What Does “Hiring” a Product for a Job to be Done Mean? (And Why Say That?)

Not using. Not buying…and consuming is only part of the story

Figure 1. Using, buying, consuming, and hiring are different concepts

Even though I use the word “hire” about 15 times in my book When Coffee and Kale Compete, I never explained what it meant, and how it relates to Jobs to be Done theory.

Clay’s book, Competing Against Luck, uses hire a whopping 231 times! But again…he neither defines it nor explains why it’s used.

Both Clay and I made a mistake. The result? People say hire without knowing what it means. This exacerbates the confusion around Jobs to be Done. Sometimes people make fun of it (figure 2).

Figure 2. I haven’t done a good job of explaining what “hiring” means. This creates confusion even amongst experienced designers and UX experts like Jared Spool

This article aims to fix that. After reading, you will know the 4 unique characteristics that distinguish hiring from using, buying, and consuming. They are:

1. Hiring is a willful choice that can’t be seen
2. A consumer hires a product or service only once (until they fire it)
3. Hiring is that magical moment of “Yes, This Is Going to Work!”
4. Every time someone hires something, they fire something else

Note: You will better understand this article after reading Why Is It Called “Jobs to be Done”? (And Why Is This Important?)

What is Using, Buying, and Consuming?

Just so we’re on the same page, let’s briefly investigate using, buying, and consuming.

Check out figure 1. There are different things there:

1. Using. A broad word; however, most of the time it means that one is engaging with a thing — often physically and directly. I use a drill to make a hole. I use a car to go from point A to point B.
2. Buying. An exchange of money for a good or service. We all know this.
3. Consume. Consume is different than using. It has this quality of taking in. A parent may use a Twinkie to placate a child, but the child consumes it. Consuming also describes services. When someone gets a massage, they’re not using it, they’re consuming it.

Which brings me to hiring. Let’s begin.

A Willful Choice That Can’t be Seen

First, understand that there’s nothing physical about a hire. It’s not an action. Rather, it’s a willful choice that exists in the consumers’ head only.

This means a hire cannot be observed. You can see consumers use/buy/ consume, but you can’t see them hire. Being both unobservable and relevant makes hiring a latent variable within JTBD theory. And because it’s a latent variable, we can only discover hiring through gathering whatever data we can, and coming up with the best possible explanation of when and how it happened (abduction).

Figure 3. Clay uses the word “hiring” 231 times — but be never defines it

For example, imagine two children who play the piano. Now, even though you can observe them playing the piano, you cannot observe why they are doing it. And until you know why they are playing the piano, you cannot abduce if either of them has hired play the piano for a Job to be Done.

Figure 4. Both girls are playing the piano, but only one has a Job to be Done.

So, after talking with the two children, you learn:

• Child A aspires to be a concert pianist. She feels that playing the piano is her way of expressing herself. She also likes the idea of being an expert in a skill, and she likes playing for others because it brings her recognition and adoration.
• Child B plays the piano only because her parents make her. If it were up to her, she’d be playing volleyball instead.

Figure 5. Two scenarios with different actors. All have different motivations

In this case, we learn:

• Child A has a Job to be Done (become a concert pianist). She has hired play the piano to help her make progress towards it.
• Child B does not have a Job to be Done. She never hired play the piano.
• It is the parents of child B who have a Job to be Done (be a parent who enforces discipline). They are the ones who hired play the piano and are coercing their daughter to do it.

A Consumer Hires a Product or Service Only Once (Until They Fire It)

Question: Does an employer hire an employee every time she shows up to work? Of course not! The employee is hired once. After that, the employee is doing her job.

The same is true with hiring a product for a Job to be Done. A consumer hires a product or service just once. After that, it’s just consumption.

This is an additional big difference between hiring and using/consuming/ buying (and is another reason why it’s called Job to be Done). The latter are things you do over and over again. Whereas the former describes a willful choice to ongoing using/consuming/ buying.

So, hiring is a one-time choice you make…but a choice to do what?

Hiring Is That Magical Moment of “Yes, This Is Going to Work!”

Figure 6. WIthin the JTBD lifecycle, hiring happens after constructing a choice set and during consumption

At the beginning of each year, many people start having the Job to be Done “become fit”. They investigate various solutions like gyms, personal trainers, medication, supplements, and sports. Many people determine “going to the gym” (often consumed in concert with other solutions) will help them make progress towards “be fit”.

However, many people who sign up for a gym membership stop going after a few weeks. Why? Well, even though they consumed going to the gym, they never hired it. And they never hired it because they never had that magical moment of “yes, this is going to work!”

Recall what Jobs to be Done theory is about: describing how consumers want to become something tomorrow, that they are not today. That’s why we use the word progress. Progress isn’t about doing things — or even doing things cheaper, better, or faster — it’s about making a positive change. And unless consumers experience progress when consuming a new solution, they will never hire it.

So when it comes to our gym example, lots of people buy and consume “going to the gym”, but only a small part of those people will actually hire it.

Those who do hire going to the gym, are those who have that experience of “yes, this is going to work for me! This is going to help me make the change I want!”

Hiring Has an Opposite: Firing

Figure 7. When a consumer hires one or more solution(s) for a Job to be Done, they necessarily fire something else

Many concepts have a duality nature to them: right vs wrong, life vs death, knowledge vs ignorance, positive vs negative….the existence of one necessarily excludes the existence of the other.

Using, buying, and consuming don’t have this duality quality. For example, when you use a drill, it doesn’t necessarily mean something else. You either use it, or you don’t.

When it comes to hiring, when you say that you’ve hired something for a JTBD, it necessarily means you’ve fired something else. You cannot hire something without firing something else. They always happen together.

Again, we can use our gym example from before. When someone with the “become fit” JTBD hires go to the gym + diet plan, they fire sedentary lifestyle + eating junk food (figure 7).

Once again, this is another unique characteristic of JTBD. With hiring and firing, you build a market model that includes:

1. Demand (consumer motivation as a Job to be Done)
2. Supply that can be hired for that demand (specifically, complements and substitutes)

Will You Fire How You’ve Used “Hire” in the Past?

If your use of hire is interchangeable with use, buy, or consume — you’re using it wrong. Remember, there are four crucial aspects of hiring. They are:

1. Hiring is a willful choice that can’t be seen
2. A consumer hires a product or service only once (until they fire it)
3. Hiring is a commitment to change behavior
4. Every time someone hires something, they fire something else

After this article, perhaps you will hire this new definition, and fire the old one.

(All puns intended)

Want to make progress with learning and applying JTBD theory?

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