Let’s say you’re in the backyard enjoying a nice cold beverage on a hot summer’s night. And you’re being eaten alive by mozzies. Your job to be done is to repel mozzies and you want to hire a product to do that for you ASAP.
You could use insect repellent, light a citronella candle, wear more clothes, move inside or run around screaming in frustration (hopefully not the last one).
Notice there are many ways to solve your problem of being eaten alive. If you sell insect repellant, then traditional thinking tells you that your main competitors are other brands that also sell insect repellant. However, as the example shows this isn’t true.
Competitors to the insect repellant aren’t just other insect repellants, they’re other legitimate ways to solve the problem. If you’re being bitten by mozzies, you’ll proceed with any solution that works.
So the jobs to be done framework is a tool to help us understand the customer's motivations behind researching and purchasing a product.
Watch Clay Christensen, creator of the jobs to be done framework, explaining how it came about. It’s pretty cool actually – it involved a fast food restaurant and a milkshake.
