Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD)
Also known as: JTBDJobs TheoryOutcome-Driven InnovationCustomer JobsDesired Outcomes
💡The Concept
Jobs-To-Be-Done is a framework that says customers don't buy products — they 'hire' products to do a job in their life. A customer doesn't buy a drill because they want a drill; they want a hole in the wall. They don't even want the hole — they want to hang a picture to make their home feel like theirs. Understanding the REAL job reveals competitors you never considered and opportunities you never imagined. McDonald's milkshakes compete with bananas and bagels (the 'morning commute companion' job), not just other milkshakes. Intercom adopted JTBD and restructured their entire product around customer jobs instead of features — driving a 3x improvement in activation rates.
⚠️The Trap
The trap is defining jobs too narrowly (feature-level) or too broadly (life-level). 'I need a spreadsheet' is a feature request, not a job. 'I need to feel successful at work' is too abstract to design for. The right level is: 'I need to track monthly expenses across 3 teams and present a consolidated view to the CFO by the 5th of each month.' This gives you the functional job (track + consolidate), the emotional job (look competent to the CFO), and the constraints (monthly, 3 teams, by the 5th). Another trap: assuming you know the job without talking to customers. Your guesses about why people use your product are wrong 60-70% of the time.
🎯The Action
Conduct 10 Switch Interviews (a JTBD technique) with recent customers. Ask: (1) 'What were you using before us?' (reveals the competitor you're really replacing). (2) 'What was the specific moment you decided to look for a solution?' (reveals the struggling moment). (3) 'What would you go back to if our product disappeared?' (reveals the real alternative). Map the responses into Job Statements: 'When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [expected outcome].' Identify the top 3 jobs and redesign your landing page, onboarding, and feature roadmap around them.
⚡Pro Tips
The 'struggling moment' is where product opportunities live. Customers don't switch products when everything is fine — they switch when frustration peaks. Find the struggling moment: ask 'What was happening in your life or work the MOMENT you decided to search for a new solution?'
Every job has 3 dimensions: functional (what I need to accomplish), emotional (how I want to feel), and social (how I want others to see me). A project management tool's functional job is 'track tasks.' Its emotional job is 'feel in control.' Its social job is 'look organized to my team.' Design for all three.
Use JTBD to identify non-obvious competitors. Slack's job isn't 'team messaging' — it's 'reduce email overwhelm for teams.' That means Slack doesn't just compete with Teams and Discord; it competes with email, meetings, and even walking over to someone's desk.
🚫Common Myths
✗Myth: “JTBD replaces user personas”
✓Reality: JTBD and personas are complementary. Personas describe WHO your customer is. JTBD describes WHY they buy. A VP of Marketing (persona) might hire your tool for 'proving ROI to the CEO' (job), while a Marketing Coordinator (different persona) hires the same tool for 'not getting fired for missing a deadline' (different job). Same product, same job category, very different motivations.
✗Myth: “Customers can tell you their jobs directly”
✓Reality: Customers are terrible at articulating their real jobs. They'll say 'I need better reporting' when the real job is 'I need to convince my board this investment is working.' JTBD interviews use indirect questioning — asking about PAST behavior (switching events) rather than future desires (feature requests) — because behavior reveals truth while words often don't.
📊Real-World Case Studies
Intercom
2014-2018
Intercom completely restructured their product organization around Jobs-To-Be-Done. Instead of traditional feature teams (Chat team, Email team, Bot team), they created teams organized by customer jobs: 'Acquire new users,' 'Engage existing users,' 'Support users who need help.' This shift meant features were designed to complete jobs end-to-end rather than being isolated tools. Activation rates improved 3x because onboarding guided users toward their specific job instead of showcasing features.
Activation Rate Improvement
3x
Product Teams Reorganized
From feature-based to job-based
Revenue at JTBD adoption
~$50M ARR
Revenue after (2020)
$150M+ ARR
💡 Lesson: Organizing your product team around customer jobs (not features) naturally produces products that solve complete problems. Feature-based teams build features; job-based teams solve problems. Intercom's growth accelerated because every team was aligned around a customer outcome, not a technical deliverable.
Kodak
1975-2012
Kodak defined their business as 'selling film' instead of understanding the customer job: 'I want to preserve and share memories.' When digital cameras emerged, Kodak (who actually invented the digital camera in 1975!) dismissed them because they didn't sell film. They failed to see that digital photography did the SAME JOB better — preserving memories became instant, shareable, and free per photo. By the time they pivoted, smartphones had made even digital cameras obsolete.
Peak Revenue
$16B (1996)
Bankruptcy Filing
2012
Market Share Lost
100% (film market disappeared)
Digital Camera Patent
1975 (37 years before bankruptcy)
💡 Lesson: When you define your business by your PRODUCT instead of your customer's JOB, disruptive technologies blind-side you. Film wasn't the job — memory preservation was. If Kodak had structured around the job, they'd have embraced digital 20 years earlier. They literally invented the technology that killed them and couldn't see it because they were product-focused, not job-focused.
🎮Decision Scenario: The Feature Request Avalanche
You're the Head of Product at a B2B SaaS tool for sales teams. You have 500 features on the backlog, mostly submitted by customers and the sales team. Revenue growth has stalled at $8M ARR. Your CEO is pressuring you to 'just build what customers are asking for.'
ARR
$8M
Feature Backlog
500+ requests
NPS
32 (below industry avg of 41)
Monthly Churn
4.5%
Activation Rate
38%
Decision 1
The top 10 feature requests (by vote count) are: CRM integration, better reporting, mobile app, AI-powered insights, custom dashboards, API access, Slack integration, advanced filtering, bulk actions, and dark mode. The sales team insists you need ALL of these to close the deals in their pipeline.
Build the top 5 by vote count — customers are literally telling you what they want. Ship CRM integration, better reporting, mobile app, AI insights, and dashboardsClick to reveal →
Pause feature development. Conduct 30 JTBD switch interviews with recent churned customers AND recent activations. Discover the core job, then redesign onboarding and the core product experience around it before adding featuresClick to reveal →
Scenario Challenge
You run a note-taking app with 50K users. Your product team has 3 feature requests: (A) AI-powered summarization (most requested in surveys), (B) Offline mode (requested by 8% of users), (C) Shared workspaces for teams. You conducted 30 JTBD Switch Interviews and discovered the top job: 'When I'm in back-to-back meetings, I want to quickly capture decisions and action items so I can follow up without dropping balls.' 85% of switch interviews cited this struggling moment.
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