them up to date
• Use your JTBD framework to align themes in the roadmap

Align teams to job stories

• User stories are granular by design - so they fail to connect the solution being broken down to user needs.
• Job stories help represent smaller JTBD - you can breakdown a big JTBD into smaller JTBD.
• They can stand on their own - as they include information about circumstances and job steps
• Clearly there was still some debate about the best job story format in 2020.
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Intercomm Structure
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Author Structure
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Andrea Hill Structure
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Steph Troeph Structure
1. With JTBD stories, more details about circumstances shows causality better.
• Job stories provide confidence that features and capabilities are grounded in fulfilling a need
• Steps
1. Understand job stages and circumstances - base them on interviews and observations.
2. Formulate job stories - keep the format constant - try to make them MECE - focus on a limited sey
3. Solve for the job stories - make them visible - use them as a guide to decision making
• Easy to do once you’ve done JTBD research, created a job map and have a roadmap
• Be consistent in the job story format you use
• They won’t replace the user stories of agile development (keep those and measure burn-down on them) - They serve best as a design tool to create or determine concept directoin and design.
• Use them if you feel the need to connect your effort to customer needs

Architect the solution

• Architecture here refers to the structure of how components come together conceptually. Matching the model of they system to the model of the job ensures better comprehension and usability
• The structure of a solution can be independent of the interface with the customer
• Base the blueprint of a solution on the individuals jobs for longevity and better comprehension

• Different methods including User Environment Design (USD)
• Based on the understanding of what ‘work’ the users are trying to get done
• The structure of a product or service should mirror the users work, rather than technology. If you support the users work, rather than technology. If you support the users work as best as possible, then you’ll have the best chance of adoption.
• Steps
1. Understand users and their work
2. Identify corresponding focus areas
• Don’t do this in a chronological or temporal way
• Cluster micro-jobs into logical groups - called focus areas.
• Consider the end users mental model in getting work done.
3. Model the solution structure
• Arrange the focus areas into a network diagram. Show the relationships with arrows and lines.
• Reflects the major pathways between the functions.
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Example Diagram:
• You have to take an iterative approach to creating conceptual models of a solution
• The more complex solution - the more difficult the challenge

Test Hypothesis / assumptions with JTBD

• JBTD doesn’t guarantee adoption
• Experiment and test your solutions for better product-market fit
• Use JTBD to formulate testable hypothesis throughout the product development lifecycle
• Steps
• Formulate the hypothesis
• Format: We believe that [type of customer] will be successful solving [problem] using [feature] while doing [job to be done]
• Who are our customers?
• What problems do they have?
• Will this concept solve their problem?
• Can they use this feature?
• Validate or invalidate hypothesis with experiments
• Exploratory videos, landing pages, prototypes, concierge, limited product release
• Make sense of what you learned and move forward
• Take an iterative approach to reducing uncertainty and gaining confidence
• It’s hard to isolate variables for testing
• False positives and negatives are common

Delivering Value: Present the solution to the market in a successful business model

Map the consumption journey

• Journey maps show the interactions customers have with your brand
• Different to a job map - which shows the jobs independent to the solution
• Journey maps provide insight into how people will find, acquire, and use your solution.
• Journey maps reflect consumption jobs, or the goals of people have in finding a product or service, deciding to acquire it, and then getting value from it. Buyers play a central role in mapping consumption jobs. These may or may not be the same as the job performer.

• Steps
1. Initiate a journey-mapping project.
• Whose journey are you mapping?
• What aspects of the journey are most useful to map?
• What are the bounds of the journey when does experience begin and end?
2. Investigate the steps in consumption
• Use research to uncover the consumption journey. Usually speaking to 6 people is enough
3. Illustrate the journey in a diagram
• Focus on the individuals goals along the way. What triggers them to make the purchase? What keeps them loyal?
• Plan, Discover, Learn, Decide, Purchase, setup, use, modify, upgrade, renew, leave, return
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Example:
• Then add emotion and context details
• Capture the as-is consumption journey first
4. Align around the consumption journey
• Plan different ways to make your journey map actionable.
• Once the team understand the current state - determine how to make customers more successful
• Keep the job map separate from the journey map
• Journey maps are a good way to build shared understanding within the team

