Jobs to Be Done

When making product decisions, think in terms of the job someone is trying to get done — not the feature they're asking for, not the persona they fit, not the solution they currently use.

A job is a goal someone has independent of any product. People have been "listening to music" for centuries — the solutions change, the job doesn't. Ground every product decision in the job.

How to Think About It

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              ASPIRATIONS                     │  Who they want to become
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │            BIG JOBS                   │   │  The main objective
│  │  ┌─────────────────────────────────┐  │   │
│  │  │         LITTLE JOBS             │  │   │  Steps within the job
│  │  │  ┌───────────────────────────┐  │  │   │
│  │  │  │       MICRO-JOBS          │  │  │   │  Individual activities
│  │  │  └───────────────────────────┘  │  │   │
│  │  └─────────────────────────────────┘  │   │
│  └───────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Ask "why?" to move up. Ask "how?" to move down. The right altitude depends on what you're deciding — strategy lives at the top, feature design at the bottom.

Five Things to Separate

Always pull these apart. Mixing them leads to muddy thinking:

Element	Ask	Keep it
Who — the performer	Who actually does this?	Separate from the buyer, the boss, the audience
What — the job	What are they trying to accomplish?	Functional. No solutions, no adjectives
How — the process	What stages do they move through?	Chronological. Beginning → done
Why — the needs	How do they measure success along the way?	Specific. Measurable. One need per statement
When/Where — circumstances	What context shapes how the job gets done?	Concrete. Time, place, constraints

Writing Job Statements

Follow verb + object + clarifier. Think of an invisible "I want to..." in front.

Good: plan family vacation, file annual taxes, attend a conference
Bad: find cheap flights quickly (has needs baked in), use Expedia to book travel (has a solution in it), help me plan a trip the family will enjoy (starts wrong, includes a need)

Writing Need Statements

Follow direction of change + measure + object + clarifier.

Minimize the time it takes to gather tax documents
Maximize the likelihood of connecting with the right people at the event
Reduce the effort required to share findings with the team

When to Reach for This

Deciding what to build → Map the job, find the stages where needs are most underserved, build there.

Prioritizing a backlog → Score each need by importance and satisfaction. Target the gap: important + unsatisfied = opportunity.

Positioning against competitors → Compare how well each option satisfies needs within the job. Find the cluster nobody serves well.

Figuring out why users churn → Map the four forces: what's pushing them away from you, pulling them toward alternatives, keeping them through habit, or making them anxious about switching.

Writing better user stories → Replace "As a [persona]" with "When [situation], I want to [job], so I can [need]."

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