Marketing.

Jobs to Be Done

5 min read·Apply by lunch

The question

What job is your customer actually trying to get done — and would you know if you got it right?

The idea

Clayton Christensen's Jobs to Be Done theory reframes the most important question in business: not 'who are our customers?' but 'what job are they hiring our product to do?' The famous example — McDonald's discovered their best-selling milkshake was being hired at 8am by commuters who needed a breakfast that took a long time to consume, didn't make a mess, and fit in a cup holder. No competitor was competing in that job. JTBD unlocks product decisions, pricing, and positioning by anchoring everything to the outcome the customer is actually trying to achieve — not the demographic profile they fit or the feature they asked for.

The framework

01
Find the functional job.
The functional job is what the product literally does: a drill makes holes, a calendar manages time, a framework email builds business vocabulary. This is the surface layer — necessary but rarely differentiating. Most companies compete almost entirely here and wonder why customers churn or compare on price.
02
Find the emotional job.
The emotional job is how the customer wants to feel. Not 'hole in wall' — 'I can hang the picture myself.' Not 'calendar organised' — 'I feel in control.' Not 'got the framework' — 'I feel sharper than everyone else in the room.' The emotional job is where loyalty and premium pricing live. Companies that nail this layer stop competing on features entirely.
03
Find the social job.
The social job is how the customer wants to be perceived by others. The professional who drops the right framework in the right meeting. The manager who recommends the right tool. The founder who signals taste through what they use. Social jobs are systematically underrated in B2B and wildly underestimated in consumer. If your product doesn't help someone look or feel differently to others, you're missing a dimension.
04
Interview for the job, not the feature.
The JTBD interview asks about circumstances, not preferences. 'Walk me through the last time you needed this.' 'What were you trying to get done?' 'What did you try before?' 'What made you switch?' The goal is to find the moment of hire — the trigger that made them reach for your product — and the job that preceded it. Surveys can't do this. Only conversation can.

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