GlossaryGrowth & analytics
What is jobs to be done (JTBD)?
Also called: JTBD, jobs-to-be-done, job to be done, jobs theory
Definition
Jobs to be done (JTBD) is a framework that explains buying decisions by the "job" a customer needs done, the progress they want to make in a particular situation, rather than by who they are.
Jobs to be done (JTBD), explained
Clayton Christensen and colleagues set out the idea in a 2016 Harvard Business Review article, "Know Your Customers' 'Jobs to Be Done'". The core notion: people don't simply buy products; they "hire" them to make progress in a specific circumstance, and "fire" them when something else does the job better. Christensen defined a job as the progress a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance.
The shift in perspective is practical. Demographics and personas tell you who buys; jobs tell you why. Two very different people can hire the same product for the same job, and the same person can hire different products for different jobs depending on the situation. Understanding the job reveals your real competition, which is often not a similar product at all but a workaround, a spreadsheet, a person, or doing nothing.
Jobs have functional, emotional and social sides. A founder hiring a launch platform wants users and feedback (functional), reassurance that the product is ready (emotional), and credibility with peers (social). Messaging that speaks only to the functional side misses much of why people choose.
The usual way to uncover jobs is switch interviews: talk to recent customers about the moment they decided to look for something new, what they were using before, what pushed them to change, what made them hesitate, and what finally tipped the decision. Patterns across a dozen interviews are usually clear.
For marketing and SEO, jobs translate directly into content. The searches people make are often jobs in their own words: "how to get first users for a SaaS", "send invoices automatically". Pages that describe the job and the situation, not just the product, meet people where they start.
Why it matters for founders
Knowing the job tells you who you really compete with and which words to use. It's the fastest route to messaging, positioning and content that match why people actually buy.
Example
A time-tracking startup learns from interviews that agencies hire it to "stop arguing with clients about invoices". It rewrites its homepage and comparison pages around billing disputes, and conversions from agency traffic rise.
Common mistakes
- Treating jobs as a list of features.
- Only interviewing happy long-term customers instead of recent switchers.
- Ignoring non-product alternatives like spreadsheets or doing nothing.
Sources
Checked
Related terms
- PositioningPositioning is how you define your product's place in a customer's mind: what category it belongs to, who it's for, what it's compared against, and why it's the better choice for that customer.
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a description of the type of customer, usually a company or person with specific traits, who gets the most value from your product and is most valuable to your business in return.
- Value propositionA value proposition is a short, clear statement of the specific benefit a product delivers, to whom, and why it's better than the alternatives. It's the promise your marketing makes and your product has to keep.
- Search intentSearch intent is the goal behind a search: what the person actually wants when they type a query. Pages rank best when their format and content match that goal, not just the words.