Onboard customers successfully

• JBTD helps you see the the customer objectives and how you need to help them
• Onboard the customer to the job (not just the product)
• Consider:
• Solution Experience: How familiar customers are with your product or service?
• Job Comprehension: How knowledgable customers are about getting the job done
• Once you know where your user segments are on this 2x2 - you can provide them with messaging to help them
• Steps
1. Learn about the customer and segment them into different learning types
• Asses new users (in product or survey). Are they familiar with your product? Are they familiar with the job?
2. Determine the optimal sequence of tasks for each type
• Reduce time to value
• Get them to take a step towards getting their job done
• People will need different types of information
• Get customers to complete a task that is relevant to learning how to operate the solution and getting the job done
3. Design the onboarding experience
• Create content and messages that target each of the different scenarios. Develop features and functions that support. Give them clues about outcomes they can expect.
• Different types of customers have different onboarding needs
• Assess how well your current onboarding flow helps address the needs of your different learning types
• Consider ways to improve the flow once you’ve completed your analysis

Maximise customer retention

• The key to loyalty is consistently helping customers achieve their desired outcomes over time
• Finding the first thought of cancelling can shed light on what you can do to prevent churn
• Steps
1. Conduct cancellation interviews using the switch technique
• Use the switch interview format - but instead of asking why they switched to your solution, you ask why they switched away from your solution
• Dig deep to recreate that decision-making process and find the root cause.
• Add your insights to a switch timeline
• Consumption, cancel moment, active looking, passive looking, first thoughts
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Questions to ask the customers
• Focus on the barriers to getting the job done
2. Find patterns in cancellation reasons
• Find patterns you can leverage to make improvements
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Questions to ask the team:
3. Address the root causes to prevent churn and increase retention
• Issues upstream (onboarding, purchasing, or earlier) have an effect later in the customer lifecycle
• Take issues you’ve identified and then ‘How might we…’ some solutions
• You can gain a considerable insight with just a handful of cancellation interviews
• Recruiting churned customers is hard - and will require an incentive.

• Fogg Behaviour Model
• Three behaviours must be true for a new behaviour to occur. If behaviour change does not occur then one of the three elements is missing.
• Motivation: Desire to accomplish an objective. Understanding the job gives insight into motivation, when motivation is high - people are more likely to change.
• Ability: People must have the skill to perform the job to be one. Your solution should augment peoples abilities and teach them how to reach their goals.
• Prompts: A trigger is needed for the target behaviour to occur and the habit to form - a clear call to action is crucial in creating a new habit.
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As a diagram:

Provide relevant support

• In support situations, people don’t ask for what they want directly
• They may use different language
• They may have a solution in mind for their real JTBD
• Clarify the real need before trying to fix a customer issue
• JTBD can help get to the best resolution
• Steps
• Listen for the job
• Clarify and assess as to the customer intent
• Resolve the issue
• Use active and empathetic listening

(Re) Developing Value: Continue to innovate and grow the business

Survive Disruption

• Clayton Christensen, is the father of JTBD theory
• Identifying the jobs people are trying to get done stands at the core of understanding market disruption
• Identify what jobs people need done and how they could be done more easily, conveniently, or affordably. People will switch if you make it easier, more convenient or more affordable.
• Understand potential disruption by comparing the strengths and weaknesses of competitors in terms of jobs to be done
• Steps
1. Determine the strengths of the disruptor.
• Look at your main job - consider how else people might get it done.
• Identify relevant jobs a potential disrupter gets done.
• List the main advantages and disadvantages of the disrupter
2. Identify your own company’s relative advantage
• List jobs that could overlap with low-end competition
• Think about the circumstances and conditions that are most relevant
3. Evaluate barriers
• Examine the conditions that would help or hinder the disrupter from co-opting your current advantages in the future
• Determine whether each job core of your offering is easier or harder to disrupt
• You’ll need to have key decision makers around for prioritisation and making strategy a reality
• Change the main job, job performer or the solutions compared and you’ll get a different picture of disruption
• Don’t overreact to disruption by dismantling a still-profitable business. Instead strengthen relationships with core customers while creating a new team focused on growth opportunities that arise from the disruption

