Market disruption is happening at increasingly alarming rates. With so-called “big bang disruption” companies and entire markets can by obliterated in a short period of time. A key to survival is understanding the tasks customers are trying to accomplished: they “hire” our products and services to get a job done. Jobs to be done (JTBD) is a growing field of study and increasingly seen as a source for business growth. Luckily, UX strategy is naturally close to jobs to be done. We have the skills and techniques to observe people in the context of the work and lives, and extract the tasks they are doing. What’s more, tools and techniques in the UX canon already capture JTBD, such as mental model diagrams. But more importantly, JTBD point to clear opportunities for innovation—human centered innovation. The key is to find jobs that are most important to users, but are least satisfied. This is your opportunity space. In this talk, I will outline jobs to be theory and show how it relevant to UX strategy. Through examples from my own work, I’ll show how to prioritize features and efforts in a way that has real impact.

1. Applying Jobs-to-be-done
to UX Strategy
Jim Kalbach
Sept 2014

2. @JimKalbach
Principal UX Designer Citrix
LIS DegreeRutgers University
#jtbd

4. The job, not the customer,
is the fundamental unit of analysis for a marketer who hopes to develop products that customers will buy.
CLAYTONCHRISTENSENet al.
“Marketing Malpracitce,“ HBR2005

5. JTBD
1.Understand users
2.Map JTBD
3.Identify opportunities
4.Align efforts

6. 1. Understand Users
39 interviews/observations
68 hours ofaudio
1,488 pages of text
793,281 words
1,716 descretetasks

7. Indi Young, Mental Models. Rosenfeld Media, 2008.
A mental model helps you visualize how your business strategy looks compared to the existing user experience. Thus, it is a diagram that can support your experience strategy.
2. MapJTBD

8. Find photos
on computer
Upload
photos to edit
online
Find photos
uploaded
from phone
Search photo
library on
mobile phone
Get photos
from social or
cloud service
Find photos
on the go
Look in
organized file
structure
Dig through
unorganized
photos
File Transfer Search
Mobile App
Goal Space Find Photos
Tower
Tasks
Support

9. Tasks, towers, goals
=
JTBD
Support
Features
Products
Services
2. MapJTBD

10. Map Future Concepts

11. 3. IdentifyOpportunites
TONYULWICK

12. Satisfaction
Importance

13. Minimize my effort to find photos on my computer
Desired Outcomes Statements
Minimize
Reduce
Maximize
Increase
Time
Access
Ability
Effort
Direction
Unit
Qualifier or action

14. Minimize my effort to find photos on my computer
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Very low
Very high
A. How important is this to you?
B. How well is this currently being satisfied?
Desired Outcomes Survey

15. Calculate Opportunity Scores
9
Importance
3
Satisfaction
Satisfaction Gap
6
Importance + Satisfaction Gap = Opportunity score
9 +6 = 15

16. Do 1st
Do 2nd
4. Align Efforts
Do last

17. “It’s great to have this data to help make informed decisions. I’m looking forward to incorporating it more and more.”
PRODUCTLEAD

18. a. Concepts
b. Messaging
c. Differentiators
Outcomes

19. a. Concepts
Desired Outcomes as heuristics: does the concept help or hurt?

20. b. Messaging
Shift language to reflect JTBD
BEFORE
Our automated photo indexing is the best in the industry
AFTER
Find photos on your computer with less effort thanks to our smart indexing

21. c. Differentiators
Performance
JTBD
Us
Them 1
Them 2

22. “The greatest competitor [in tax software] … was not in the industry. It was the pencil. The pencil is a tough and resilient substitute. Yet the entire industry had overlooked it.”
Quotedin: The MythsofInnovation, SCOTTBERKUN, 2007
SCOTTCOOK
FounderofIntuit

23. [On Arenas]: The driver of categorization will in all likelihood be the outcomes that particular customers seek (“jobs to be done”) and the alternative ways those outcomes might be met.
The End ofCompetitiveAdvantage, 2013
RITAGUNTHERMCGRATH

24. JTBD
1.Understand users
2.Map JTBD
3.Identify opportunities
4.Align efforts
5.Redefinemarkets

25. Danke schön
@JimKalbach