Practical Jobs To Be Done:
A Way of Seeing
@JimKalbach
Disruption
Sustaining
WHAT IS “DISRUPTION“?
PERFORMANCE
TIME
MARKET
DEMAND
LOW
HIGH
Encyclopedias Wikipedia
Book stores Amazon
CDs MP3
Film photography
Digital
photography
Premium airlines Budget airlines
Rental cars Car sharing
Telephone VOIP
GoToMeeting gets high-definition
video conferencing
chamilton Aug 2, 2011 - 5:00 AM CDT
Skype for business
JOBS TO BE DONE (JTBD)
Progress toward a goal
•Not demographics
•Not solutions
•Show causality
•Why people “hire“
At the core of disruption is a
realization that opportunity
comes from of understanding the
jobs people want to get done.1
PRACTICAL MODEL FOR JTBDs
DIMENSIONS
CIRCUMSTANCE
DIMENSIONS: “HIRING“ A KEYLESS LOCK
• FUNCTIONAL -
Control access to my
home
• EMOTIONAL - Feel
secure and safe
• SOCIAL - Let visitors
in, keep strangers out
• SITUATION – Private home-
owners need to let people in and
out when they are at work during
the day
• MOTIVATION – Solve the
problem of selective access and
of scheduling visit
• DESIRED OUTCOMES
- Maximize options for entry/exit
- Reduce chance of intruders
- Increase sense of security
CIRCUMSTANCES: “HIRING“ A KEYLESS LOCK
JTBDs give designers a way of
capturing insight that leverages
our skills for finding real
business opportunities2
1. Discover
2. Define
3. Design
4. Deliver
Develop
APPLYING JTBDs
1. Discover value
2. Design value
3. Deliver value
4. (Re)define value
#1 – DISCOVER VALUE
„Indi Young, Mental Models. Rosenfeld Media, 2008.
Mental models give a deep
understanding of people’s motivations
and thought-processes, along with the
emotional and philosophical landscape
in which they are operating.
MENTAL MODELS
#2 DEFINE VALUE
Minimize the time it takes to summarize notes from
an event
Minimize
Reduce
Lower
Maximize
Increase
Raise
Time
Ability
Effort
Chances
Likelihood
DIRECTION UNIT QUALIFIER
DESIRED OUTCOMES
1. Maximize the ability to allow visitors in during
the day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Very low Very high
A. How important is this to you?
B. How well is this currently being satisfied?
DESIRED OUTCOMES SURVEY
2. Reduce the chance of intruders getting in
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Very low Very high
9 
Importance
3
 
Satisfaction
  Satisfaction Gap
6
Importance + Satisfaction Gap = Opportunity score
9 + 6 = 15
FIND OPPORTUNITIES
Satisfaction
Importance
TONY ULWICK
#3 – DESIGN VALUE
Job Stories
Alan Klement, “Replacing The User Story With The Job Story”
#3 – DESIGN VALUE
#4 – DELIVER VALUE
Shift language to reflect JTBD
BEFORE
Our conference software features high-
definition video with the best resolution
AFTER
Connect with remote colleagues on a more
personal level with true-to-life video
Functional job
(1)
Desired
outcome Situation
&
Motivatio
nFunctional job
(2)
Emotional
job Social job
#5 – (RE)DEFINE VALUE
“The greatest competitor [in tax
software] … was not in the
industry. It was the pencil. The
pencil is a tough and resilient
substitute. Yet the entire
industry had overlooked it.”
SCOTT COOK, Founder of Intuit
#5 – (RE)DEFINE VALUE
“Customers struggle when
they try to make their life
better but don’t know how.
We call this struggle a Job
to be Done.”
JTBD offers a practical ‘lens’ to
view various aspects our your
organization and shift the view
from inside-out to outside-in3
Surviving disruption requires a focus on
JTBDs, something relevant to designers
when applied in practical ways
1
2
3
“People don’t want a
quarter-inch drill,
they want a quarter-
inch hole.”
THEODORE LEVITT
Danke schön!
@JimKalbach
Jim.Kalbach@Gmail.com
www.experiencinginformation.com

Practical JTBD