Find the Why with Jobs-to-Be-Done cover image
Product Management

Find the Why with Jobs-to-Be-Done

Form follows function. Therefore, the organizational structure follows the Jobs-to-Be-Done.

Profile image of Jurgen Appelo
Jurgen Appelo
Oct 07, 2021 • 16 min read
5.00 (1)
Jobs to be Done (JTBD)
Customer Experience
Customer Focus
Market Research

Summary

New products succeed not because of the features and functionality they offer but because of the experiences they enable. Customer Experience (CX) is more holistic than just product management. It should be our aim to eradicate all unhappiness with our business. Happiness is the gap between your expectation of a product and the current situation. The author suggests that closing the happiness gap either by lowering your expectation or improving the situation is a good contender for the definition of Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD). In fact, product owners worldwide describe Jobs-to-Be-Done as helping people close their many happiness gaps. The article generally helps you figure out why we have to prioritize some things over others with JTBD.

Takeaways

  • Clayton Christensen defines Job-to-Be-Done as The progress that a customer desires to make in a particular circumstance. According to the author, there is practically no difference between Job-to-Be-Done and Gap-to-Be-Closed.
  • Happiness is closing the gap between your situation and your expectation by moving either point. You can lower your expectations by learning to be happy with what you have or by simply improving your situation.
  • New products succeed not because of the features and functionality they offer but because of the experiences they enable. Customer Experience (CX) is more holistic than just product management. It should be our aim to eradicate all unhappiness with our business.
  • Product owners worldwide describe Jobs-to-Be-Done as helping people close their many happiness gaps
  • The Segway machine was introduced in 2002 with the expected the new vehicle would bring about a revolution more significant than the PC, maybe even bigger than the Internet! However, it didn't perfectly fit into the existing US infrastructure for a couple of reasons.

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