Develop Better Products by Understanding Jobs-to-be-Done

Abstract

Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is an interview technique and way of thinking for revealing deeper insights into why people choose a product or service. Using JTBD helps us to avoid building stuff that no-one wants. It is a way to better understand what a product or service really needs to do.

Why this matters:
The first principle of the Agile Manifesto says: "Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software". And yet, 15 years later, we still see a lot of organisations delivering software that generates very little or no value. The main reason is quite simple: it does not satisfy customers, because it doesn't help them with their Job to be Done.

No team wants to build a product that no-one wants. Not only is this a waste of time and money, but it is a huge waste of precious human potential. How can we do better?

Stop fooling ourselves:
Part of the problem is that we have so many cognitive bias that we have to fight against. We are prone to fooling ourselves into believing that we really do know what customers want and we treat bold assumptions as facts.

As a result, we spend most of our time adding new features, iterating on our products and blindly following product roadmaps that actually get us nowhere at all.

JTBD helps us better understand what users and customers are trying to get done, as well as their purchase decisions. Armed with this information we are in a much better position to test different solutions that are more focused on what customers are more likely to actually use.

Audience background

product managers, product owners, business analysts, customer research, user experience

Benefits of participating

By the end of this session you will have explored:
Why JTBD helps us understand customers needs
How to discover the Jobs that customers are trying to do
How to interview customers to reveal their JTBD
How to incorporate JTBD in your thinking about problems and solutions
How to use JTBD as a lens for improving your product/service
Understand how JTBD is different to Personas
Understand how JTBD is different to Market Segmentation

Materials provided

Handouts that include interview questions, tips and techniques

Process

See next section

Detailed timetable

Running order:
1. Learn (25 mins)
We start with some background context: What is JTBD and why does it matter. To do this, we look at a few short examples of applying JTBD in various contexts.
Then we look at a standard JTBD interview structure as well as tips and techniques for revealing the JTBD when talking with customers.

2. Apply (40 mins)

The second part is about getting stuck in and giving it a go:
Organise into pairs (preferably with someone you don't know!) (3 mins)
Silently think about a product you recently purchased. Then write it down on a post it. (2 mins)
Exchange post its with your pair.

Considering their pair's recent purchase, silently think about the "job" that your partner might be "hiring" the product for. Write your hypothesis on a post it and keep it to yourselves (5 mins)

Interview round 1 (10 mins) : Interview each other using the techniques you have learned, your goal is to get your partner to reveal their JTBD

Interview round 2 (10 mins): Swap roles with your partner
Debrief with your partner, compare interview results to your original hypothesis and capture what you learned. (5 mins)

3. Reflect (15 mins)
We ask each pair to debrief with the wider group at their table and share what they learned. They capture highlights on a flip chart. Then we ask each table to share with the wider audience in the room.

4. Conclusion (10 mins)
At the end of the session, we allow some time for participants to ask questions. We wrap up by summarising what JTBD is, why it's important and how to reveal it. We also explain how JTBD differs to other techniques such as personas, empathy maps and other segmentation approaches.

Outputs

Summary of learnings

History

This is a new session, I teach jobs-to-be-done in my Product management training but have not done a conference session before.

Presenters

Ozlem Yuce
Agile At Heart Ltd.