Implementing Jobs to be Done without the fuss
How to move beyond the theory of Jobs to be Done so it's actually helpful during product discovery
Late last year, I spoke with a PM who had taken on a new job. At the new company, he was asked to use Anthony W. Ulwick’s “Jobs to be Done” (JTBD) framework as part of a new product discovery process. I’ve heard of JTBD, but had never used it myself. Skimming through Ulwick’s book and researching JTBD, the framework seemed highly theoretical, in some cases, impractical for busy PMs. How does someone apply JTBD in every day work?
What is JTBD?
The theory is that people buy products and services to “to get jobs done”, hence the name. Used during the the product discovery process, if we try to understand our customers’ jobs and how to help them complete it, customers are more likely to buy the products and services we build.
Steps for applying JTBD during product discovery
Think of a specific person, not a general, imaginary persona. While the end goal is to define jobs for a particular customer segment, it’s easier starting out by identifying a particular individual when trying to first complete JTBD. Remember, jobs are done by people.
At the core of JTBD, the framework asks you to think about the reasons why people want to get something done. It can be for functional, social, and/or emotional reasons.
Functional:
This is the task the person wants to complete. It is usually the easiest to identify because it is action oriented. Examples of functional jobs include: brush my teeth, pay the invoice, approve the report, cut vegetables You’ll notice each phrase starts with an action word. If you’re previously written user stories using “Given, When, Then” format, it’s the “When” statement that is the functional task.
Social Perception:
This is what the person completing the job wants to be perceived by other people. Because most PMs are not trained in defining social perception so it can be hard to define social JTBD. To help, I recommend using the Big Five personality trait as a framework for analysis. Use each personality trait to ask, how does the person want to be perceived?
extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. critical/rational)
openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious)
conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. extravagant/careless)
neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. resilient/confident)
It’s important to remove your own judgement as you complete the social JTBD. If you are a person that’s efficient/organized, it doesn’t mean the customer using your product or service also wants others to view them as efficient/organized. Perhaps, they want to be viewed as carefree or extravagant, which isn’t “bad”. Examples of social perception statements: organized, diligent, knowledgeable, friendly.
Emotional Feeling:
This is what the person completing the job wants to feel. Again, most PMs aren’t trained in emotions and thus have a hard time writing emotional JTBD. So, let’s use the discrete emotion theory as a framework when thinking about emotions. This allows us to think about all our emotions under 8 basic emotions
interest (attention, focus)
enjoyment (continent, joy, happiness)
surprise (startled)
distress (stressed, unable to cope/adapt)
fear (afraid, scared, fight or flight reaction)
anger (wrath, rage)
shame (negative self-evaluation)
disgust (negative rejection or revulsion)
When thinking of emotional JTBD, it’s helpful to think of both positive emotions the person wishes to “acquire” as well as negative emotions to “avoid”. By focusing on extremes, we can more easily identify the most important emotions JTBD.
To put it all together, here’s a simple Jobs to be done Template and Jobs to be done Example.
Lastly, it’s time to tie your JTBD to your product or service value proposition. Here, many people jump directly to the product/feature and it’s details. Instead, spend time to identify how the product/feature addresses the specific functional, social, and emotional JTBD you’ve identified. Does it make completing the functional task faster? Does the person want to have a social perception of “efficiency or speed”? Does it enable the person to avoid a specific negative emotion? Your product doesn’t need to address every JTBD statement, but having a perspective on what is or isn’t addressed by the product/service is very important at the inception stage of product discovery.
Special thanks to Cristian Medina for the conversations in making this article possible.
Additional reading: