Jobs to Be Done

Also called JTBD

Jobs to be done: the idea that customers hire a product to make progress on a specific job in their life, so you should design around the job, not the customer's demographics or your features.

Why it matters

JTBD reframes what you are really competing against, often a workaround or a rival way of getting the job done, not just similar products. It is a sharp lens for finding what customers actually value.

For example

People do not buy a quarter-inch drill, they hire it for the job of making a quarter-inch hole; framing the product around that job changes what you build.

Worth your time

Know Your Customers' Jobs to Be Done Harvard Business Review · article The definitive statement of the theory from Christensen himself, with the milkshake story that makes jobs-to-be-done click. Open hbr.org →

Related terms

Go deeper

See how founders actually handle this on Building the product, part of the Starting Up hub.

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