Product & SaaS
What is Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)?
JTBD is the theory that people "hire" a product to do a job — focus moves to the user's objective, not demographics or features.
Clayton Christensen popularized JTBD with the milkshake case: people don't buy milkshake "because they're 30 years old"; they buy to "kill morning-commute hunger without messy hands". Job = context + motive + expected outcome.
JTBD guides product better than pure persona: the same person "hires" different products for different jobs. Slack to coordinate; Linear to track; Notion to document. Slack competitors include WhatsApp, not just MS Teams.
Frequently asked questions
Does JTBD replace persona?
Complements. Persona describes who; JTBD describes why. Mature teams use both.
How to discover my product's JTBD?
Structured interviews (Switch Interviews): ask "what did you use before? why switch? in what context?".