Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)
A framework that explains why customers buy products — not because of what the product is, but because of the progress they're trying to make in a specific situation.
What is Jobs to Be Done?
The Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework, developed by Clayton Christensen, holds that customers don't buy products — they hire products to do a job. The "job" is the progress they're trying to make in a specific situation.
The classic example: people don't buy a drill because they want a drill. They buy it because they want a hole in the wall. Understanding the job — not the product — is what drives product decisions that actually retain customers.
The JTBD statement format
**When** [situation], **I want to** [motivation / job], **so I can** [expected outcome].
Examples:
- "When I finish a customer call, I want to capture key insights quickly, so I can update my PRD before I forget them."
- "When I'm presenting to leadership, I want to show customer evidence for each feature, so I can defend the roadmap without relying on my gut."
Three types of jobs
| Job type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Functional | The practical task to be done | "Summarise 50 customer interviews" |
| Emotional | How they want to feel | "Feel confident I'm building the right thing" |
| Social | How they want to be perceived | "Look data-driven to stakeholders" |
Good products satisfy all three. Great positioning speaks to all three.
JTBD vs. Personas
| Dimension | Personas | JTBD |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Who the user is | What the user is trying to do |
| Risk | Gets stale; demographic assumptions | Stays valid as long as the situation exists |
| Strength | Good for messaging and empathy | Good for product decisions and prioritisation |
| Weakness | Can lead to building for the persona, not the need | Harder to visualise for design teams |
Both frameworks are useful. Personas are better for marketing; JTBD is better for product discovery.
How to apply JTBD
- Interview for the job, not the product. Ask "walk me through the last time you had to [task]" — not "what features do you want?"
- Map the timeline of the job. What happened before, during, and after? Where was the friction?
- Find the hire/fire moment. What caused them to hire your product? What would cause them to fire it?
- Segment by job, not demographics. Two customers who look nothing alike (different age, industry, company size) may share the exact same job — and should get the same product solution.
Free templates for Jobs
Frequently asked questions
Who invented Jobs to Be Done?
Clayton Christensen popularised JTBD through his work at Harvard Business School and his book 'The Innovator's Dilemma'. Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek developed the Switch Interview methodology for applying JTBD in practice. Tony Ulwick developed Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI), a related but distinct JTBD application.
How is JTBD different from user stories?
User stories (As a / I want / So that) are used during sprint planning to define specific product behaviours. JTBD is used during discovery to understand the underlying motivation before any product decisions are made. JTBD informs what user stories to write; user stories implement specific JTBD insights.
Can JTBD be used for B2B products?
Yes — it's particularly powerful in B2B. B2B buyers often have multiple jobs simultaneously: a functional job (process invoices faster), an emotional job (feel less stressed at month-end), and a social job (look competent to the CFO). Products that address all three get shortlisted; products that address only the functional job get replaced by spreadsheets.
How many jobs does a product typically have?
Most successful products are hired for 1–3 core jobs. If a product is trying to be hired for 10 different jobs, it's either a platform (and needs to be managed as such) or it's unfocused. Focus on the job your best-retained customers are hiring you for.
Apply Jobs to Be Done to your real product data
PMRead ingests customer feedback, interviews, and Slack threads — and generates PRDs grounded in real evidence.
Related terms
North Star Metric
A single metric that best captures the core value your product delivers to customers — and that the whole company optimises toward.
Product-Market Fit
The degree to which a product satisfies strong market demand — characterised by organic growth, high retention, and users who would be 'very disappointed' if the product disappeared.