Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)
Details
- Full Name
-
Jobs To Be Done Framework (Christensen interpretation)
Core Concepts:
- Job definition
-
Progress people want to make in a particular context
- Functional job
-
Practical task to accomplish
- Emotional job
-
How people want to feel
- Social job
-
How people want to be perceived
- Hire and fire
-
Customers "hire" products to do a job, "fire" when inadequate
- Context matters
-
Jobs exist in specific circumstances
- Competition redefined
-
Anything solving the same job is competition
- Innovation opportunities
-
Unmet jobs or poorly served jobs
- Job stories
-
Alternative to user stories focusing on context and motivation
- Key Proponents
-
Clayton Christensen, Alan Klement, Bob Moesta
When to Use:
-
Product discovery and innovation
-
Understanding why customers choose solutions
-
Identifying true competition
-
Writing more meaningful user stories
-
Market segmentation based on jobs, not demographics
Criticism:
-
Two schools claim the same term: Alan Klement documents in "Know the Two — Very — Different Interpretations of Jobs to be Done" that Christensen/Moesta’s Jobs-as-Progress and Ulwick’s Jobs-as-Activities (Outcome-Driven Innovation) are incompatible interpretations that confuse practitioners
-
Even the origin is contested: Ulwick’s Strategyn states that "JTBD was created by Tony Ulwick in 1990" and merely popularized by Christensen ("Know Your Customers' 'Jobs to Be Done'", HBR 2016)
-
The bare acronym therefore activates two conflicting priors — say "JTBD (Christensen, jobs as progress)" or "JTBD (Ulwick, Outcome-Driven Innovation)"; this anchor’s full name carries the Christensen qualifier for exactly that reason