Job Hunting Strategy
Five sources of insight for discovering unmet jobs in the wild
Finding jobs in the wild requires knowing where to look. Christensen identifies five fertile sources for discovering unmet Jobs to Be Done, each offering a different angle on customer struggles. The approach is fundamentally qualitative and observational, prioritizing depth over breadth and narrative over statistics.
The five sources are: your own life experiences, nonconsumption (people not buying any solution), workarounds and compensating behaviors, unusual product usage, and negative jobs (what people desperately want to avoid). Each source reveals different dimensions of unmet progress and suggests different innovation opportunities.
The framework emphasizes that discovering a job is not about running surveys or analyzing big data. It requires becoming a detective, piecing together clues from observation and deep conversation with a small number of people. The insights that lead to successful innovations look more like stories than statistics.
- The best innovation insights come from depth with a few customers, not breadth across many
- Your own life is a legitimate and powerful source of job insights
- Nonconsumption often represents the largest untapped market opportunity
- Compensating behaviors and workarounds are signals of high-potential jobs
- Insights that lead to successful innovations look like stories, not statistics
- Mine Your Own LifeIdentify the important, unsatisfied jobs in your own life and in the lives of those closest to you. Flesh out the circumstances and the functional, emotional, and social dimensions of the progress you are trying to make.Pro tipSome of the most successful innovations in history derived from founders' personal experiences. Do not dismiss your own struggles as too niche; if you feel them deeply, others likely do too.
- Study NonconsumptionIdentify people who are not buying your product or anyone else's to solve a particular job. Understand what barriers prevent them from hiring any existing solution. Nonconsumption often represents the biggest innovation opportunity because the total addressable market includes everyone struggling with the job.Pro tipKimberly-Clark discovered that millions of people with incontinence were simply staying home rather than buying any product. The job was not 'manage incontinence' but 'live my life confidently without fear of embarrassment.'WarningDo not assume nonconsumers have no need. They often have intense needs but find all existing solutions inadequate, too expensive, or too embarrassing.
- Spot Compensating BehaviorsWhen you observe people employing workarounds or inventing their own makeshift solutions, you have likely found a high-potential job. The fact that they are willing to invest effort in a suboptimal solution proves the job is important enough to act on.Pro tipArm and Hammer discovered that customers were using baking soda as a refrigerator deodorizer, a carpet freshener, and a toothpaste ingredient, each representing a distinct job that could spawn a dedicated product.
- Observe Unusual Usage PatternsStudy how customers actually use your products, especially when they use them in unexpected ways. Unusual usage often reveals a job you did not know your product was being hired for and may represent a better growth opportunity than your intended use case.Pro tipNyQuil discovered that many customers were using the cold medicine primarily as a sleep aid, leading to the creation of ZZZQuil as a dedicated sleep product.
- Identify Negative JobsPay attention to what people desperately want to avoid or what experiences they dread. Negative jobs, things people do not want to deal with, are powerful innovation opportunities because the emotional intensity is very high.Pro tipThe mattress buyer's dread of the mattress store experience was so intense he preferred buying a mattress he had never laid on at Costco. Negative jobs often point to experience innovations rather than product innovations.
Kimberly-Clark discovered that the biggest competitor for its Depend incontinence products was not other brands but nonconsumption. Millions of adults with incontinence were simply staying home, avoiding social situations, and suffering in silence rather than buying any product. The job was not about managing a medical condition but about living life confidently without the fear and stigma of a potential accident.
Scott Cook conceived QuickBooks by watching his wife struggle with household finances at the kitchen table. He did not conduct market research or analyze demographic data. He observed a real person struggling with a real job and built a product around that struggle. The insight was that small business owners wanted something as simple as a checkbook register, not a complex accounting system.
Christensen observed that many of the most successful innovations in history came from founders who experienced the job firsthand in their own lives. Resistance to conducting formal research did not hinder Pleasant Rowland, who founded American Girl dolls based entirely on her own insight. Scott Cook built Intuit by watching his wife's frustration with household finances. The pattern repeated across industries: founders who deeply understood a job from personal experience or careful observation consistently outperformed those relying on market research data. The five sources crystallized from studying dozens of successful innovation stories to identify the common patterns in how jobs were discovered.