Defining Jobs to be Done: Why Companies often fail at needs-based innovations
Customers have strong, if often unconscious, expectations of solutions they hire to help them. Experience strategists who understand the archetypes of jobs-based experiences are more likely to create value for the customer and the company.
What is “Jobs-to-be-Done?”
Jobs to be done is a strategic discipline that focuses on creating value for customers by understanding what customers want in a given situation. The term was popularized by Clayton Christensen, the top innovation professor at Harvard, in the 2000s and 2010s. His definition of what a ‘job to be done’ is:
“Job” is shorthand for what an individual really seeks to accomplish in a given circumstance. But this goal usually involves more than just a straightforward task; consider the experience a person is trying to create. The circumstances are more important than customer characteristics, product attributes, new technologies, or trends.
https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done
Many companies focus their data gathering efforts exclusively on the ‘who’ about customers. They want to know their customers’ preferences, attitudes, demographics, and spending patterns. They develop sophisticated market segmentation based on these attributes that seem to describe the ideal customer for a particular product. This ‘who’ data has been shown to actually obscure the company’s understanding of what customers are trying to accomplish during their experiences with the company’s offerings.
Real value is created for customers when companies focus their insights on ‘what’ data. Companies need to better understand what is important to customers in unique situations, then build solutions that ‘get the job done.’
Customer Expectations for Different Types of Experiences
There are so many different situations that customers find themselves in. While each situation is unique, there are commonalities that experience strategists should pay attention to. These commonalities are expectations that most people have for what a good experience should include. For example, what customers expect from a search engine like Google is very different than what they expect from a movie from Disney.
Remember that you actually have to get the job done for the customer. It’s easy to sell customers on any number of different needs they may have, but your responsibility is to actually deliver on the situational needs that arise for customers.
The four primary categories of jobs to be done (JTBD) are:
Functional
Emotional
Social
Aspirational
See https://hbr.org/2022/01/the-new-you-business
Excellence in solving for jobs to be done requires companies to understand what customers are predisposed to think is a job well done. Below are guidelines you can use to determine whether or not you are actually delivering on functional, emotional, social, or aspirational JTBDs.
A functional job represents a goal or task that a customer wants to get done. A Google search fulfills the fundamental expectations that customers have for functional solutions. Companies that want to create more utilitarian value for their customers should emphasize these principles:
Create powerful tools that go beyond delivering convenience and actually make people capable or strong, or fast.
Include in the offering something that creates anticipation and dramatic action. This keeps people engaged.
Regularly design new and exciting adaptations or upgrades.
An emotional job addresses the feelings (happiness, fear) that people want to heighten or diminish in a given situation. Animated movies fulfill the fundamental expectations that customers have for emotional experiences. To get emotional jobs done for customers, abide by these guidelines:
Create strong stimuli or content that evokes the right emotions. Learn how to elicit calm when customers are agitated, excitement when they’re bored, and so forth.
Include triggers in the experience that encourage positive reflection. To create the most value in customers' lives, encourage them to recognize and think about how the emotions they feel affect them.
Build into the experience the ability to create new emotions or different emotions than they expect to feel. Newness and adaptation signal to people that they can return to you, again and again, to get emotional jobs done.
Social jobs concern how people are perceived (kind, generous) or relate to others (friends, family). Instagram fulfills the expectations that customers have for getting social jobs done. To do this category of jobs for people requires applying the following principles:
Create a platform where people can elevate a shared common cause.
Produce opportunities for individuals to contribute to a group to which they belong.
Provide a forum or venue for gathering and facilitating social encounters.
Employ “gift giving.” Gifts need not be physical but include memes, thumbs-up emojis, or new pieces of content. The key is helping the individual connect with friends or like-minded people.
Create opportunities for reconnection. Once people form a bond, they desire to continue engaging with others in the group.
Aspirational jobs are the highest form of jobs to be done. They involve becoming who an individual wants to become (successful, strong, smart, loved). Universities are in the business of delivering on aspirational jobs. Consider these must-dos for getting aspirational jobs done for customers:
Identify a goal that elevates, like social jobs do, but one that comes from within the individual, such as living more intentionally, becoming healthy, or enhancing interpersonal relationships.
Start your integrated solution with a current state review or diagnosis. You must assess the individual’s current situation and map out a plan to get to that higher goal.
Provide guides along the way – whether coaches, tools, or content – that help people stay motivated and gain support.
Build in new knowledge for the individual. Almost all transformative experiences offer opportunities to learn, and people prove very receptive to them, particularly when they desire to change.
Celebrate goal attainment to make the experience more meaningful, including each of the milestones along the way.
Most Companies Do More than One Job for Customers
Companies who focus on the jobs and circumstances of their customers will soon find that their customers value a number of types of jobs that they do for them. For example, ‘planning a vacation for your family during the summer time’ describes the situation that the customer is in and implies a number of functional, emotional, social, and aspirational jobs to get done.
Example: Planning a vacation for your family during the summertime
Functional jobs: Buying tickets for flights, packing bags, paying for services, finding food the experience, staying comfortable, getting around
Emotional jobs: Feeling safe while traveling, getting excited about vacation activities, avoiding boredom, feeling calm and rested
Social jobs: Connecting with family members, sharing experiences with friends, meeting new people, learning about different cultures
Aspirational jobs: Becoming a more well-rounded person, helping children to learn geography.
Once you begin to identify the jobs to be done, you will want to prioritize which are most important to your customer and to your company. We recommend you identify one ‘big job’ to get done, then organize the other jobs in order of importance under the big job.