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Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)

Activate when: user says 'customers aren't switching to us even though we're better,' 'our churn surveys aren't predicting who actually leaves,' 'we're debat...

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Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)

Overview

People don't buy products — they hire products to do a job (make progress in a specific circumstance, across functional, emotional, and social dimensions). Customers switch when a new hire does the job better; they churn when your product stops serving the job. Developed by Christensen, Moesta, and Taddy Hall; codified in Competing Against Luck (2016). Rooted in Levitt's 1960 insight: "People don't want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole."

Composes with pmf-crossing-the-chasm, mvp, switching-costs, first-principles.

When to Use

  • Product is technically excellent but customers don't switch from incumbents
  • Demographic segmentation produces segments that don't behave alike
  • Churn is high but exit surveys don't predict it; roadmap debate is feature-vs-feature
  • New market entry: "who is our customer" instead of "what job"

Not when: commodity; regulatory-compliance purchase; org buyer with different motivations than end-user.

Coaching Novices (Adaptive Front Door)

  • Engine mode: concrete product/customer case → run The Process directly.
  • Coach mode: unfamiliar or no concrete case → guide step by step.

In Coach mode, respond one step at a time. Each [WAIT] is a hard stop — output only that step's question, then stop.

  1. One-line: people hire products to do a job — the competitor set is everything the buyer considered, not just your category.
  2. Check fit: commodity / regulatory-buy / no-choice → not this lens.
  3. Elicit the real product and customer behavior they're trying to understand.

[WAIT — do not advance until user responds]

  1. One question at a time: what job is the customer hiring this for? what circumstance? what did they hire before?

[WAIT — do not advance until user responds]

  1. Close: job statement + the non-obvious competitor they're actually choosing between.

[WAIT — do not advance until user responds]

The Process

Step 1 — State product + assumed customer (starting point; will be dismantled).

Step 2 — Switch Interviews. Interview recent switchers to/from your product. Reconstruct the switching moment: (1) First thought — when did you first realize you needed something different? (2) Circumstance — what was going wrong? (3) What else did you consider? (4) Push — what was actively wrong with the old? (5) Pull — what attracted the new? (6) Anxiety — what almost stopped you? (7) Habit — what behavior had to change? (8) First use — how did you feel?

Step 3 — Extract job statement: When [circumstance], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome].

Step 4 — Identify actual competitor set: Direct (same category) / Adjacent (different category, same job) / Non-consumption (do nothing) / Surprising non-obvious.

Step 5 — Map all three dimensions: Functional (practical task) / Emotional (how they want to feel) / Social (how they want to be seen).

Step 6 — Diagnose churn or wins: Churn: what job? what did they hire instead? what did the new hire do better? Wins: what did they fire? what became unbearable? what anxiety was overcome?

Step 7 — Design from the job. Every feature: does it help progress in the specific circumstance? does it serve functional/emotional/social dimensions? does it reduce Push/Pull/Anxiety/Habit barriers?

Output Template

JTBD Analysis: <product>
Job statement: When [circumstance], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome].
Competitor set: Direct / Adjacent / Non-consumption / Surprising
Dimensions: Functional / Emotional / Social
Forces of progress: Push / Pull / Anxiety / Habit
Implications: Features to build / cut / Marketing angle / Competitive set to track

→ Method in Action: Christensen and the Milkshake Study, 2003

Pack: Common JTBD Patterns

| Domain | Job shape | Non-obvious competitor | |---|---|---| | Productivity SaaS | "Under deadline, make artifact look credible to boss" | Boss not asking; meeting cancelled | | Consumer food | "Tired after work, feed kids without feeling like failure" | Ordering delivery; cereal | | Banking/fintech | "Worried about money, feel like I have a plan" | Calling a parent; not checking balance | | Dating apps | "Lonely Tuesday night, feel like there are possibilities" | Re-watching a show; texting an ex |

Applying It Well

  • Customers articulate the job reliably; they cannot reliably predict which features serve it. Ask "what were you trying to accomplish when you switched?" not "what should we build?"
  • The most dangerous competitor is usually outside your category — a different way of doing the job, or non-consumption.
  • Most products serve 3-7 distinct jobs. Discovering the second and third explains cohort behavior differences.

→ Primary sources: references/sources.md

Common Rationalizations

[D] = designed upfront | [O] = observed in real use. [O] entries are more valuable.

| Fake move | Reality | |---|---| | [D] "We surveyed customers and they want X feature" | Customers articulate jobs, not features. Re-interview using Switch methodology. | | [D] "Our customer is millennials / mid-market companies" | Demographic categories are not jobs. Same person has 5 different jobs across her day. | | [D] "We don't have competitors" | Every job has alternatives, including non-consumption. Can't name the competitor = don't understand the job. | | [D] "JTBD is just user-needs research" | User-needs lists features; JTBD reconstructs the switching moment. Different output. | | [D] Treating the job as functional only | Emotional and social dimensions are where premium pricing and brand loyalty live. | | [D] Skipping Switch Interviews because "we already know" | If you can't name Push/Pull/Anxiety/Habit for 10 recent switchers, you don't already know. | | [D] Treating churn as "they lost interest" | Customers fire your product because something else does the job better. Identify the new hire. | | → Add [O] entries here after each real use — paste the actual failure pattern | What went wrong and why |

Red Flags

  • Segmentation is purely demographic; competitor set lists only same-category products
  • Roadmap features justified by "customers asked" without job context
  • Churn analysis stops at "less engaged" instead of identifying the new hire
  • Job statements without a circumstance; functional dimension only; no Switch Interview ever run

Verification

  • [ ] 5-10 Switch Interviews conducted (not feature surveys)
  • [ ] Job statement: When/I want to/So I can with explicit circumstance
  • [ ] Functional, emotional, social dimensions named
  • [ ] Competitor set includes adjacent, non-consumption, and surprising alternatives
  • [ ] Push, Pull, Anxiety, Habit forces identified
  • [ ] Product implications derived from the job; primary job chosen if multiple exist

Part of deciqAI Knowledge Skills — open-source thinking skills that make rigor executable for AI agents. Built by deciqAI · https://deciqai.com · Contributions welcome — see the template at the repo root.