Jobs To Be Done

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a customer-research framework focused on the underlying job a customer hires a product to do, not demographics or features. The job covers the functional progress the customer is trying to make plus the emotional and social dimensions. The central thesis is that people don't buy products, they hire products to make progress in their lives. It was popularized by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen in The Innovator's Solution (2003) and Competing Against Luck (2016), drawing on earlier work by Anthony Ulwick (Outcome-Driven Innovation, ODI).

The canonical illustration is the milkshake story from Christensen's research with a fast-food chain: the chain wanted to sell more milkshakes and ran customer-segmentation studies that produced no actionable insight. JTBD research revealed that a meaningful slice of milkshakes were "hired" by morning commuters to do the job of "occupy me on a long commute, fill me up until lunch, and let me drive one-handed." Once the chain understood the job, they could improve the milkshake for that job (thicker so it lasts longer through the straw, chunks of fruit for variety, sold in a self-serve dispenser for speed) and saw real growth. The framework's core structure: a Job Story replaces a User Story and reads "When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [expected outcome]." JTBD interviews dig into the specific moment of switching: when did the customer first realize they had this problem, what did they try first, what triggered the move to your product, what almost stopped them, what made them say yes. The 2020s evolution: Bob Moesta (one of Christensen's co-researchers) and Alan Klement have continued the work; the framework now coexists with personas and ICP rather than replacing them. The trap: JTBD has become so popular that it gets misused as decorative phrasing ("our customers hire us to grow their business") rather than as rigorous research; the rigorous version requires actual switching interviews, not workshop exercises.

What founders get wrong: Writing job statements in a workshop instead of extracting them from switching interviews. A job statement invented at a whiteboard reflects the team's assumptions about the customer; a job statement pulled from interview transcripts reflects what the customer actually said. The two diverge more often than founders expect, and the workshop version is always more flattering to the product you already built.

Related: User Research · Product Discovery · ICP · Product Strategy · Product Market Fit

FAQ

What is Jobs To Be Done?
A customer-research framework that focuses on the underlying "job" a customer is hiring a product to do, rather than on demographic profiles or feature lists. The central thesis is that people don't buy products; they hire products to make functional, emotional, and social progress in their lives.

Who created Jobs To Be Done?
Popularized by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen in The Innovator's Solution (2003) and Competing Against Luck (2016). Anthony Ulwick's Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) work in the 1990s laid the foundation. Bob Moesta and Alan Klement have continued the work in the 2010s and 2020s.

What is the milkshake story?
The canonical illustration from Christensen's research: a fast-food chain discovered that morning commuters were "hiring" milkshakes to occupy a long commute, fill them up until lunch, and let them drive one-handed. Once the chain understood the job, they could improve the milkshake for it (thicker, chunkier, self-serve dispenser) and grew real revenue.