Know Your Customers' Jobs to Be Done

📝 CONTENT INFORMATION

• Title: Know Your Customers’ “Jobs to Be Done”
• Creator/Author: Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, David S. Duncan
• Publication/Channel: Harvard Business Review
• Date: September 2016
• URL/Link: https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done
• Length: Approximately 3,000 words

🎯 HOOK

The key to unlocking customer loyalty is understanding the “job” your product is hired to do when a customer’s life is struggling for progress.

💡 ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Customers don’t buy products; they “hire” them to make progress in a specific circumstance, and understanding that “job to be done” is the key to successful innovation.

📖 SUMMARY

A team of experts led by Clayton Christensen presents a powerful framework for understanding customer motivation called Jobs to be Done (JTBD). The article argues that traditional marketing tools like demographics and psychographics are fundamentally flawed because they focus on correlation, not causation. They can tell you who buys a product, but not why.

The authors illustrate their point with the now-famous story of a fast-food chain trying to increase milkshake sales. Initial efforts based on customer profiles failed. When researchers instead observed customers in the act of buying, they discovered the “job”: most milkshakes were sold in the morning to commuters who needed something to make a long, boring drive more interesting. The milkshake was a “hired hand” that did the job better than a bagel (too messy) or a banana (too fast). This insight (that the circumstance, not the customer, defined the purchase), unlocked a clear path for innovation.

The article formalizes this insight into the JTBD theory. A “job” is the progress a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance. This progress has multiple dimensions: functional (the task to be accomplished), social (how the person wants to be perceived by others), and emotional (how they want to feel). The authors introduce the “forces of progress” model to explain why customers switch solutions. A customer will “hire” a new product when the push of their current situation and the pull of the new solution are stronger than the inertia of their current habit and the anxiety of trying something new.

The authors conclude that for innovators, the job, not the customer, is the fundamental unit of analysis. By focusing on the job, companies can design products and experiences that customers will eagerly hire, creating sustainable growth and customer loyalty.

🔍 INSIGHTS

Core Insights

• Customers don’t buy products; they “hire” them to do a job. This shifts the focus from the customer’s attributes to their circumstances.
• The “job” is defined as the progress a person is trying to make in a specific situation.
• Jobs have three dimensions: functional, social, and emotional. Ignoring the social and emotional dimensions leads to failed products.
• The struggle for progress is the catalyst for all consumer behavior. Innovation is about helping people make that progress more effectively.
• The “Forces of Progress” model (push, pull, habit, anxiety) provides a causal mechanism for why customers change their behavior.

How This Connects to Broader Trends/Topics

• Design Thinking: JTBD provides the “why” behind the empathetic observation central to design thinking.
• Customer-Centricity: It represents the deepest form of customer-centricity, moving beyond satisfaction to understanding the customer’s underlying motivation.
• Outcome-Driven Innovation: It aligns with methodologies that focus on the “job” or outcome the customer wants to achieve, rather than the product itself.

🛠️ FRAMEWORKS & MODELS

Jobs to be Done (JTBD) Theory

• Name: Jobs to be Done (JTBD) Theory
• Components:
  1. The Core Premise: Customers hire products and services to get a “job” done.
  2. The Definition of a “Job”: The progress a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance.
  3. Dimensions of a Job:
     • Functional: The practical task or problem to be solved.
     • Social: How the customer wishes to be perceived by others.
     • Emotional: How the customer wants to feel.
  4. The Forces of Progress: A model explaining the dynamics of switching behavior:
     • Push of the Situation: The problem or struggle that motivates action.
     • Pull of the New Solution: The attraction of a new way of making progress.
     • Habit of the Present: The inertia and comfort of the current solution.
     • Anxiety of the New Solution: The fears and uncertainties about trying something new.
• How it works: For a customer to switch, the combined strength of the Push and Pull must overcome the combined strength of Habit and Anxiety. Innovators must design solutions that create a powerful pull while minimizing anxiety.
• Evidence/Reasoning: The framework is built on inductive reasoning from hundreds of case studies, the most famous being the milkshake example. The logic is that understanding causality (the job) is more predictive than observing correlation (demographics).
• Significance/Utility: It provides a reliable lens for innovation, helping companies predict which products will succeed, uncover unmet needs, and create marketing that resonates with the customer’s actual motivation.
• Examples of Application: The article details the milkshake job (combating boredom on a commute), a new parent’s job (feeling competent as a caregiver), and a basal thermometer’s job (providing reassurance and control).

