Jobs to Be Done

⏱ 4 min  ·  📅 2026

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is a framework for understanding why people hire products or services. Instead of asking "Who is our user?" or "What features do they want?", JTBD asks "What job is this person trying to get done?" The focus shifts from the user's profile to the motivation that drives them to look for a solution.

The framework was developed mainly by Clayton Christensen (Competing Against Luck, 2016) and Tony Ulwick. The phrase that encapsulates the concept comes from Theodore Levitt: "Customers don't want a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole."

The "hiring" metaphor

When a person "hires" a product, they do so to help them get a job done in a specific context. That job has:

• Functional dimension: I want the transaction to be fast.
• Emotional dimension: I want to feel secure.
• Social dimension: I want to look organized in front of my team.

The same job can be satisfied by very different solutions: WhatsApp, email, and an in-person meeting all compete for the same job of "keeping me coordinated with my team."

The JTBD format

When [situation or context], I want to [motivation or goal], so I can [expected outcome or benefit].

Example: "When I'm reviewing the Sprint Backlog before Sprint Planning, I want to see which stories have incomplete acceptance criteria, so that I don't arrive at the meeting with work we can't commit to."

JTBD in product discovery

In product discovery, JTBD is the tool for framing the problem correctly:

• It helps separate the symptom (what the user asks for) from the root cause (the job they need to get done).
• It opens up the solution space: once the job is defined, multiple solutions can address it.
• It makes it possible to compare competitors in terms of which job they solve, not which features they have.

Common mistake

Writing a JTBD that already prescribes the solution. "When I review the backlog, I want a filter by acceptance criteria status" is not a JTBD: it is a technical requirement disguised as a job. The job should describe the motivation without imposing the implementation. If the wording already specifies how it should be solved, the opportunity to explore better alternatives is lost.

Resources

🏦 Skill Design ThinkingState of the art and development guide · Skill Arena

References

• Christensen, Clayton M.; Hall, Taddy; Dillon, Karen; Duncan, David S. (2016). Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. Harper Business.

See also

Product discovery User story Opportunity solution tree Design Thinking How might we Minimum viable product Interview snapshot

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