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 do not buy products – they “hire” products to do a specific “job” in their lives.
The most famous example comes from Theodore Levitt: “Customers do not want a 6 mm drill. They want a 6 mm hole.” JTBD goes one step further: customers do not want a hole either – 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 tap into 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” during 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 do the same job – 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 should be achieved in practice? | 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 to searching for a solution to evaluating success. Typically 8–12 steps.
- Identify Desired Outcomes: Formulate the desired results (outcomes) for each job step: “Minimize the time required to…” or “Maximize the likelihood 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 [expected result].” E.g.: “When I develop 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 do the core job “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.