Jobs to be done
Why it matters
Positioning built on features loses to positioning built on outcomes, because a buyer judges a purchase by the progress it makes. The idea also shows the real competition. A project tool is not competing only with other project tools. It is competing with email and a spreadsheet for the same job. A roadmap gets sharper too, because the list of possible features never ends, while the list of jobs behind them is short.
How to apply it
- Interview recent customers about the moment they decided to buy, not prospects who have not yet chosen.
- Ask what they were using before, what pushed them to look and what nearly stopped them.
- Listen for three layers: the practical task, the feeling they wanted or wanted to avoid, and the impression they wanted to make on others.
- Compare interviews. Different roles often hire the same product for different emotional or social jobs.
- Write the job in one sentence, then use that sentence in the headline, the onboarding and the roadmap discussion.
What it is
Every purchase is made to get something done. The person has a situation, a goal and a frustration, and picks whatever seems likely to help. Clayton Christensen popularised the idea, and his best-known story is a fast-food chain's milkshake. Many were bought early in the morning by commuters who wanted something to make a dull drive more interesting and keep hunger away until lunch. The competitor was not another milkshake. It was a banana, a bagel or boredom.
Common mistakes
- Describing the job as a feature ("a dashboard") instead of progress ("know on Monday where the week stands").
- Interviewing only happy customers, which misses why others walked away.
