What is Jobs-to-be-Done? – Definition
Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) is an innovation framework developed by Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School) and other thought leaders such as Tony Ulwick and Bob Moesta. The central thesis: customers don’t buy products – they “hire” products to get a specific “job” done in their lives.
The most famous example comes from Theodore Levitt: “Customers don’t want a 6mm drill bit. They want a 6mm hole.” JTBD goes a step further: customers don’t even want a hole – they want a shelf on the wall to neatly display their books.
For business model innovation, JTBD is transformative: if you understand your customers’ true “job,” you can develop radically new value propositions that think beyond existing product categories – and potentially open up Blue Oceans.
The JTBD Theory: Core Concepts
The Job: A “job” is the progress a person wants to achieve in a specific life situation. It is stable over time (unlike technologies or products), situation-dependent, and multidimensional (functional + emotional + social).
Circumstances: The same job can require completely different solutions in different situations. “Getting full quickly” at a business lunch requires a different solution than when camping. The situation determines the solution space.
Competing Solutions: The true competitors are not necessarily similar products, but all solutions that get the same job done – including “doing nothing” or workarounds. Netflix competes not only with Disney+, but also with books, gaming, and sleep.
Hiring & Firing: Customers “hire” a solution for a job and “fire” the previous solution. Understanding both sides is crucial for successful innovation.
The 3 Dimensions of a Job
Every job has three dimensions that collectively determine the purchasing decision:
| Dimension | Question | Example (Hiring a Consultant) |
|---|---|---|
| Functional | What practical outcome should be achieved? | Develop a new business model, increase revenue |
| Emotional | How does the customer want to feel? | Security, confidence, control over the future |
| Social | How does the customer want to be perceived? | As innovative, as a good leader, as future-oriented |
Many innovations fail because they only address the functional dimension. The emotional and social dimensions are often the real drivers of purchase – especially in a B2B context, where buyer personas also consider personal career goals and reputation.
JTBD Methodology: Discovering and Prioritizing Jobs
- Create a Job Map: Break down the entire “job process” into steps – from problem recognition and solution search to success evaluation. Typically 8–12 steps.
- Identify Desired Outcomes: For each job step, formulate the desired outcomes: “Minimize the time needed to…” or “Maximize the probability that…”
- Calculate Opportunity Score: According to Tony Ulwick’s Opportunity Algorithm: Outcomes that are important but poorly served show the greatest innovation opportunities.
- Formulate Job Stories: “When I [situation], I want to [motivation], so that I can [expected outcome].” E.g.: “When developing a new business model, I want validated customer insights, so that I can minimize investment risks.”
Conducting JTBD Interviews
JTBD interviews fundamentally differ from traditional market research:
- Focus on past decisions: Not “What would you buy?”, but “Tell me about the last situation in which you hired [solution X]”
- Timeline Technique: Reconstruct the entire decision journey – from the first thought to research, purchase, and usage.
- Push-Pull-Anxiety-Habit Framework: What pushed away from the old state (Push)? What pulled towards the new solution (Pull)? What anxieties about the change existed (Anxiety)? What habits made the change difficult (Habit)?
- 5-10 interviews are often sufficient: JTBD interviews are qualitatively deep – even 5 conversations often reveal recurring patterns.
JTBD interviews can be excellently integrated into Design Thinking processes and innovation workshops.
JTBD as an Innovation Driver
JTBD provides valuable impulses for various types of innovation:
- Business Model Innovation: If you understand your customers’ job, you might be able to fulfill it better with a completely different business model – e.g., with a subscription model instead of a single purchase.
- Value Proposition Design: JTBD insights flow directly into the Value Proposition Canvas – “Pains” and “Gains” are defined from the job perspective.
- Product Strategy: Which features address which job? Features that don’t serve a job can be eliminated – Lean at its best.
- Brand Positioning: JTBD shows which emotional and social jobs your brand should fulfill.
- Disruptive Innovation: JTBD explains why simpler, cheaper solutions can displace established providers – if they get the core job done “good enough.”
Jobs-to-be-Done for Austrian SMEs
SMEs particularly benefit from JTBD because they are often close to their customers:
- Customer conversations as a goldmine: Sales staff and service teams conduct JTBD-relevant conversations daily – they just need to learn to ask the right questions.
- Discover Niche Jobs: SMEs can identify jobs in their niche that large corporations overlook – and develop an uncopyable USP from them.
- Rapid Implementation: JTBD insights can be directly translated into prototypes and MVPs – without months of market research projects.
- Getting started in 3 steps: Conduct 5 JTBD interviews with existing customers → Identify patterns → Formulate Job Stories → Innovation workshop to derive new solution ideas.
Discover Your Customers’ True Jobs
We help you understand your customers’ real needs with Jobs-to-be-Done interviews and workshops – and develop innovative value propositions from them.
Frequently Asked Questions about Jobs-to-be-Done
What is the difference between Jobs-to-be-Done and Personas?
Buyer personas describe who the customer is (demographics, psychographics, behavior). JTBD describes why the customer buys (what progress they want to achieve). Both approaches are complementary: personas help with communication and channel selection, JTBD with product and business model development. The combination provides a complete customer picture.
Does JTBD also work in the B2B sector?
Absolutely – JTBD is particularly valuable in the B2B sector. B2B purchasing decisions are complex, involve multiple stakeholders, and have distinct functional, emotional, and social dimensions. The purchasing manager has different jobs than the technical director or the CEO. JTBD helps to identify these different jobs and tailor the value proposition for each stakeholder.
How many JTBD interviews do I need?
JTBD interviews are qualitative and in-depth – typically 45–90 minutes per conversation. Experience shows that recurring patterns emerge after 5–8 interviews. 10–12 interviews are considered a guideline for a robust picture. Unlike quantitative market research, the focus is not on statistical significance, but on understanding the causal mechanisms behind purchasing decisions.
How does JTBD differ from Design Thinking?
JTBD and Design Thinking are complementary. JTBD is primarily an analytical framework – it helps to understand what jobs customers want to get done. Design Thinking is a problem-solving process – it helps to develop creative solutions for these jobs. In practice, JTBD interviews provide input for the Empathize phase of Design Thinking, and the Design Thinking process translates JTBD insights into prototypes and solutions.