Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)

What It Is

Jobs-to-be-Done is a framework for understanding customer motivation. The core insight: people don't buy products, they hire them to make progress in their lives.

When someone buys a product, they're not buying features or benefits—they're hiring that product to do a job. Understanding that job unlocks everything: positioning, messaging, feature prioritization, and competitive strategy.

The key shift: Move from asking "What do customers want?" to asking "What progress are customers trying to make?"

When to Use It

Use JTBD when you need to:

• Understand why customers buy (not just what they buy)
• Discover your true competitive set (often not who you think)
• Find product-market fit for a new product or feature
• Improve positioning and messaging that resonates
• Reduce churn by understanding why customers leave
• Prioritize your roadmap based on real customer progress
• Identify new market opportunities through struggling moments

When Not to Use It

• There's no real customer choice (e.g., employer-mandated software)
• The purchase is pure habit with no conscious decision
• You want to validate a hypothesis you've already decided on

Patterns

Detailed examples showing how to apply JTBD correctly. Each pattern shows a common mistake and the correct approach.

Critical (get these wrong and you've wasted your time)

Pattern	What It Teaches
interview-asking-why	Don't ask "why did you buy" — ask "walk me through what happened"
job-statement-too-broad	"Save time" is useless — needs context + motivation + outcome
missing-forces	Analyze all four forces, not just Push and Pull
interviewing-prospects	Only interview people who already switched
conference-room-jtbd	You can't hypothesize jobs without talking to customers

High Impact

Pattern	What It Teaches
wrong-competitors	Your real competitors are what customers do instead
clustering-vs-segmenting	Find pathways, don't segment by demographics
complaints-arent-jobs	"Bitching ain't switching" — complaints don't predict action
reducing-friction	Sometimes lowering anxiety beats adding features
context-changes-everything	Same person, different context = different job
getting-past-pablum	First answers are generic — push 2-3 questions deeper
milkshake-story	The classic example: same product, multiple jobs

Medium Impact

Pattern	What It Teaches
three-energies	Address Functional, Emotional, and Social — all three matter
following-power-users	Power users will lead you away from what scales

Deep Dives

Read only when you need extra detail.

• references/jobs-to-be-done-playbook.md: Expanded framework detail, checklists, and examples.

Resources

Books:

• Demand-Side Sales by Bob Moesta — the tactical method
• Competing Against Luck by Clayton Christensen — the theory
• When Coffee and Kale Compete by Alan Klement — accessible introduction

Other:

• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss — interview techniques that complement JTBD research
• The End of Average by Todd Rose — why demographic segmentation fails