✊ What is Jobs to be Done (JTBD)?
Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is a product design framework that focuses on users’ needs. It assumes people "hire" products to get a specific job done.
Rather than concentrating on features and solutions, JTBD helps us understand why people choose to buy a product and what result they want to achieve after using it.
JTBD can be interpreted in two ways:
👆 Jobs-As-Activities – focusing on how customers use a product to accomplish tasks,
✌️ Jobs-As-Progress – focusing on the progress customers want to make in their lives, and how your product helps them achieve that.
💡 TL;DR:
→ JAA (Jobs-As-Activities): the user "hires" a product to perform a specific task.
→ JAP (Jobs-As-Progress): the user "hires" a product to reach a desired state or improve some part of their life.
🤸♂️ Jobs-As-Activities
Jobs-As-Activities assumes that customers see your product as a tool for carrying out a specific task.
For example:
🎧 Listening to music on Spotify,
📺 Watching a series on Netflix,
📕 Reading a book on a tablet.
📈 Jobs-As-Progress
Jobs-As-Progress focuses on the progress and changes users want to achieve in their lives, with your product being the vehicle that helps them reach that desired state.
For example:
🦉 Using Duolingo to learn a new language,
🍊 Tracking calories to lose, gain, or maintain weight,
💪 Using a fitness app (like Strava, Nike, or Adidas) to monitor workouts and stay consistent, ultimately improving their physique.
🤔 Why does it matter?
1️⃣ Better understanding of users.
JTBD helps PMs gain insight into the needs, motivations, and goals of users, leading to products that better meet real expectations.
2️⃣ More effective products.
Rather than focusing on features, JTBD helps create products that truly allow users to achieve their goals, resulting in higher conversion rates.
3️⃣ Improved marketing communication.
JTBD makes it easier to speak the language of benefits from the user’s perspective rather than simply listing features.
4️⃣ Better measurement.
JTBD allows you to identify metrics to measure how your product impacts users’ lives.
💼 How can PMs use Jobs To Be Done?
JTBD is a continuous process of discovering, understanding, and fulfilling user needs. By applying it in practice, PMs can create products that are more valuable, useful, and satisfying.
Now, let’s take a closer look at ✨ the Milkshake theory ✨👇
👉 JTBD was popularised by Anthony Ulwick in 2005 in his article “What Customers Want”. Clayton Christensen later applied this framework in his famous Milkshake theory. 🥛
A fast food chain wanted to boost sales of their milkshakes. They tried many different tactics to achieve this:
🍫 Adding more chocolate,
🧪 Improving the texture,
💰 Lowering the price,
They even offered free samples to win over the sceptics. 🎁
What worked? 🫢 Sales rose when the milkshake became a convenient, filling alternative to breakfast. Something you could grab on your way to work. Simple, yet so effective!
So, what should you do? 👇
1️⃣ Identify the tasks your customers want to accomplish
Find out what they want to achieve, what problems they’re trying to solve, or which pain points they’re trying to avoid.
👉 Conduct customer interviews (e.g., surveys) to learn how users would “hire” your product.
👉 Create task maps to visualise the user journey and the steps required to achieve a particular goal. Identify gaps and areas for improvement in the product.
👉 Prioritise product features based on their impact on user needs.
👉 Ensure the product is easy to use and intuitive for your users.
👉 Continuously gather user feedback to keep improving the product.
2️⃣ Task categorisation
After identifying your customers' goals through research, group them by similarities. For instance, if you conduct a JTBD interview for a laptop, you might find elements related to working, learning, reading industry articles, gaming, browsing social media, from any location.
You could group these elements into specific categories like:
- Expanding knowledge,
- Entertainment,
- Work (including working outside the home).
Grouping tasks into similar categories avoids repeated conclusions and makes prioritisation easier.
3️⃣ Prioritisation
Once you’ve identified tasks and grouped them into categories, you can begin to prioritise.
Start by determining which task is most important to customers, then consider which is the most valuable for your company.
📝 Learn more about prioritising tasks using the RICE 🍚 method in this blog post.
4️⃣ Action
Once you’ve gathered insights about your customers' needs and expectations, it’s time to create a product that truly meets them.
So, get to work! 🚀
