Jobs-to-be-Done
A lens for understanding the underlying job customers are 'hiring' a product or service to do
8 min · Clayton Christensen / Tony Ulwick
What is this framework?
Jobs-to-be-Done says people don't buy products, they hire them to make progress on a job in their life. To understand real demand, look past demographics and features and ask what functional, emotional and social job the customer is really trying to get done, and what they use today.
Clayton Christensen popularised this idea with his famous example: people don't want a milkshake, they're hiring it to make a boring commute more interesting and to feel less hungry until lunch. The same job might be done by a bagel or nothing at all — the real competition is the job, not the product category.
Every job has three dimensions. The functional job is the practical task (get lunch quickly). The emotional job is how the person wants to feel (not stressed, not rushed). The social job is how they want to be perceived by others (organised, not lazy). Missing the emotional or social dimension often explains why a functionally sound product still fails.
For entrepreneurs, JTBD reframes competitor analysis: your rival isn't only other apps in your category, it's every current alternative — including doing nothing — that already satisfies the job. Understanding the situation that triggers the job is often more revealing than surveying who the customer 'is'.
What problem does it help solve?
- Identify what customers are truly trying to achieve, beyond stated feature requests
- Spot your real competitors, including 'do nothing' and improvised alternatives
- Design messaging around outcomes and feelings, not just features
- Avoid building for a demographic segment that has no shared job
- Uncover emotional and social motivations that drive loyalty
The framework
Every part explained
Situation
The specific circumstance or trigger that causes the customer to look for progress.
Ask: What is happening in the customer's life right now that creates this need?
Example: It's 12:30pm, class ends in 40 minutes, and the student is starving.
Functional job
The practical, tangible task the customer needs done.
Ask: What concrete task must get accomplished?
Example: Get a filling, affordable meal within a 40-minute window.
Emotional job
How the customer wants to feel, or wants to avoid feeling, while getting the job done.
Ask: What feeling is the customer chasing or avoiding?
Example: Wants to feel unhurried and in control, not stressed about being late to class.
Social job
How the customer wants to be seen by others while doing the job.
Ask: How does the customer want to be perceived by peers?
Example: Wants to appear organised and savvy for pre-ordering, not seen as someone who skips meals.
Current alternative
Whatever the customer does today to get the job done, including improvised or 'do nothing' options.
Ask: What is the customer hiring right now instead of your solution?
Example: Skipping lunch, buying vending machine snacks, or asking a friend to queue on their behalf.
Frustration / unmet outcome
The gap between the desired outcome and what the current alternative delivers.
Ask: Where does the current alternative fall short?
Example: Vending snacks are unhealthy and unsatisfying, leaving the student hungry again by 3pm.
Worked example — CampusEats
The CampusEats team used JTBD interviews to uncover why students underused the existing campus canteen app.
Situation
Break is only 40 minutes and starts right after a lecture ends across campus from the canteen.
Functional job
Get a full, affordable meal without spending the whole break queuing.
Emotional job
Feel calm and unrushed, not anxious about being late back to class.
Social job
Be seen by friends as someone who has their routine sorted, not chaotic.
Current alternative
Buying instant noodles from the convenience store or skipping lunch entirely.
Frustration
Instant noodles are unsatisfying and skipping lunch causes an energy crash before evening classes.
Desired outcome
A hot, affordable meal ready for pickup within 5 minutes of arriving.
Job statement
When I am rushing between a lecture and my next class with only 40 minutes, I want to grab a proper hot meal quickly, so I can get back to class calm and on time.
This reframed CampusEats' competitor set from 'other food apps' to 'instant noodles and skipping lunch' — a much easier bar to beat.
How to use it
- 1Interview customers about a recent specific instance, not general habits.
- 2Ask what was happening right before they looked for a solution (the situation).
- 3Separate out the functional, emotional and social dimensions of the job.
- 4Identify what they actually used last time, including 'nothing'.
- 5Pinpoint exactly where that alternative fell short of the desired outcome.
- 6Write a single 'When I am... I want to... so I can...' job statement.
- 7Use the job statement to test whether your product meaningfully improves on the alternative.
Try it yourself
Draft a job statement for your target customer.
Job statement
Current alternative
Your work stays on this device. Nothing is uploaded, so use the same browser to come back to it.
When to use it
- When customer segments seem to share a demographic but not a real need
- When building a value proposition or marketing message
- When trying to identify true competitors beyond the obvious category
- During early customer discovery interviews
When not to rely on it
This framework does not prove:
- • It does not tell you how large the market for that job is
- • It does not by itself validate willingness to pay
- • It relies on customers accurately recalling and articulating past behaviour
- • It does not design the solution — it only clarifies the need
Common mistakes
- Describing the job in terms of your product ('the job is to use an app')
- Ignoring the emotional and social dimensions and focusing only on function
- Segmenting customers by age or income instead of by shared job
- Assuming 'no current alternative' means no competition, when 'doing nothing' is often the real rival
Connections
Related frameworks
Quick check
According to Jobs-to-be-Done, who or what is a company's most important competitor?
Remember this
Customers don't want your product; they want to hire it to make progress on a job in their life.