Jobs To Be Done

Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)

What It Is

Jobs-to-be-Done is a framework for understanding customer motivation. The core insight: people don't buy products, they hire them to make progress in their lives.

When someone buys a product, they're not buying features or benefits—they're hiring that product to do a job. Understanding that job unlocks everything: positioning, messaging, feature prioritization, and competitive strategy.

The key shift: Move from asking "What do customers want?" to asking "What progress are customers trying to make?"

When to Use It

Use JTBD when you need to:

• Understand why customers buy (not just what they buy)
• Discover your true competitive set (often not who you think)
• Find product-market fit for a new product or feature
• Improve positioning and messaging that resonates
• Reduce churn by understanding why customers leave
• Prioritize your roadmap based on real customer progress
• Identify new market opportunities through struggling moments

When Not to Use It

• There's no real customer choice (e.g., employer-mandated software)
• The purchase is pure habit with no conscious decision
• You want to validate a hypothesis you've already decided on

Patterns

Detailed examples showing how to apply JTBD correctly. Each pattern shows a common mistake and the correct approach.

Critical (get these wrong and you've wasted your time)

| Pattern | What It Teaches | |---------|-----------------| | [interview-asking-why](patterns/interview-asking-why.md) | Don't ask "why did you buy" — ask "walk me through what happened" | | [job-statement-too-broad](patterns/job-statement-too-broad.md) | "Save time" is useless — needs context + motivation + outcome | | [missing-forces](patterns/missing-forces.md) | Analyze all four forces, not just Push and Pull | | [interviewing-prospects](patterns/interviewing-prospects.md) | Only interview people who already switched | | [conference-room-jtbd](patterns/conference-room-jtbd.md) | You can't hypothesize jobs without talking to customers |

High Impact

| Pattern | What It Teaches | |---------|-----------------| | [wrong-competitors](patterns/wrong-competitors.md) | Your real competitors are what customers do instead | | [clustering-vs-segmenting](patterns/clustering-vs-segmenting.md) | Find pathways, don't segment by demographics | | [complaints-arent-jobs](patterns/complaints-arent-jobs.md) | "Bitching ain't switching" — complaints don't predict action | | [reducing-friction](patterns/reducing-friction.md) | Sometimes lowering anxiety beats adding features | | [context-changes-everything](patterns/context-changes-everything.md) | Same person, different context = different job | | [getting-past-pablum](patterns/getting-past-pablum.md) | First answers are generic — push 2-3 questions deeper | | [milkshake-story](patterns/milkshake-story.md) | The classic example: same product, multiple jobs |

Medium Impact

| Pattern | What It Teaches | |---------|-----------------| | [three-energies](patterns/three-energies.md) | Address Functional, Emotional, and Social — all three matter | | [following-power-users](patterns/following-power-users.md) | Power users will lead you away from what scales |

Deep Dives

Read only when you need extra detail.

• references/jobs-to-be-done-playbook.md: Expanded framework detail, checklists, and examples.

Resources

Books:

• Demand-Side Sales by Bob Moesta — the tactical method
• Competing Against Luck by Clayton Christensen — the theory
• When Coffee and Kale Compete by Alan Klement — accessible introduction

Other:

• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss — interview techniques that complement JTBD research
• The End of Average by Todd Rose — why demographic segmentation fails

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: wdavidturner
• Source: wdavidturner/product-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.