What is
Jobs-to-be-Done?
What is Jobs-to-be-Done?
What is Jobs-to-be-Done?
Jobs-to-be-Done is best defined as a perspective — a new lens through which you can observe markets, customers, needs, competitors, and customer segments more insightfully.
When you look at marketing and innovation through a Jobs-to-be-Done lens, everything looks different:
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The unit of analysis is no longer the customer or the product. It’s the “job” the customer is trying to get done.
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Markets aren’t defined around products. They are defined as groups of people trying to get a job done.
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Customers aren’t just buyers. They also include job executors.
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Needs aren’t vague, latent and unknowable. They are the metrics customers use to measure success when getting a job done.
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Competitors aren’t companies that make products like yours. They are companies with any solution people use to get the job done.
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Customer segments aren’t based on demographics or psychographics. They are based on how customers struggle differently to get a job done.
When you think about your market from this perspective, you are much more likely to create and deliver extraordinary products and services.
Why?
Products come and go, but the customer’s job-to-be-done is stable over time. With a stable unit of analysis, you can define customer needs that are stable over time, too, which gives you unique, robust targets for value creation.
In short, using a Jobs-to-be-Done lens, you can take your understanding of customer needs to the next level. And with the right customer inputs, you can orchestrate the systematic creation of customer value across the organization.
This chapter explains nine tenets of Jobs-to-be-Done Theory and prepares you for applying these tenets to grow your own business. You’ll also find out how Arm & Hammer used these tenets to turn around a streak of lackluster product launches — and grow 30%+ year-over-year.
Jobs-to-be-Done is best defined as a perspective — a new lens through which you can observe markets, customers, needs, competitors, and customer segments more insightfully.
When you look at marketing and innovation through a Jobs-to-be-Done lens, everything looks different:
•
The unit of analysis is no longer the customer or the product. It’s the “job” the customer is trying to get done.
•
Markets aren’t defined around products. They are defined as groups of people trying to get a job done.
•
Customers aren’t just buyers. They also include job executors.