(2019-04-14) Maurya What Is A Job To Be Done Love The Problem

Ash Maurya: What is a Job-To-Be-Done (JTBD) – Love the Problem. Even after all this research, two things continue to bother me

First, the commonly found definitions of a jtbd are circular, polymorphic, or purposely vague. Second, a lot of the case studies felt like neat magic tricks — obvious in hindsight, but hard to recreate with your own product.

The Definitions Problem

A job to be done is the instantiation of an unmet need or want (in response to a trigger).

What differentiates a job from a job to be done is the time-boxed sense of urgency that a trigger creates towards fulfilling an unmet need or want. In other words, jobs could be aspirational nice to haves. Jobs-to-be-done, on the other hand, signal action. (actionable)

Triggers are what define the context that shapes the job to be done.

Habits define what we do most of the times

I decouple a jtbd from a switch or a purchase. In other words, hiring doesn’t require switching. One could simply be reusing a previously purchased product to get a job done.

A switching trigger is a special trigger that comes with an expectation violation. That’s when we realize that our existing alternative(s) isn’t good enough to get the job done.

Getting hired, while an important first step, is only the first step. Unless you can quickly deliver value (the aha-moment) and then establish yourself as the new status quo (the habit-moment), you could easily find yourself on the firing block.

The customer factory is a systems view of how customers move through your product funnel transitioning through 5 states of unaware visitors to passionate, happy customers

The customer forces describe the internal forces that make a customer go through between these state transitions

Needs are functional. Wants are emotional. Needs have utility. Wants have energy. Needs favor existing solutions. Wants favor new solutions

Needs live in the solution context. Wants live in the bigger context

The most effective marketing triggers on our wants, not our needs.

Every product exists in multiple contexts: the solution context and the bigger context.

Cameras existing in the product context. Photography is the bigger context.

It’s better to level up and get out of scope and then narrowing down a level, than staying stuck in the weeds.

Chasing desirable outcomes is how you move out of the solution space and into the bigger context.

*Why do people drill a hole in their wall?

• to hang a painting
• to decorate their home
• to express their style*

When you’re moving really fast and constantly uncovering, prioritizing, and delivering on the unmet needs and wants of your customers, you’re not pursuing sustaining or disruptive innovation — it’s all continuous innovation.

Delivering on the bigger context is how you cause switch and preventing switch is how you continue to stay relevant to your customers.