💬 QUOTES

1. “When we buy a product, we essentially ‘hire’ it to help us do a job. If it does the job well, we’ll hire it again. If it doesn’t, we ‘fire’ it and look for an alternative.”

   • Context: This is the central, defining metaphor of the entire article, used to explain the core concept of JTBD.
   • Significance: It perfectly frames the customer relationship as a transaction of value and progress, making the abstract concept of motivation tangible and actionable.

2. “The job, not the customer, is the fundamental unit of analysis for a marketer who truly wants to create customer value.”

   • Context: A bold, declarative statement that summarizes the paradigm shift JTBD represents.
   • Significance: This is the article’s thesis in a single sentence. It directly challenges the foundation of traditional marketing research and offers a more effective alternative.

3. “The progress desired is often not obvious, because it is defined by the circumstances, not by customer characteristics.”

   • Context: Explaining why traditional methods like demographic segmentation fail to uncover true customer motivation.
   • Significance: It highlights the critical importance of context and circumstance, which are often overlooked in data analysis that focuses only on the individual.

4. “For a new solution to win, its pull must be stronger than the combined power of the habit and the anxiety.”

   • Context: Describing the core mechanism of the “Forces of Progress” model.
   • Significance: This provides a clear, testable hypothesis for innovators. It turns the fuzzy art of “persuasion” into a concrete problem of balancing forces.

📋 APPLICATIONS/HABITS

Recommended Practices

• Focus on Circumstance: When researching customers, prioritize understanding the situation they are in over their personal attributes.
• Look for the Struggle: Seek out the problems, annoyances, and workarounds in a customer’s life. These signal a job with poor solutions.
• Map All Job Dimensions: For any job, identify the functional, social, and emotional dimensions. A great solution addresses all three.

Implementation Strategies

• Conduct “Jobs” Interviews: Ask open-ended questions about the last time a customer tried to accomplish a task. Focus on “when,” “where,” “what happened,” and “how they felt.”
• Observe Customers in Their Natural Habitat: Watch customers use products (or fail to) in their own environment to uncover unarticulated needs.
• Map the Forces of Progress: For a target job, diagram the pushes, pulls, habits, and anxieties to identify opportunities and barriers for your new solution.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Confusing Correlation with Causation: Don’t assume that because a certain demographic buys your product, that’s why they buy it.
• Over-focusing on Function: Remember that every job has social and emotional dimensions. A purely functional solution is often vulnerable.
• Asking Customers What They Want: Customers often can’t articulate the job they need. It’s better to observe their behavior and struggles.

Measuring Progress

• “Hiring” Rate: The ultimate measure of success is whether customers repeatedly “hire” your product for the same job.
• Customer Loyalty: High retention and low churn are strong indicators that your product is doing a job well.
• Willingness to Pay: Customers will pay a premium for solutions that perfectly address their high-stakes struggles.

📚 REFERENCES

Key References in the Article

• The Milkshake Study: The primary case study, sourced from Christensen’s consulting and research work, which serves as the foundational illustration for the entire theory.
• The “Forces of Progress” Diagram: The article includes a visual model that is a key reference for understanding the dynamics of customer switching.

Influential Thinkers or Works Referenced

• Clayton M. Christensen: The article is a direct extension of Christensen’s life’s work on innovation, building on concepts from “The Innovator’s Dilemma” and his other books.
• Bob Moesta: A colleague of Christensen’s who is credited with conducting much of the foundational research on the milkshake example and is a leading practitioner of JTBD.
• Intercom: The article references the software company Intercom as an example of a business that successfully applied JTBD principles to its product and marketing.

Methodology

• Inductive, Qualitative Research: The theory is built from the ground up through detailed observation of real-world customer behavior and in-depth interviews, rather than through quantitative surveys.
• Causal Reasoning: The entire framework is built on identifying the causal mechanisms (the job) behind customer actions, moving beyond correlational data.

⚠️ QUALITY & TRUSTWORTHINESS NOTES

• Accuracy Check: The theory and examples are presented accurately and are consistent with the broader body of work on JTBD. The article is a reliable source for understanding the topic.
• Bias Assessment: The article has a strong point of view, advocating for a specific framework. However, this is its purpose. The argument is made on logical and evidentiary grounds, not through deceptive means.
• Source Credibility: The source (HBR) and the authors (especially Christensen) are at the pinnacle of credibility in the business and management world.
• Transparency: The authors’ methodology and reasoning are laid out clearly. The case studies are used to illustrate the logic, not to hide it.
• Potential Harm: None. The content provides a powerful and ethical framework for creating products that better serve customers’ needs.

Crepi il lupo! 🐺