Stop 03 · UX ResearchTopics · 6/11

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)

In short

People don't buy products, they hire them to make progress in their lives. Asking 'what job is this hired for?' often shows you competitors and ideas you'd never spot otherwise.

A framework reframing 'who is my user' into 'what job is my user hiring this product to do' — shifting focus from demographics to the underlying motivation.

The jaadu holds a whistling pressure cooker while glancing at a wall clock, dressed for office.

Think of it like this

Hiring a pressure cooker

Nobody wants a pressure cooker for its own sake. They hire it to get dal ready before rushing to office. If an instant dal packet does that job better, the cooker loses, even though they're very different products.

Watch it happen

Writing a job story

Situation

Motivation

Outcome

Rivals

1/4When: the trigger moment. 'When I get home tired after a late class...'

The big ideas

What you need to know

Products are hired

People 'hire' a product for a job and 'fire' it when something does the job better.

Situation beats demographics

A 19-year-old and a 45-year-old can have the same job in the same situation. Design for the moment.

Jobs have feelings too

Besides practical goals, jobs include emotional ones, like feeling in control of money or not looking silly.

Rivals you didn't expect

A budgeting app competes with notebooks and spreadsheets, not just other apps.

See it in code

Walk through the code

text

1When  [situation]  I want to  [motivation]  so I can  [outcome].2 3When I get my hostel fees reminder,4I want to see what I've already paid this semester,5so I can avoid paying twice and arguing with the office.

1/2The template: situation, motivation, outcome.

The job story template and one filled-in example. It describes the moment and the progress, not a person's age or a feature.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Writing jobs that are really features, like 'I want a filter button'.

Do this instead

Describe the progress: 'I want to find a cheap room near campus quickly'. Features come later.

Oops

Thinking JTBD replaces talking to users.

Do this instead

Job stories come from interviews. Ask what people did, what triggered it and what they used before.

Your mission

Find the job behind a purchase

~30 min

Quick check

Which is a well-written job story?

Go deeper

1Write a JTBD statement for a product you use ('When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]').
2Read the classic 'milkshake' JTBD case study.
3Compare JTBD thinking to persona-based thinking on the same product.