THE THEORY OF JOBS TO BE DONE
by Yasushi Kusume
What job did you hire that product to do?
Competing Against Luck, Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan
For Clayton Christensen, there’s a fundamental principle behind the Theory of Jobs. You need to understand – truly understand – what the customer needs. Only then can you provide them with the right solution(s) to help them excel at what they do.
Yet many companies ignore this. They focus only on the product they sell, and then on measuring customer satisfaction metrics. They don’t look for ways to improve the job the customer is doing. Christensen believes that understanding the progress customers aim to make in these ‘jobs’ is as – if not more - important than the product you’re selling. It’s an idea encapsulated in a quote from Harvard Business School Professor Theodore Levitt. ‘People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!’
Hiring a milkshake
In his book, Christensen illustrates his belief with the example of a milkshake. He says it occurred to him that commuters ‘hire’ them in the morning to make their long and boring journey to work more enjoyable. They purchase the product (milkshake) to make the job (the commute) more pleasant.
(I noted the same process at work in the US, with colleagues in the office ‘hiring’ coffee to help them complete their scheduled tasks. Sufficient top-ups of coffee kept them going through the day.)
Function and emotion
Christensen's milkshake highlights how a product can combine both functional and emotional desires, (what my design team refers to as ‘deep motivation’). Persil's ‘Dirt is Good’ campaign is a good example. Adverts show children getting dirty while experimenting with toys and gardening and cooking, and in so doing appeal to both functional and emotional desires. Functional: helping children stay healthy by providing them with clean clothes. Emotional: being a good parent who allows children to play freely outside.
But how do you pinpoint these desires? In his book, The Product-Led Organization, Tod Olson offers one way of finding out. His JTBD (Jobs to Be Done) framework consists of two main components: the ‘main’ job and the ‘related’ job. These both, he writes, contain functional and emotional aspects, as well as personal and social dimensions. The aim of the framework is to enable the product’s designer/manufacturer to understand exactly why and for what purpose the customer will want to buy that product.
Same challenge, changing solutions
Christensen emphasizes that such 'Jobs to Be Done' have always existed and that the underlying challenges have always been there, regardless of how new or revolutionary a product idea may be.
Take the challenge of connecting people over long distances. At first, this could only be met by a messenger on horseback. But then the postal service arrived, to be followed as technology improved by telegrams, telephones, faxes, the Internet, and now smartphones. Functional: staying in touch. Emotional: letting others know how you are.
A more modern example? Consider karaoke. In Japan in the 1980s to mid-1990s, this form of entertainment was booming. Karaoke bars were everywhere. But with the emergence of the Internet and an ever-increasing number of mobile phones, the bars began to decline. It turned out that karaoke’s 'Job to Be Done' was not to provide people with a place to sing, but for somewhere they could socialize. And people can do that much more easily with a mobile phone.
Something to consider
The key to satisfying customers, Christensen emphasizes, is understanding what they really need. It may sound like a no-brainer, but focusing on improving what’s already on offer won’t work. You can refine a current solution all you want, but if what the customer wants can be supplied by something new, they’ll go for it as soon as they can. (Consider the fate of karaoke bars.)
The way to meet this challenge is by looking hard at existing 'hired' solutions and working out whether they’re the best way of satisfying the customers’ needs. I may be preaching to the choir here, but I’ll say it again. The Theory of Jobs to Be Done only confirms the need for people-centric design. If we’re going to be good designers, we have to understand what our customers really want to do before we start applying solutions.
We have to put the customer first.