An introduction to the Jobs to Be Done customer research/insights framework, with a focus on how product managers can put Jobs to Be Done into practice with key tools such as customer interviews, surveys, prototyping, and A/B testing.
2. About me
Co-Founder, Geocodio
Co-Organizer, DC Jobs To Be Done Meetup
MBA Candidate, Virginia Tech
Formerly
Product Development Manager & Product Manager, The Motley Fool
Technical Project Manager & Product Manager, Engage
3. About you
When was the last time you spoke with a customer?
- In the context of support?
- Sales?
- Usability?
- Interviews?
- Another context?
4. Key Takeaways
What is Jobs to be Done and how it’s impactful
How it fits in with other product management frameworks and tools
How you can put it in practice
JTBD is as much a way of thinking as it
is a set of tools.
5. People don’t want a quarter-
inch drill. They want a
quarter-inch hole.
Theodore Levitt
6. What is JTBD?
Created by Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business
School
Innovator’s Dilemma
Framework for product development, product
management, and
product marketing
Central idea: A customer hires a product to get a job
done.
7. “Job” is shorthand for
what an individual really
seeks to accomplish in
a given circumstance.
- Clayton M. Christensen
8.
9. Case Study: Banco Davivienda
Market leader in Colombian banking market
Problem: almost 50% of Colombians didn’t have a bank account
Research
→
Testing →
Solution: Streamlined, easier-
to-use bank accounts
...and it failed.
As team members analyzed the data, they came to realize that although
they had commissioned a market study and talked to a few customers, but
they hadn’t understood the jobs to be done for the unbanked. Rather, they
had let their knowledge of existing customers and solutions distort their
understanding of the problem. From The Innovator’s Method, page 97
10. “We decided to go out and try to understand what
people wanted, not by asking directly ‘What do
you want?’ but by trying to understand how people
behave in real life.”
– Banco Davivienda team member, quoted in The Innovator’s Method
11. Process
Enthnographic analysis
Talk to people, observe, and be a fly-on-the-wall
Created customer profiles with jobs-to-be-done, motivations,
behaviors, and other characteristics
Martha, who receives government payments and sends domestic
remittances, and has to stand in line for hours each day to do so
Solution
A mobile wallet that let people receive money (such as government
subsidies) and send money without ever going to a branch
Solution was adopted by hundreds of thousands of users in
Colombia
Expanded to other countries with similar user behaviors
Case Study: Banco Davivienda
12. Activity-based design: the evolution
of human-centered design
Where they’re similar
Customer-focused
Heavily invest in customer research and insights
Iterative based on customer feedback
Where they’re different
Designing for activities rather than specific humans
Human processes and situations over humans
14. Let’s talk about food
Rebecca is 37, married with two children, and works as a visual designer at a non-profit. She
enjoys yoga and watching The Crown, and is Vice President of the PTA at her children’s
elementary school. She uses an iPhone.
What will Rebecca hire for lunch today?
Different situations→ different jobs → hiring
different solutions
It depends on the situation! Is it lunch with her boss to discuss her goals this year, a quick
sandwich with coworkers that she wants to eat at her desk, or is she home sick?
What will Rebecca hire for dinner?
It depends on the situation! Is her husband is away for work, date night with her husband, a
reunion with college girlfriends?
15. “Successful devices are those that fit
gracefully into the requirements of the
underlying activity, supporting them in a
manner understandable by people.
Understand the activity, and the device
is understandable.”
Don Norman
16. Different types of jobs, all working
together Functional
“We need to eat dinner on Friday.”
Social
“I want to relax and have fun with my husband, without the kids around.”
Emotional
“If we could just connect more deeply in a way we can’t on a daily basis, I
would be so happy.”
Intellectual
“If only there was a way for us to just have more time to talk as adults.”
Physical
“I wish we could take away all of the things that normally get between us at
dinner.”
Sensory
17. When do you use JTBD?
During the discovery or ideation stage
During the design process to shape and test designs
In development to inform decisions
When creating user personas
Continually to ensure the product is helping customers accomplish
their desired outcomes
And so forth...
Jobs to be Done should be used continually and alongside other
tools, like customer journey mapping, surveying, prototyping, and
usability testing
18. The JTBD Toolbox
Interviews
The Timeline
Forces Diagram
Job Stories
Desired Outcome
Statements
Surveys
Prototyping
A/B Testing
Customer Journey
Maps
User Personas (sort
of)
19. JTBD Interviews
Why? Learn a customer’s timeline, and learn the words they
use to describe their experience
This will help you in creating surveys to see how insights
learned from interviews scale
Who? Prospective, current, or past customers
How many? Stop when you start hearing the same things over
and over again
In my experience, ranges from 5-15 for a discrete research
project
For ongoing, 1-3 per week
20. What a JTBD interview is not
A usability session
Make it clear they don’t need the product in front of them, and don’t ask
them to go through the product/service
An onboarding session
Avoid talking to people who’ve just bought the product
An upsell or sales opportunity
Can be tempting if they express a need you know the company solves!
