Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) Framework

Core Insight: The Milkshake Story

Customers don't buy products — they hire solutions to get a job done.

Clayton Christensen's famous milkshake study: A fast-food chain wanted to sell more milkshakes. Demographics told them nothing. But when they asked "What job are you hiring the milkshake to do?", they discovered two jobs:

• Morning commuters hired a thick milkshake to make a boring drive interesting and stay full until lunch (competing with bagels, bananas, donuts)
• Evening parents hired a milkshake to be a treat for their kids (competing with toys, promises, ice cream)

Same product, two completely different jobs. The improvements for each job contradicted each other.

Key principle: The unit of analysis is the job, not the customer or the product.

Job Statement Format

A well-formed job statement follows this structure: