WORKING PAPER

Using 'Jobs to be Done'
​To Become a Customer-Centered Organization

By Stephen Wunker and Jessica Wattman

​Executive Summary

​Jobs to be Done is a way to understand why customers behave the way they do. ​​It lays the groundwork for on-target innovation by digging deep ​to uncover what people are really seeking in a purchase occasion and what vectors exist for new ways to perform. Done right, this approach is both expansive and precise, uncovering a landscape of opportunity and exactly what ​must be done to meet customer needs. It is used across many fields – B2B, B2C, and the public sector – to invigorate product pipelines and customer experiences.

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For many firms, innovation is guided either by company-centric thinking that focuses on products to sell, or by asking customers what they want. Both approaches are incomplete. Customers often have quite different perspectives than companies; as the great management thinker Peter Drucker once wrote, “The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it is selling.” And, most customers are incapable of envisioning what a new product should be. They are usually not engineers or experience specialists. They know what they would like to get done, not the best way to do it.
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​It is no wonder, then, that new products often fail. More than half of newly launched products end up falling short of company projections. The real game changers are even rarer. Only about 1 in 300 new products significantly impacts purchase behavior, the product category, or a company’s growth trajectory. 
 
Jobs to be Done takes a distinct approach. It deep-dives into understanding the range of needs potentially satisfied by a product, service, or even an internal process, and the contexts in which those needs are addressed. Jobs is the premier way to deploy the most effective tool an innovator has: listening. This paper is a very short form of our bestselling book on the topic that distills our 18 years of experience, starting with the concept’s originator, Harvard Business School Prof. Clayton Christensen.

Who should use Jobs to be Done?

Teams: Jobs can be used in almost any function. Beyond dedicated innovation teams, it is regularly used by those with responsibility for product development, customer insights, and marketing. 
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Context: Jobs has been successfully deployed across industries, including healthcare, financial services, consumer goods, IT, and education. It can premiumize products, strip out unnecessary features, enhance Go to Market approaches, or improve internal processes.