Create a jobs-based strategy

• By knowing which solutions get the job done cheaper, and quicker, organisations can use JTBD to achieve more predictable growth.
• JTBD Growth Strategy Matrix by Tony Ulwick and Strategyn
• The 5th strategy, the sustaining strategy represents offering that get a job done slightly better or slightly cheaper. It’s a bad strategy for a market entrant, but might help an incumbent retain existing customers

• Growth is not strategic - every organisation wants to grow
• Looks at the customers perspective
• Customers jobs remain stable despite technology
• Steps
• Segment customers by JTBD
• Decide on the type of strategy to follow
• Determine solutions needed to get the job done
• Get more steps done
• Get steps done better
• Get related jobs done
• Ideate and test solutions that address the job in a strategic way
• Craft a value proposition and create marketing campaigns
• A jobs based strategy requires a lot of research - and you’ll need the entire organisation to buy into it
• Requires high precision and lots of supporting data
• Position of a product may change over time as offerings and market needs change.

Organise around jobs

• Reorgs focus too much on reporting lines and hierarchy - they’re often ineffective
• Try making JTBD one of your organising dimensions - putting the focus directly on customer-centred thinking in a way that’s inherent to the company structure
• Through a jobs lens - what matters more than who reports to whom is how different parts of the organisation interact to deliver the offering that perfectly performs customers’ jobs to be done.
• Steps
1. Cluster jobs into local groupings
• Find natural divisions in the job that will correspond to different teams and efforts
2. Organise based on jobs
• Determine the level at which to organise around jobs
• Align cross-functional teams or working groups to jobs to be done at a secondary or tertiary level, similar to guilds or chapters in the Spotify model.
3. Set success metrics and measurements
• Give new teams the mission of owning customer success in getting that job done
• Empower them to understand the job and devise ways to solve for it
• You don’t have to reorganise people and reporting lines around jobs, but you can orientate work to customer objectives. This will make your company make better products and services
• Use tertiary org structures within existing structures to get going (guilds, chapters) that focus on a given job
• Understand and break your offering into core capabilities - each targeting a job to be done. Intercom had these…
• Acquire new customers
• Engage with existing customers
• Learn about customers
• Support customers

Consider ways to expand market opportunities

• A view of JTBD can help you expand your market
• Consider the next level up in the jobs hierarchy of goals
• Technology can change, but jobs are stable, so its advantageous to define your market around the job.
• Focus on the progress that people are trying to make in their lives as they seek solutions of fulfill their needs
• Steps
1. Look a the progress that people want to make (look for interlocking and related jobs - ask why to go up the hierarchy
2. Ask “What business are we really in?”
3. Reframe your offering. What’s missing? What needs to be true in order for you to expand?

Random Points:

• Edison realised that by understanding customer needs – he could invent useful products more efficiently. Edison’s team visited people in their homes and watched how they used their current lighting products
• Innovations can lead to needs and vice versa.
• It’s not about where innovation originates, but where it ends. With human desired and wants.
• Don’t do innovation theatre - hackathons should have a strategic imperative
• The problem is rarely ideas - it’s getting the right ideas and executing on them. The real challenge is overcoming the natural forces of organisations that keep good ideas down.
• Uncertainty is a big factor. JTBD can increase the chances of success
• In the end - the market decides whether to adopt an innovation or not. How an offering is presented to customers is just as important as getting the right solution.

Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI)

• The most comprehensive and refined approach using JTBD today. An E2E jobs to be done process
• ODI has four phases:
1. Identify the job. The main job is a broad functional objective with a portfolio of desired outcomes (i.e., needs) with emotional and social dimensions. Jobs are discovered through in-depth primary research with job performers
2. Create a job map. The job is represented as a process, not a static point in time, captured in a visual diagram to show how it unfolds. The job map becomes a key model to organise insights throughout the process.
3. Define the desired outcomes. Needs are seen in relation to the main job, and each main job may have 50 to 150 desired outcome statements that are uncovered through the research.
4. Quantify the market. Using a survey to find unmet needs.
• The Problems with ODI:
• There are 84 detailed steps - taking shortcuts will skew results
• The survey is challenging for people to take - you need a big incentive
• It’s hard to do without training, guidance and practice (which makes me skeptical)
• Conducting interviews and creating a job map may be enough in most cases. The job map provides value on its own