Interactions - January/February 2019

@INTERACTIONSMAG 80 INTERACTIONS JANUARY–FEBRUARY2019 This forum is dedicated to maximizing the success of HCI practitioners within the frenetic world of product and service design. It focuses on UX strategy approaches, leadership, management techniques, and above all the challenge of bringing HCI to peer-level status with longstanding business disciplines such as marketing and engineering. — Daniel Rosenberg, Editor

FORUM THE BUSINESS OF UX

business professor who told students, “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.” This quote captures the essence of JTBD: Focus on the outcome, not the technology. The drill is a means to an end, not the result.

Peter Drucker, a contemporary of Levitt and the father of modern management, first used the phrase jobs to be done in relation to customer needs. In his 1985 book Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Drucker writes, “Innovation does not start out with an event in the environment, whether internal or external. It starts out with the job to be done” [ 2].

Neither Drucker nor Levitt developed their ideas in a direction that resembles modern JTBD. It wasn’t until Clayton Christensen popularized the concept that it became widespread.

Nearly every contemporary mention of JTBD links back to Christensen’s use of the concept outlined in T he Innovator’s Solution [ 3], the follow-up to his landmark work, The Innovator’s Dilemma [ 4].

Unfortunately, since Christensen’s introduction of JTBD, the field has split into different schools of thought.

Newcomers may find an array of opinions on the topic, leading to confusion.

The simplest way to describe the difference in perspectives on JBTD is by making a distinction between the problem space and the solution space.

Problem-space JTBD is a view of the world from an individual’s perspective, separate from a given product or service. Tony Ulwick has done some of the most extensive work in this area

Why isn’t Intuit dead? After all, the average lifespan of companies on the S&P 500 is half what it was a generation ago—now under

20 years. Yet as competitors die out, the tax software giant continues to deliver double-digit growth after 25 years of existence.

There are reasons. For one, Intuit takes courageous leaps. It expands into new markets quicker than others, often through acquisition (e.g., Mint.com and Quicken Loans).

Employees are also encouraged to take risks; experimentation is part of the company culture.

But Intuit doesn’t just make guesses.

Underpinning its seemingly leap-of-faith decisions is a firm grounding in customer needs. Focusing on customer jobs to be done (JTBD) allows Intuit to find opportunity for growth from the outside in. As founder and chairman Scott Cook says, “Jobs Theory has had—and will continue to have—a profound influence on Intuit’s approach to innovation” [ 1].

At its core, JTBD is simple: People “hire” a product or service to fulfill a need. Starting with the objective shifts the focus from features and capabilities to outcomes. For instance, razor manufacturers may focus on sharpness or the number of blades. But the underlying intent is to remove body hair, which can also be achieved with an electric razor, waxing strips, hair-removing lotions, or laser removal.

To anyone in design, focusing on
the goal, not the means, should feel
natural. But while there is overlap
with design approaches, there are
differences too. Chief among these is
that JTBD is not a design method, but
rather a way of understanding market
needs. JTBD is about getting the
right direction from the beginning to
make subsequent solution design and
development smoother.

More important, JTBD also comes from the management community and is well socialized in business circles. Having a common language around needs makes our job as designers and researchers easier because communication with stakeholders is naturally grounded in customer-centric insights and thought. Ultimately, JTBD presents an opportunity for designers to leverage their skills for greater business impact.