Jobs to Be Done
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is a strategic framework developed by Clayton Christensen that reframes how you think about customers: instead of demographics, you focus on the 'job' a customer is 'hiring' a product or service to do. A 'job' is a problem or goal the customer has in a specific circumstance — functional, emotional, and social dimensions all count. In a workshop setting, JTBD shifts the team's lens from 'what are we building?' to 'what progress is the customer trying to make?' This prevents feature-obsession and refocuses strategy on real customer motivation. Teams map out job statements using the formula: 'When I [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome].' The framework is especially powerful before product strategy sessions, positioning work, or when a company is losing ground to unexpected competitors.
Facilitation script
- 1
Set context: explain that JTBD looks at what job customers 'hire' your product to do, not who they are. Introduce the three job dimensions — functional, emotional, social — and show the job statement formula on a wall or slide.
10 min - 2
Review the evidence: share customer interview quotes or research notes in pairs and have each pair pull out verbatim moments of struggle or workaround onto sticky notes.
15 min - 3
As a full group, identify the top 3-5 jobs customers are trying to get done in your problem space, clustering the evidence under each candidate job.
15 min - 4
Write a structured job statement for each: 'When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [desired outcome].' Challenge any statement that names a product feature — push until it describes customer progress.
15 min - 5
Rate each job on two axes — importance to the customer and satisfaction with existing solutions — and plot the results. Important-but-underserved jobs are your opportunity space.
10 min - 6
Map your current roadmap or strategy against the top jobs and mark where it addresses them, where it over-serves, and where it ignores them entirely.
10 min - 7
Agree on 2-3 strategic priorities drawn from the most important, underserved jobs, and assign an owner to carry each into planning.
10 min
Tips
Don't let teams fall into the trap of describing jobs using product features.
'I want to schedule a meeting' is a task, not a job.
Dig deeper: 'When coordinating with remote colleagues, I want to align quickly, so I can keep the project moving.' Functional jobs are easy to find — push for emotional and social jobs too.
Common pitfalls
Job statements written as product features or tasks ('I want to schedule a meeting') — the workshop quietly revalidates the existing roadmap instead of reframing it
Capturing only functional jobs — without the emotional and social dimensions the analysis misses why customers actually switch products
Skipping the importance/satisfaction rating — you end with a flat list of jobs and no opportunity signal, so priorities get picked by seniority instead of evidence
Inventing jobs without interview evidence in the room — plausible-sounding statements nobody can challenge, and the output inherits the team's existing biases
Closing without mapping jobs against the current roadmap — the insight stays on the wall and never touches next quarter's plan
Variations
Combine with Value Proposition Canvas to map job-to-value alignment. Use 'Job Stories' instead of User Stories in product planning. Run a 'Job Safari' where teams observe customers in context before the workshop. JTBD timeline: map the full sequence of steps a customer takes to get a job done — each step is an opportunity for improvement or disruption.
Where it fits
When to use it
Before a product strategy or roadmap session when the team debates features without a shared view of what customers are actually trying to achieve
The company is losing ground to competitors it did not expect — a jobs lens reveals what customers are really 'hiring' instead of your product
Positioning or messaging work needs language grounded in customer progress rather than product capabilities
You have customer interview recordings or research notes that need to be structured into actionable strategic input
Demographic segmentation no longer explains buying behavior and you want to redesign segments around the jobs customers share
When not to use it
The team has no customer input at all — job statements invented from opinion are fiction; run User Interviews or an Empathy Map session first
You need a fast prioritization of an already-validated feature backlog — dot voting or an impact/effort review gets there in a fraction of the time
The problem is usability of an existing flow, not strategy — usability testing gives direct answers that motivation reframing cannot
You need the full commercial picture including pricing, channels, and costs — the Business Model Canvas covers that; JTBD covers motivation only
The people with authority over the roadmap are absent — the 2-3 priorities agreed at the end will simply be rewritten later
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is a jobs to be done map (job map)?▾
A jobs to be done map breaks a customer job into the sequence of steps the customer goes through to get it done, so each step can be examined for improvement or disruption opportunities. Tony Ulwick's universal job map uses eight steps — define, locate, prepare, confirm, execute, monitor, modify, conclude — and teams rate how well each step is served today. In a workshop, you map the timeline of steps for your top jobs and look for the underserved moments.
How do you map jobs to be done in a workshop?▾
Start from customer interview evidence, identify the top 3-5 jobs in your problem space, and write each as a structured statement: 'When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome].' Then lay each job out as a timeline of steps and rate every job on importance and satisfaction — important but poorly served jobs and steps are your opportunity space. Plan 60-120 minutes with 3-12 participants.
What is the jobs to be done job statement formula?▾
The standard formula is: 'When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [desired outcome].' For example: 'When coordinating with remote colleagues, I want to align quickly, so I can keep the project moving.' The situation anchors the job in a real circumstance, and the outcome captures the progress the customer is trying to make — functionally, emotionally, or socially.
What is the difference between a job and a task or feature?▾
A task is an activity a customer performs with your product; a job is the progress they are trying to make in a specific circumstance. 'Schedule a meeting' is a task — the underlying job is aligning quickly with remote colleagues to keep a project moving. Jobs also carry emotional and social dimensions (feeling in control, looking competent) that feature lists never capture, which is why JTBD analysis digs beneath what users say they want.
How many jobs should you map in one session?▾
Focus on the top 3-5 jobs customers are trying to get done in your problem space. Fewer than three and you risk anchoring the whole strategy on one framing; more than five and a 60-120 minute session leaves no time to write proper job statements, rate importance and satisfaction, and map the jobs against your roadmap. Park additional jobs for a follow-up session.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School, 2003); popularized by Tony Ulwick and Bob Moesta.