Jobs to Be Done

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is a framework by Clayton Christensen for understanding why customers buy products. The core insight: people don't buy products — they "hire" them to do a job.

The Core Idea

People don't want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.

Instead of segmenting customers by demographics or product attributes, JTBD focuses on the underlying job the customer is trying to accomplish.

Key Principles

• Customers "hire" products to get a job done
• Jobs are stable over time — solutions change, but the underlying need doesn't
• Competing products are anything the customer might hire for the same job (including doing nothing)
• Innovation succeeds when it solves a job better than existing alternatives

The Milkshake Example

Christensen's famous example: a fast-food chain discovered that morning milkshake buyers were "hiring" the milkshake to make their commute less boring and keep them full until lunch. The competition wasn't other milkshakes — it was bananas, bagels, and boredom.