Jobs to be Done

Competing Against Luck - Christensen et al. (2016) | The Innovator’s Solution - Christensen & Raynor (2003)

Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is an innovation framework stating that customers do not buy products, they “hire” them to make progress in a specific circumstance. Originated by Clayton M. Christensen, first introduced in The Innovator’s Solution (2003), then formalized in Competing Against Luck (2016). The core insight: the “job” the customer is trying to get done, not demographics or product attributes, is the causal mechanism behind successful innovation. Theodore Levitt’s dictum captures it: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”