Jobs to Be Done for Marketers
Where the Framework Came From, and How to Use It Without a Research Team
Short answer
Jobs to Be Done says people buy a product to make progress in a specific situation. For marketers it changes three things: your competitors include anything buyers hire for the same job, messaging should start from the moment the struggle begins, and copy must reduce the anxiety and habit that stop people switching, not only promise the upside.
1. What is Jobs to Be Done?
A way of explaining purchases by the progress a person is trying to make in a particular situation, rather than by who they are. The product is "hired" for that job, and it can be "fired" when something does the job better.
- Job to be done
- The progress a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance, which leads them to hire a product or service, and which has functional, social and emotional dimensions.
- Also known as: JTBD, Jobs theory
The Christensen Institute describes a job as the progress a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance, and stresses that jobs have social and emotional dimensions as well as functional ones [s2]. The circumstance is the important word. The same clinic owner hires a booking tool for different reasons on a quiet Tuesday and after a Monday with four no-shows.
For marketers, this is a shift away from describing buyers by attributes (company size, job title, age) toward describing the situation that makes them act. Attributes tell you who could buy. The job tells you when and why they will.
2. Where did Jobs to Be Done come from?
Two lines of work shaped it. Tony Ulwick developed an outcome-based approach from around 1990 that became Outcome-Driven Innovation. Clayton Christensen popularized "jobs to be done" through his books, and Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek built the switch interview and four forces.
The history is contested, so it is worth stating carefully. Strategyn, the firm Tony Ulwick founded, says he conceptualized the approach in 1990 and named his process Outcome-Driven Innovation in 1999, and that Clayton Christensen cited that work when he introduced the jobs idea in The Innovator's Solution in 2003 [s3]. Christensen and co-authors Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan later set out the theory in the 2016 book Competing Against Luck and the Harvard Business Review article "Know Your Customers' Jobs to Be Done" [s1].
| Strand | Associated with | Core idea | Most useful to marketers for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outcome-Driven Innovation | Tony Ulwick, Strategyn | A job is a process with measurable desired outcomes | Finding underserved outcomes to build pillars around |
| Jobs theory | Clayton Christensen and co-authors | People hire products to make progress in a circumstance | Redrawing the competitive set around the job |
| Switch interviews and the four forces | Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek | A switch happens when push and pull outweigh anxiety and habit | Messaging that removes switching friction |
| Job stories | Intercom (Paul Adams), named by Alan Klement | When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome] | Writing briefs and content around situations |
3. What does JTBD change for a marketing team?
Three things: the competitive set widens to anything hired for the same job, including doing nothing; segmentation shifts from attributes to situations; and messaging starts from the moment the struggle begins, not from the product.
- Your competitors are whatever else gets hired. If you sell booking software to independent physical therapy clinics, the rival for the job "keep my week full without spending evenings on the phone" is not only Veltrix, Sondera and Norvane. It is the paper appointment book, a receptionist's spare hours and a group text.
- Segments become situations. "Clinics with 2 to 5 therapists" tells you who. "Owners who just lost a receptionist" tells you when, and it is a far better ad audience brief and content trigger.
- Messaging starts from the struggle. Copy that opens with the moment the buyer recognizes ("Four no-shows on a Monday") earns attention that a feature headline never gets.
This is why JTBD pairs naturally with competitive research. Once the job defines the competitive set, you watch the named rivals and also the workarounds, and you look for the claims none of them make about the struggle itself.
4. How do I find the job without a research team?
Interview five to eight people who bought in the last few months and reconstruct the timeline of the purchase: the first thought, what triggered the search, what else they considered, and what nearly stopped them.
The switch interview developed by Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek is a timeline interview: instead of asking what people want, it walks back through what actually happened before they bought [s4]. A lightweight version works for a small team, as long as the questions stay about past events rather than opinions.
- Pick recent switchers, not happy veterans. Choose people who started using you in the last few months, and ideally a few who chose a competitor. Memory of the buying moment fades quickly, and long-term customers describe why they stay, not why they switched.
- Ask for the first thought. "When did you first think you needed something different?" Then keep asking what was happening that day. The answer is the struggling moment, and it is the most valuable line in the interview.
- Walk the timeline forward. What did they try first, who did they talk to, what did they search for, what did they rule out and why. Write down their exact words, especially nouns for the problem and the product type.
- Ask what nearly stopped them. "Was there a moment you almost did not go ahead?" This surfaces anxiety and habit, which buyers rarely volunteer and which most marketing ignores.
- Group the stories by situation. After five or more interviews, sort them by the triggering situation rather than by customer type. Two or three situations usually account for most stories, and each becomes a job you can market to.The guide on running win/loss analysis without a research team covers recruiting interviewees and the rule for when a pattern is real.
