A framework that examines the underlying progress a customer is trying to make when choosing a product or service.
A way to understand purchase motivation beyond basic demographics or product features.
Short and sweet:
A framework that examines the underlying progress a customer is trying to make when choosing a product or service.
A way to understand purchase motivation beyond basic demographics or product features.
See also: Customer Research, Buyer Persona, Value Proposition
The job-to-be-done framework reframes a purchase around the underlying progress a customer is trying to make in their life or work, rather than around the product category itself, arguing that people effectively hire a product to get a specific job done. Viewed this way, a business’s real competitors might include options entirely outside its own product category, since a customer’s underlying job could be satisfied by a completely different kind of solution. Marketers who adopt this lens often uncover messaging opportunities missed by more traditional demographic-based segmentation, since the framework centers on motivation and outcome rather than who the customer happens to be.
The famous milkshake study, where McDonald’s realized commuters were “hiring” milkshakes for a filling, one-handed breakfast rather than as a dessert, is the textbook example of job-to-be-done thinking.
A power drill isn’t really sold for the drill itself, but for the underlying task of making a clean hole in the wall, a shift in framing that changes how a hardware brand markets the product.
Slack was built around the same idea of replacing scattered, chaotic email threads with organized team communication, not simply adding another messaging app to the market.