You can always follow up later. (If this happens, dig into solutions they’ve
looked at. This is good data for improving customer awareness
strategies.)
A venue for soliciting or responding product or service feedback
They might bring it up. Capture it and move on, do not reply (even if they
say something you know the answer to). Say “I’ll have to follow up on
21. There are only two people you
should listen to: someone
who has just paid for your
product or someone who has
just canceled.
Jason Fried
22. Key Questions to Answer in a JTBD
Interview1. Where are they now?
2. How do they want their life to be better?
3. What obstacles stand in their way?
4. What have they already tried?
25. Conducting an Interview: Tips
Create an environment of safety. Never correct them, and play
dumb if you need to. You want them to be comfortable with you and
open up.
Use their words. If they say your product name wrong, go with it. Get
in their head and exercise practical empathy.
Remember to pause. Give them space to speak -- more than you
think they need. They will fill the space.
Don’t be afraid to dig in. Ask them to repeat, or purposefully repeat
what they’ve said in a way that’s slightly wrong. When they correct
you, it will be enlightening.
Ask a reaching-for-the-door question. “Is there anything else you
want me to know?” Ask this question halfway through the interview
26. Interview Logistics
Plan for 30-60 minutes
Use a script
Have a partner if you can
Record the interview (always ask permission)
And have transcripts made
Compensate them for their time
Such as a $25 Amazon gift card
Free stuff from your company can be nice but delicate and
depend on your brand (such as a 1-year free subscription
extension or mailing them a branded hat)
30. Doing interviews 🔥
Sharing your interview results with others 🔥 🔥
Having team members join you in interviews🔥 🔥
🔥
Having every member of the team join interviews
regularly 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
32. Surveys: Pain and Frequency
Given the activities expressed in interviews, how do those experiences scale across
a larger user segment?
1. How frequently do they do the activities?
2. How painful do they find them?BIG
SMALL
FREQUENT
RARE
✔✔
✔
✔
❌
33. Not all good products make good
businesses1. Beware of small, rare problems
2. Beware of offering a cheap, complex product
• And a cheap one with high-touch onboarding
3. Beware of solving problems people don’t know about or don’t care
about
4. Beware of solving problems you can’t experience yourself
• Caveat: Practical Empathy
34. Surveys: Satisfaction and Importance
(Gap Analysis) After you have a functioning prototype/MVP/product
Can be done before or after a Top Task analysis
Key questions
Are they happy with how they can accomplish key tasks?
How important are those tasks to them?
35. Desired Outcome Statements
➔ High-level vision for what you help users accomplish
➔ Ideally, shared and consistent throughout the entire
organization
➔ Informs tactical outcomes but does not dictate them
➔ High level of a job story
36. A desired outcome statement should be
“devoid of solutions, measurable,
controllable, unambiguous and guides
the creation of customer value.”
Tony Ulwick
Author, Jobs to Be Done: From Theory to Practice and
JTBD Consultant
38. Job Stories vs User Stories
Job Stories are…
Situation and activity based
Include the expected outcome
“When I put money in my checking account, I want to earn interest, so I can
have more financial security.”
User Stories are…
Based around a specific type of user
But do other users also engage in that activity or share that Job?
“As a middle-aged housewife, I want to save money, so that I can have more
financial security.”
39. User Personas: The Controversy
➔ There’s controversy in the JTBD world about the role and use of user
personas
➔ Some practitioners (Ulwick) prefer to only create Job Maps
Jobs To Be Done is a valuable exercise for product and service teams.
Persona creation and validation is equally as valuable. Together, they
make for a combined activity that paints a clear picture for our teams of
who is using our product and what they’re trying to achieve.
Jeff Gothelf
Author, Sense and Respond
➡️ Use them to give context to needs of a
segment ⬅️
40. Prototyping
Prototype first, then A/B test
Create a simple prototype
Doesn’t have to be fully functional but should be clickable
“What would you expect to happen if you clicked that?”
Remote sessions
UserTesting.com
Can filter for specific types of users, such as income, products
used, etc
In-person sessions
41. A/B Testing
Use your understanding of customers’ jobs to inform A/B tests
If they don’t work, dig in and ask why
For live feedback in addition to traffic/event analytics, insert a
poll that pops up when the user navigates away (Hotjar)
42. Summary
We learned what Jobs to be Done is
How it fits in with other product management tools
How you can put it in practice
Interviews
The Timeline
Forces Diagram
Surveys
Prototyping & Testing
43. Further reading
1. The Innovator’s Method
2. Jobs to be Done: Theory to Practice
3. Sense and Respond (authors of Lean UX)
Saw India in photos...
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZi481rMOm4
...didn’t appreciate the noise, chaos, smells, volume of people, history until I was there, in a rickshaw, experiencing it for myself. (You don’t get the full appreciation for something until you experience it yourself.)
Source: friend of the presenter