The concept of Jobs-To-Be-Done provides a lens to understand value creation. This framework looks at customer motivations in business settings.
In principles, it’s straightforward: people “hire” products to fulfill a need. For instance, you might hire a new suit to make you look good at a job interview. Or, you hire Facebook to stay in touch with friends. You could also hire a chocolate bar to relieve stress.
Viewing customers in this way – as goal-driven actors in a given context – shifts focus from the psycho-demographic aspects to needs and motivations. It’s not about the user, but about usage.
Understanding the Jobs-To-Be-Done perspective provides opportunities for designers. Not only can we design better solutions, we can also contribute to broader strategic conversations.
Unfortunately, although the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework provides a rich theory for understanding customers, there is little practical guidance on how to use the approach. In this talk at IxDA‘s ISA16, Jim Kalbach highlights concrete ways to apply the jobs to be done in your work.
Putting Jobs-To-Be-Done to Work
About Jim Kalbach
Jim Kalbach is Head of Customer Experience at MURAL. He holds a degree in library and information science from Rutgers University, as well as a Master’s degree in music theory and composition.
Jim is an active speaker and instructor on user experience, usability, and information architecture. He helped found local UX groups in Hamburg, as well as organize conferences in Germany and Europe. Jim is the author of the book Designing Web Navigation (O’Reilly, August 2007). He blogs at experiencinginformation.com.
Source: ISA 16 – IxDA Santiago
