Jobs to Be Done

Overview

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD), developed by Clayton Christensen, reframes product thinking around the progress customers are trying to make in their lives. People don't buy products; they "hire" products to do a job. Understanding the job reveals what you're really competing against and what success looks like.

Core Principle: People don't want a quarter-inch drill. They don't even want a quarter-inch hole. They want to hang a picture of their family.

When to Use

• Product development and roadmapping
• Feature prioritization
• User research and interviews
• Competitive analysis
• Market positioning
• Understanding "surprising" competitors
• Debugging low adoption of features

Decision flow: