Jobs-to-be-Done Theory
Customers hire products to do specific jobs; segment by the job, not by customer demographics
Traditional market segmentation slices customers by demographics, psychographics, or product categories. These attribute-based approaches reveal correlations but never causation. Jobs-to-be-Done theory offers a fundamentally different lens: customers do not buy products, they hire them to get specific jobs done in their lives.
When customers become aware of a job they need done, they look around for something to hire. The job has functional, emotional, and social dimensions. The critical unit of analysis is the circumstance, not the customer. The same person might hire a milkshake in the morning to solve a boring commute and kill time, but hire a very different product in the evening to placate a child. Segmenting by the customer would average these two very different jobs into a product that does neither well.
This reframing changes everything about competitive analysis. A morning milkshake does not compete against other milkshakes. It competes against bagels, bananas, doughnuts, and boredom. Understanding the real competition from the customer's perspective reveals entirely different innovation opportunities.
The theory also explains why focus is essential. The more clearly a product is designed around a specific job, the better it performs that job. But focus means turning your back on jobs the product cannot do well. This trade-off is scary until you realize you are only giving up markets you could never have won anyway. Brands that become associated with a specific job command premium prices because customers remember them when the job arises.
- Customers hire products to get specific jobs done. The job, not the customer, is the fundamental unit of market analysis.
- Every job has functional, emotional, and social dimensions. All three must be addressed for the product to be hired reliably.
- The same customer may hire very different products at different times because the job they need done changes with circumstances.
- Segmenting by customer attributes leads to one-size-fits-none products. Segmenting by the job leads to products that nail the specific need.
- A product's true competitors are whatever else the customer might hire to get the same job done, regardless of product category.
- Brands that become associated with a specific job command premium prices and are remembered when the job arises in customers' lives.
- Focus on a specific job means turning your back on markets you could never have won anyway.
- Observe Customers in the Act of HiringWatch what customers actually do rather than asking what they want. Chronicle who buys, when, what else they purchase, whether they are alone or in a group, and how they consume the product. Look for surprising patterns in timing, context, and usage that reveal the underlying job. The goal is to understand the circumstances of purchase, not the attributes of the purchaser.Pro tipSony founder Akio Morita built twelve disruptive growth businesses by personally observing what people were trying to get done and matching miniaturized electronics solutions to those jobs. Observation beats surveys for discovering jobs.WarningDo not ask customers what features they want or what improvements they desire. These questions assume the current product category is the right frame. Instead ask what they were trying to accomplish and what alternatives they considered.
- Identify the Job and Its DimensionsDefine the job customers are trying to get done, including its functional, emotional, and social dimensions. The morning milkshake job was functionally about one-handed eating during a commute and staving off hunger until lunch. Emotionally it was about making a boring drive more interesting. Understanding all dimensions reveals what really matters and what is irrelevant.Pro tipAsk customers what they hired instead when the product was not available. Their substitutes reveal the true competitive landscape. Morning milkshake alternatives were bagels, bananas, doughnuts, and doing nothing, not other brands' milkshakes.WarningResist the urge to collapse multiple distinct jobs into one segment. The same father who needs a thick, time-consuming milkshake in the morning needs a quick, small, easy-to-say-yes-to treat for his child in the evening. Averaging these leads to products that satisfy neither.
- Map the True Competitive LandscapeIdentify everything that customers currently hire to get the job done, regardless of product category. The morning milkshake competes against bagels, bananas, doughnuts, coffee, and boredom, not against milkshakes from competing chains. Evaluate how well each alternative performs the job across all dimensions.Pro tipThe biggest growth opportunity is often nonconsumption, where people endure the job being done poorly or not at all because no adequate solution exists. Competing against nonconsumption is the largest source of growth.WarningIndustry statistics that compare your product only against same-category competitors are misleading. They hide the real competitive dynamics that customers experience.
- Design the Product Around the JobInnovate on every dimension that matters for the job and discard improvements that are irrelevant to it. For the morning commute milkshake, swirl in chunks of fruit for unpredictability, make it thicker to last longer, and set up prepaid self-service for speed. For the evening parenting milkshake, make it thinner, smaller, cheaper, and served in a fun container as a meal add-on.Pro tipHealth might not be the job the milkshake is hired for. Resist adding features that address jobs the product is not hired to do, even if those features seem universally desirable. Focus helps more than breadth.WarningClarifying what job a product should be hired to do also clarifies what it should not be hired to do. This focus is essential but scary, because it is easier to quantify the customers you turn away than the ones you win by being better at the specific job.
- Build the Brand Around the JobPosition the brand so that when the job arises in a customer's life, they immediately think of your product. Brands are initially hollow words into which marketers stuff meaning. If that meaning is connected to a specific job, customers pay premium prices because the brand reliably signals that the job will be done well.Pro tipBrands that extend across too many jobs become diluted and lose their ability to command premiums. A brand tightly associated with one job is worth more than a brand loosely associated with many.WarningMany retail channels are organized by product category rather than by job. This channel structure limits your flexibility to focus products on specific jobs, because products must fit into pre-existing shelf space categories.
A quick-service restaurant chain tried to improve milkshake sales using traditional demographic segmentation. Customer panels suggested making shakes thicker, chocolatier, or cheaper, but none of the changes moved sales. Researchers who observed actual purchasing behavior discovered that nearly half of milkshakes were bought early in the morning by solo commuters. These customers were hiring the milkshake to make a boring commute interesting, occupy one hand, and stave off hunger until lunch. The milkshake competed against bagels, bananas, and doughnuts, not against competing chains' shakes.
Between 1950 and 1982, Sony launched twelve disruptive growth businesses including the transistor pocket radio, portable television, Walkman, and 3.5-inch floppy disk drives. Morita and five trusted associates personally observed what people were trying to get done and looked for ways miniaturized electronics could help less skilled or less affluent people accomplish those jobs more conveniently. After Morita withdrew from active management in the early 1980s and was replaced by MBA marketers using demographic segmentation, Sony did not launch a single new disruptive growth business for eighteen years.
The Jobs-to-be-Done concept emerged from Christensen's collaboration with several researchers who studied a quick-service restaurant chain trying to improve milkshake sales. Traditional demographic and psychographic segmentation yielded no actionable insights. When researchers instead observed the circumstances in which customers bought milkshakes and asked what job the milkshake was hired to do, they discovered that nearly half of milkshakes were bought in the early morning by commuters who needed something to make a boring drive more interesting and stave off hunger until lunch. This insight completely reframed the competitive landscape and innovation opportunities.