Penn Jillette gets JTBD

Jobs are not tasks

Penn talks about his struggle with being motivated to lose weight. Withings helped him get his freinds and family support to him.

This video of Penn talking about Withings is perhaps the best video I’ve seen about JTBD. The funny thing is, it’s not about JTBD. It’s a video of Penn Jillette describing why “Withings saved his life”. Notice how little he talks about what the products do, or how they work.

A lot of people continue to misunderstand and misrepresent JTBD. They describe a task, but call it a Job.

Here are examples of tasks. They are not Jobs: Mow the lawn. Cut a straight line. Listen to music. Increase profits by 15%. Store and retrieve music. Transport surfboards. Clean teeth. Drill a quarter inch hole. Prepare a healthy meal. Plan a birthday party. Search for information. Use small snippets of time productively. Clean clothes at home. Get from Point A to Point B…

Tasks tell you what customers do with a solution. They don’t tell you why they do it. Jobs, on the other hand, are the emotional struggles customers face to better their lives. It’s what’s motivating them to seek a solution. Innovation starts by answering “why”. Not “how” or “what”.

It’s not measure my weight, track my weight, measure my blood pressure, share my vitals with my doctor…

It’s help motivate me, make me feel accountable, help me stop lying to myself and others, put me in control of my health, help me harness the love from my friends and family…These are Jobs.

Penn Jillette gets JTBD. Do you?

Want more? Download a free PDF book about JTBD or buy it in paperback & kindle

Update: Some people are still confused about tasks. There are two entire fields of study that deal with tasks: Task Analysis and Activity Theory. They deal with with goals (outcomes) and breaking down those goals into steps you take to realize them. They have been around for a while — at least 40 years. Task Analysis is primairly used by Human Computer Interaction (HCI) since the early 1980’s. HCI + Tasks Analysis is another huge field of study. Read this to learn more about HCL + Task Analysis.

Jobs are not tasks. Jobs are about why, not how.