Jobs to Be Done

Origin. Christensen; earlier in Ulwick's outcome-driven innovation.

Mechanism. Reindexes demand by the progress a customer is trying to make rather than by customer attributes. Two people with identical demographics hire different products; one person hires different products in different circumstances. Circumstance, not identity, predicts.

Procedure. For each purchase, reconstruct the struggling moment: what happened immediately before, what was hired, what was fired, what forces pushed and opposed. Write the job as 'When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome].'

Applies to. Segmentation, positioning, and identifying non-obvious competitors (the milkshake competes with bagels and boredom).

Limitations. Retrospective narrative construction. Customers reconstruct causes they did not have; the interview technique is what makes the method work, and it is the part usually skipped.