person with a keyless door lock might be seen as an innovator in the neighborhood.
Separating functional jobs from emotional and social jobs helps focus on the individual’s objective, on one side, and experiential aspects of getting the job done, on the other. The rule of thumb is to solve for the functional job first. It’s hard to solve for an emotional or social job if the functional job isn’t fulfilled.
I saw this firsthand on a project I once led in the area of online women’s fashion. Most of the discussion revolved around emotional and social jobs of fashion, e.g., feel confident in public or look good to others.
But we found that the key unmet need when purchasing clothes was whether the item fit—a functional job. Even in a domain where emotions dominate, our focus turned to solving the functional job first, not the emotional or social job.
The point is that JTBD provides a sequence for innovation: meet the needs of the functional job first and then layer emotional and social aspects after that. Targeting emotional and social jobs first often yields an endless number of solution possibilities. There are many ways to help customers feel confident in public, for instance. Starting with a functional job grounds innovation in concrete options that are feasible, but emotional and social jobs are not overlooked.
FORMULATING JOB STATEMENTS
The value of JTBD lies in its consistent way of describing people’s goals and needs. Keep in mind that a job is not what your organization needs to do to deliver a service: it’s what the job performer wants to get done. Your team’s tasks are not your customers’ goals. Always think in terms of the individual’s perspective.
To be consistent in describing goals, follow this simple pattern for writing job statements.
verb + object + clarifier
Examples include: visit family on special occasions, remove snow from pathways, listen to music on a run, and plan long-term financial well-being. Keep in mind that needs are handled separately, so typically adjectives are omitted that qualify how well jobs get done.
Formulating job statements takes practice. To provide a common language for your organization, getting the words and syntax right is important. One trick is to think of a silent “I want to...” in front of each statement that then gets omitted later. Also don’t include other phrases like “help me...” at the front of the job statement. Instead, begin directly with a verb.
For clarity, it’s also possible to include examples after a job statement. Use the abbreviation “e.g.” to add some specific instances that are representative of the types of jobs you’re describing. For instance, you could qualify a job visit family on special occasions with e.g., a birthday, graduation, marriage, or holiday.
Table 2.1 outlines the guidelines for formulating job statements.
TABLE 2.1 RULES FOR FORMULATING JOB STATEMENTS
| DOS | DON’TS |
| Reflect the individual’s perspective | Never refer to technology or solutions |
| Start with a verb | Steer clear of methods or techniques |
| Ensure stability over time | Don’t reflect observations or preferences |
| Clarify with context, if needed | Avoid compound concepts (no ANDs or ORs) |
Table 2.2 shows some examples of incorrect job statements and the issue with their formulation. A better expression is provided in the column on the right following the above guidelines.
TABLE 2.2 EXAMPLES OF FORMULATING JOB STATEMENTS
| INCORRECT | ISSUE | CORRECT |
| Search by keyword for documents in the database | Includes specific methods (keyword search) and technology (documents in database) | Retrieve content |
| People prefer to attend meet-ups and conferences that are nearby | Reflects an observation and preference Includes compound concepts | Attend an event |
| Find the cheapest airfares quickly | Includes needs, which should be considered separately (i.e., cheap and quick) | Find airfares |
| Help me plan a vacation that the whole family will enjoy | “Enjoy” is a need and should be separate Includes “help me” instead of starting with a verb | Plan family vacation |
Jobs exist independent of your solution or offering. They are discovered through qualitative research, discussed in the next chapter.
Process
How does the job get done? JTBD sees an “objective” as a procedure or a process. Job performers move through different stages of the goal as they strive to accomplish it. Understanding the process of the job performer’s intent is key to JTBD.
You can illustrate the main job in a chronological map with a sequence of stages. Consider each stage as a smaller job within the main job rather than tasks or physical activities. Because the job has to be “done,” be sure to formulate the job in a way that has an end state. It’s then helpful to think of the job as having a beginning, middle, and end stage as well.
Once you have the main sequence, specify smaller steps. Note that steps are not tasks, but the smallest discrete subjob in the process. The guidelines for job formulation in Table 2.1 apply to job steps, too.
It’s also possible to locate emotional and social aspects in a map of the main job. In the end, the map serves as a centerpiece in the JTBD framework that allows you to organize your description of the job. Later, you can use the job to organize needs as well. It becomes a central structure for compiling insight and focusing team conversations.
Using the main job, attend a conference as an example, the basic sequence could be visualized as shown in Figure 2.5.
FIGURE 2.5 Visualize the process of getting a main job done.
It’s critical to recognize that a job map is not a customer journey map. The aim is not to document how people come to your solution, decide to purchase,