5. How do I turn the four forces into messaging?
Give each force its own job in your marketing. Push becomes the hook, pull becomes the promise, anxiety becomes proof and guarantees, and habit becomes a small first step. Most copy works only on pull.
The four forces model says a switch happens when the push of the current situation and the pull of the new solution outweigh the anxiety of the new and the habit of the present [s4]. Marketing that only describes the new solution is working on one force out of four.
| Force | What buyers say | Marketing asset | Clinic booking example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Push of the situation | "I spent Sunday night calling patients" | Ad hooks and content that name the struggling moment | "Four no-shows on a Monday is a lost day" |
| Pull of the new solution | "I wanted the schedule to sort itself out" | Hero headline and value proposition | "Keep your clinic week full" |
| Anxiety of the new | "What if older patients cannot book online?" | Proof, guarantees, objection answers | Phone booking still works, and reminders go by text |
| Habit of the present | "The paper book works well enough" | A small first step, import and migration help | "Keep your paper book for a month while we run alongside it" |
Anxiety and habit are where small companies can win against larger rivals, because large rivals tend to market features and scale. An objection library that answers switching fears in the buyer's own words is often the most valuable output of a jobs interview.
6. How do I write the job down so the team can use it?
Use a job story: "When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]." Keep one per situation, in the words from interviews, and put it at the top of every brief that targets that situation.
The job story format came out of Intercom, which adapted jobs thinking for product work; Paul Adams describes the "When, I want to, so I can" structure and credits Alan Klement with naming it [s5]. It translates well to marketing briefs because the "when" clause is a targeting and timing instruction.
| When (situation) | I want to (motivation) | So I can (outcome) |
|---|---|---|
| When my receptionist leaves and I am taking bookings between patients | let patients book without calling me | treat patients without the phone interrupting |
| When a Monday has three or more no-shows | fill cancelled slots from people who wanted earlier appointments | stop losing a day of income every week |
| When I open a second treatment room | see both rooms in one schedule | hire a second therapist without doubling the admin |
7. Does JTBD replace personas and the ICP?
No. The ICP says which companies or people are worth selling to, personas describe the people involved, and the job explains when and why they act. They answer different questions, and a good playbook keeps all three short.
| Tool | Answers | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ideal customer profile | Which accounts are worth pursuing? | Independent clinics, 1 to 5 treatment rooms, owner-managed |
| Persona | Who is the person, and what do they care about? | Owner-therapist, treats patients most of the day |
| Job story | What situation makes them act, and what progress do they want? | When the receptionist leaves, stop the phone interrupting treatment |
The common failure is a persona that tries to hold everything: demographics, goals, fears and a stock photo. Moving the situation and the forces into job stories keeps personas short and makes the job visible to whoever writes the next campaign. The guide on buyer persona vs ICP covers where the other two stop.
In Oppira, the Playbook keeps Ideal Customer Profiles, Competitive Alternatives and the Objection Library as separate layers of the same foundation, so the jobs you find in interviews can feed each one and the change history shows when and why they were edited.
Key Takeaways
A job is progress in a circumstance
People hire a product to make progress in a specific situation. The situation predicts buying better than attributes do.
Attribute the strands accurately
Ulwick built Outcome-Driven Innovation, Christensen popularized jobs theory, and Moesta and Spiek developed the switch interview and four forces.
The competitive set includes workarounds
Anything hired for the same job competes with you, including a paper process, a spare hour or doing nothing.
Interview recent switchers about events
Reconstruct the timeline from the first thought to the purchase, and ask what nearly stopped them.
Market to all four forces
Push is the hook, pull the promise, anxiety needs proof and habit needs a small first step. Most copy only covers pull.
Write jobs as observable situations
A "when" clause you can observe is a targeting and timing instruction. A wish is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
- Know Your Customers' "Jobs to Be Done" Harvard Business Review (Christensen, Hall, Dillon, Duncan), September 2016.The article version of the theory set out in Competing Against Luck.
- Jobs to Be Done Theory Clayton Christensen Institute, September 2026.Defines a job as progress in a particular circumstance, with functional, social and emotional dimensions.
- The History of Jobs to Be Done Strategyn, September 2026.Strategyn's account of Tony Ulwick's role. It is the originator's own firm, so read it as one side of a contested history.
- The Four Forces of Progress jobstobedone.org (Bob Moesta, Chris Spiek), September 2026.Describes push, pull, anxiety and habit, and credits Moesta and Spiek with the model.
- How we accidentally invented Job Stories Intercom (Paul Adams), June 2016.Origin of the "When, I want to, so I can" format, with naming credit to Alan Klement.
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