(2019-08-22) Shorin Jobs To Be Done

Toby Shorin: Jobs To Be Done. Our most significant jobs define who we are (identity). Communing with others is one such job that is core to being human. Just as a bee’s job of pollination is central to what a bee is, humans have jobs of socializing.

Is “expressing an idea” the ultimate job? Or is it an approach I have hired for something else? To feel smart ? To have status?

As we consider our jobs more deeply, the criteria for completion often change. Convenience becomes less important than our health

An undone job is an emotional deficit

We are closure junkies. Video games assign us arbitrary jobs and prominently celebrate their moment of completion.

If we feel a job is undone, we will try to get it done, even when we don’t think we are working on it. We will hire an approach unconsciously. Passive aggression is the result of a job getting done unthinkingly. We feel slighted; someone has incurred our anger. If we try to deny it, it is inevitable that the anger will get expressed, one way or another

You might have heard of “Jobs To Be Done,” the innovation philosophy popular among consultants. There is some disagreement on exactly how to use the framework, but both versions want to understand why customers buy products. One approach asserts that people buy products in order to do work. It views a job as a high level thing to be accomplished, and proposes a taxonomy of smaller jobs. The other approach asserts that people buy products to make some progress in their lives, but mostly don’t want to work. This version views a job as a desire someone has—as an unfulfilled need-state.

A job to be done is a psychosomatic state. It is an unsatisfied need, waiting to be fulfilled, a loop waiting to be closed. (open loop)

For some jobs, it doesn’t matter what approach we hire. When we just need some exercise, we can go on a run, go rock climbing, lift weights, or play an hour of competitive table tennis. To express an idea, we can write an essay, hold a discussion group, build an app, or make a tweet. I have a list of twenty-nine idea receptacles. They are ways of getting a job done. For me, what’s essential is just to put an idea into an idea bucket and empty it, so my brain is free to think about other things. “Jobs to be done” is an unexpressed idea, a void, and this essay is filling it.

Even when we experience existential doubt, we still do our jobs

But never mind passive aggression; what about passive everything else? We are frequently in need of expressing affection, sadness, joy, care, courage, fear, attraction… The unexpressed parts of ourselves are permanent emotional deficits.

says Tim Wu in his essay on convenience. “Convenience has the ability of making other options unthinkable.