How to Apply "Jobs To Be Done" to Your Product

Top 5 ways to use "jobs to be done" to understand customer problems

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Dear subscribers,

Recently, I read Competing Against Luck, Clayton Christensen's book about his jobs-to-be-done theory. Like many product managers, I've heard of the theory but didn’t understand how it was different from just understanding customer problems.

It turns out that the theory is about understanding customer problems, but I still learned a lot from the book. Here are my top five takeaways:

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1. Customers don’t buy products. Instead, they hire products to make progress in a specific circumstance

A job is the progress that a customer is trying to make in a specific circumstance or context. Jobs are not generic needs like “convenience” or “safety.” To identify a job, it’s critical to understand the specific context that's preventing your customer from making progress.

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2. Customers hire your product to help them make emotional and social progress