Jobs-to-be-Done
What does LunchLoop compete with? Other tiffin apps, yes. But on a morning when plans change, it also competes with a quick WhatsApp to the cook, with handing the box to a colleague, and with eating a cold lunch at 4 p.m. out of guilt. Jobs-to-be-done explains why that list is so strange: people do not buy products, they hire them to get somewhere.
The rule
People hire products to make progress in a specific situation.
The job is the progress someone wants in a particular situation, described without any product in it. "Get a satisfying lunch without thinking about it on a busy workday" is a job. It existed long before apps and will outlive every one of them. Products come and go; jobs stay.
A job story captures one job in a fixed shape:
When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [expected outcome].
"When a lunch meeting lands on my calendar in the morning, I want to cancel today's tiffin in seconds, so I don't pay for food that goes to waste."
It starts with the situation, not with a type of person, because the situation is what triggers the need. A student, a manager and a developer can all be in the same situation.
Jobs have more than one side:
- Functional: cancel the lunch.
- Emotional: not feel guilty about wasted food or money.
- Social: not look disorganised in front of the cook who made it.
Anything people hire for the same job is a competitor, including doing nothing.
The shortcut
Strip the product out of the sentence. If the job still makes sense with no LunchLoop and no feature in it, it is a real job. If it names a button or a screen, it is a solution in disguise.
Start with the request
"I want a Skip button on the home screen."
The trap is building exactly what people ask for. The request tells you where it hurts. The job tells you what would actually help.
Drills
Answer fast — trust the rule.
Which of these is a proper job story?
On a morning when plans change, which of these competes with LunchLoop for the job?
Why does a job story start with "When…" rather than with a persona?
A subscriber asks, "Can the app remind me at 8 p.m. every night?" What should you do with this?
Remember
- People hire products to make progress in a specific situation.
- Shortcut: strip the product out; if the sentence still makes sense, it is a real job.
- Trap: building the requested feature instead of serving the job behind it.