A Job To Be Done is the process a consumer goes through whenever she aims to transform her existing life-situation into a preferred one but cannot because there are constraints that stop her.
It should not describe an action but rather what someone is trying to achieve, the action is only a means to get there.
A good customer job description includes:
- Push (What pushes me to make my situation better)
- Struggle (What Am I struggling with)
- Job (What am I trying to do)
- Pull (What needs to happen to make the solution attractive)
- How life is better after Job is done
Example:
”Free me from the stress I deal with when figuring out what products won’t harm my children, so I can have more time to enjoy being a parent”
Now it’s our job to find the solution that best addresses the JTBD
Principles
1. Customers don’t want your product or what it does; they want help, making their lives better
2. People have Jobs, things don't
3. Competition is defined in the minds of customers and they use progress as their criterion
4. When customers start using a solution for a JTBD, they stop using something else
5. Innovation opportunities exist when customers exhibit compensatory behaviors (they put up with a shitty solution or cobble together their own)
6. Favor progress over outcomes and goals
7. Progress defines value; contrast reveals value
8. Solutions for Jobs deliver value beyond the moment of use
9. Producers, Consumers, solutions and jobs should be thought of as parts of a system that work together to evolve markets
What’s our hypothesis?
[What’s our assumption of what the problem is? What’s our product idea?]
How much are people struggling?
[On a scale from 0 to 10 how much of a pain is this?]
What’s the competition?
[What do people currently do or have considered doing to solve the JTBD]
What’s the value of the competition?
[What do people value in the competition]
What’s the differences of the competition?
[Contrast the competitors against each other, what’s different?]
What made them look for a solution to their problem?
[What trigger made them want to make progress in this area?]
What are we replacing?
[If they start using our “solution” what do they stop using. Are they paying for their current solution and if so, how much?]
What’s the JTBD?
[Write down the JTBD in the form of “Help me do x, so that y happens” or similar (not a rule)]
General Empathy Questions
Q1. 🌈 Hope
If you had a magic wand and could instantly
X, how would that change your life?Q2. 💀 Pain
What’s your #1 challenge when it comes to
X. And why is it so challenging?Q3. 🚧 Barrier
Tell me about the last time you did
X, how did that go? What was preventing you from Y?Replacing X and Y
Replacing X
Simply replace
X with the benefit/action of the industry you’re in. For example…- …
organize team projects and docs→ Notion
- …
brainstorm remotely→ Miro
- …
convert visitors into subscribers→ ConvertKit
- …
apply psychology to your product→ (we used this in surveys to build this course)
These questions are especially handy for newer markets/products, but you’d be surprised to see how many mature product teams don’t have clear answers to those questions.
Replacing Y
Y is often a “Hope” (Motivation) related to the core context X. Ideally, you should use the customer’s words (i.e. their reply to the first part of the question).Example
For example, while we were researching the Hopes/Pains/Barriers of potential students of this course, one interview went like this:
- Dan:“Tell me about the last time you tried to apply psychology to the development of a product feature, how did that go?”
- Interviewee:“So the other day, I was preparing for a meeting where I had to rally a stakeholderaround a new product initiative… and despite all the psychology books I’ve read, I failed to communicate my solution.”
- Dan:“Interesting… and what was preventing you from rallying that stakeholder?”
- Interviewee:“Well, if I could have some kind of framework to get people to focus on the problem and have the vocabulary to highlight the psychology behind that problem, it would be a lot easier and […]”
So here,
X= “apply psychology to the development of a product feature.”
Y= “rally that stakeholder.”
These types of questions give you essential insights into the Motivation and Abilityof your customers.
