5 Mistakes to Avoid When First Learning Jobs to be Done
Common mistakes to avoid and some takeaways to remember
1. Thinking of it as a framework, method, lens, or methodology
Does it make sense to say “we’re using gravity” or “we’re getting started with gravity”? Of course not!
Why? Because gravity is a theory. You don’t do theories, you learn them.
The point of theory is help you:
- Understand how things happened the past
- Make predictions about the future
For example:
- Plate Tectonics helps us understand how the earth’s crust has changed, and helps us predict how it might change in the future
- Evolution helps us understand how we ended up with so many different species of life, and helps us predict how new species will be created
- Cumulative prospect theory helps us understand how people have made decisions in the past and into the future
So, JTBD — as theory — helps us understand how and why people use a product for the first time, so we can predict what products they will or won’t use in the future.
There are many benefits to this understanding. E.g. it helps us define markets, create competitive models, create growth models, understand what consumers value in a product, create organizational alignment, improve our innovation processes, test new product concepts before we design and build them…
JTBD is a theory. It is not a framework, method, lens, or methodology. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to say , “We’re using JTBD” or “We’re getting started with JTBD”.
☛ Takeaways
JTBD is a theory. It is not a framework, method, lens, or methodology. Its aim to help you understand why people have used products in the past, so you can predict what they will or won’t use in the future.
You don’t do or get started with Jobs to be Done — you learn it.
2. Trying to persuade others how great JTBD is
JTBD is about progress (discussed again below) and why we start using products (or any solution really). Understanding progress helps us get away from focusing on products: what it is, how people use it, the outcomes associated with its use…
This means that you can use JTBD theory, to get people to start learning JTBD!
So, if you want to get people to start learning and appreciating JTBD, then don’t try to persuade them how great JTBD is…describe how great they will become when they learn JTBD — i.e. what progress they will make.
Different people can use JTBD to make progress in different ways:
- Innovators (designers) can be more creative and have more focus, because they understand the positive change consumers want to make with a product
- Managers will have more control and have beneficial influence over those they support, because they can direct everyone towards the “true north” that the company and markets want
- Marketers know what language to use so they can get consumers’ attention and persuade them that your product is best
- The organization, on the whole, will work together better, because they share the same language and understanding of what business they are all in
☛ Takeaway
To get people to learn JTBD, don’t tell them how great it is. Tell them about the progress they will make when they learn it.
3. Using it to as an innovation (design) process
As mentioned before, JTBD is not a framework, method, lens, or methodology. It’s not something you do. It’s something you learn.
Yes, JTBD theory can inform and guide your design processes, but it can’t be a replacement for them. Its purpose is to help you describe demand, not to tell you what to do about it. JTBD is about understanding what-is. It is not about creating what-should-be.
Rather, you should learn and use JTBD theory to help you, among other things:
- Figure out what data are/aren’t important (ontological)
- How to go about gathering those important data (epistemological)
This data should be an informant to and support whatever design, research, and strategy methods you like to use.
☛ Takeaway
JTBD theory helps you gather data and model data, which in turn supports your strategy, design, and research methods.
4. Thinking of a Job as an activity or task — i.e. doing things
Listen to music. Cut a piece of wood in a straight line. Grill food. Get from point A to B on time…
These are not Jobs. These are activities or tasks. They are about doing things, not becoming something new or different (Figure 1).
A JTBD is about a desire for progress:
- There is your current way of living / working
- There is new, better way of living / working you desire
- Constraints block you going from #1 to #2
THAT is the Job to be Done.
When we say “we’re making progress”, that means that you’re making change in a positive direction. Making progress means you are overcoming constraints, and are moving from the old way to a new and better way.
☛ Takeaway
A JTBD is a desire for progress. Progress isn’t about doing things. It’s about changing things in a positive way.
5. Studying how people use products
“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”
― R. Buckminster
Studying how people use a product won’t tell what caused them to start using it. Such an approach will result in circular reasoning. You’ll look at people using…
- iPods and think: Ah! They want to listen to music
- Cars and think: Ah! They want to get from point A to point B
- Grills and think: Ah! They want to grill food
Why is it circular? Well, try this:
- If I design something that looks like a “grill”, but can’t be used to cook food…is it “grill”?
- If I design something that looks like “car”, but can’t be used to go from point A to point B…is it “car”?
- If I design something that looks like an “iPod”, but can’t be used to play music…is it an “iPod”?
Products are defined by how we use them. So it would be circular reasoning if you used how a product works to explain why people use it.
Instead, use progress to define why people buy and use products:
- Some people buy iPods so people will stop talking to them
- Some people get cars because it represents independences and becoming an adult
- Some people grill because it represents a ceremony and male bonding, others do it for all these reasons
Moreover, a great many products are things you don’t even “use”. For example, millions (billions?) of people buy insurance. You don’t buy insurance to “use” it…you buy it because you want to reduce your exposure to financial ruin.
☛ Takeaway
JTBD is not the study of how people use products, it’s the study of why.
Using how people use a product to explain why they use it, is circular reasoning.
Not every product is about use. E.g. you don’t “use” insurance. You buy it and hold it so you can — among other things — avoid financial ruin.
Want to make progress with learning and applying JTBD theory?
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- Or contact me directly.
