You're Selling Yourself Short With Jobs-To-Be-Done...

If you're not familiar with jobs theory or jobs-to-be-done, it's a theory popularized by the late Clayton Christensen in his book, Competing Against Luck.

The basic principle behind the theory is that the reason people buy a product or service is to do a specific job. In the same way that companies hire people to do a job, consumers and businesses hire products and services to do jobs also.

An often-used example is that people don't buy a drill to buy a drill. They buy a drill for a hole in the wall. But Job's theory takes it a step past what the product does (drill making holes) and gets to the root of why you want a hole in your wall to begin with. (It's all about context)

Users of Jobs Theory are primarily product teams who are trying to get at the root cause of why people make certain purchase decisions. Using these insights can help product managers better define the job their product is being hired for and build better products and the experience around it.

The theory is great, don't get me wrong. But if you stop at building better products, you're selling yourself (and jobs-to-be-done) short.

In the same way the "build it and they will come" mantra is completely misguided, using Jobs-to-be-Done only in the context of product development is just as misguided. Nobody will care how great your product is and how well it does their job if they never know about it.

This is why Jobs-to-be-Done cannot stay within the confines of product teams. The same contextual insights that product teams derive from customers should be provided to the product marketing teams, and the marketing organization as a whole, so the whole world can know what jobs they should hire your product or service for.

If marketing is in charge of messaging, positioning, sales enablement, branding, and all the various aspects that touch customers before they touch your product, then marketing should be leveraging Jobs-to-be-Done just as much as the product teams.

Once your organization is aligned, from product development to sales, around what jobs your customers hire your products for, you'll send a much more consistent brand message, convert leads at a higher rate, and retain customers longer, increasing Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).

So, if you're on a product team reading this, don't be greedy, share the wealth, and make sure your marketing organization understands what jobs your customers are hiring your product for.

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