1000 Of Data Points not leading to 1 JTBD

What is Job to be done (JTBD)?? ?

Let’s understand this with some examples,? ?

1. Let’s say your name is Kunal and you get bored of eating what your mom makes at home, so?you decided to explore and order from a food aggregator application called Zomiggy. The reason you hired Zomiggy is the factor that you get bored from eating what your mom’s cooking, hence the JTBD here is replacing the mom made food.?

2. Let’s say your name is Tanmay and you moved to a new city unaware of places, restaurants, food etc around that city so?you decided to explore and order from?the same food aggregator application called Zomiggy. Now, the reason you hired Zomiggy is not the replacement of any food but?ordering food for the first time in a new city.? ?

We see a clear difference between Kunal and Tanmay hiring the same Zomiggy for 2 different JTBDs. There is an interesting study around how JTBD framework was used by McDonald to determine and conclude to make their milkshakes thicker than usual for solving the problem of depleting sales of milkshakes. The way Mr. Clay Christensen from Harvard Business School explains it is a must watch. [Watch It on Youtube]? ?

A job arises in the life of a product or a service, that causes consumers to?hire the product/service?and get the job done.?In simple words, a job can be called as a ‘defined need’ and a job to be done as a?‘need to be fulfilled’.? ?

Now, let us come back to our problem: ? ?

There are thousands of data points, but we are still not able to conclude the right JTBD.?I think most of us in this problem-solving profession are doing it the wrong way. We are mostly trying to find one reason for why our product or service is being used and then trying to pitch that reason as a USP for our product or service.? ?

Let us again take an example:? ?

1. When you were 10-year-old, you needed nothing before accessing the washroom in morning.?

2. When you became 20 years old, you started consuming warm water before accessing the washroom in the morning.?

3. When you became 30 years old, you started consuming a cup of coffee/tea before accessing the washroom in morning.?

4. When you became 40 years old, you started consuming a cup of coffee/tea along with a cigarette before accessing the washroom in morning.? ?

This is where the complexity lies, for the same person and the same JTBD the need of a certain product has changed with time, and this is why it becomes difficult to figure out and call out that one JTBD catering everyone even with thousands of data points that we have.

Only due to one demographical change of a consumer, the consumption of a product catering to a particular need has changed?over time and there are several consumers out there with several demography, behaviour etc. How come 1 JTBD serve all of them.

Then, what is the solution?? ?

The most ideal solution would be to build a product or service which can cater to all the needs of consumers.?And Hoorraaahhh! that is not easy my friend.

But with the data points that we have, one of the practical solutions would be to build a product or service which can cater to maximum JTBDs of your probable consumers.?

Let us again look at how many jobs a famous food aggregating app is currently catering to:?

1. Ordering food online, we all know this JTBD already.?

2. Dine outs for users who are?looking to go and dine out.?

3. Comparing restaurants for users who are confused with multiple options.?

4. Rating and reviews for users who cannot decide on their own.?

5. Fastest Delivery for users who need fastest delivery.?

6. Timely delivery for users who need delivery on time.?

7. Offering discounts for a discount seeker.?

This list can go on and that is one reason you get listed in the share market as you cater to several JTBDs and hence you have access to a larger consumer base.

Concluding that thousands of data points can not lead to one particular JTBD but help us know several JTBDs, it's how we use these data points and figure out the JTBDs just like McDonald and strategize on our product/service growth accordingly.

I have written this in an extremely easy to understand language and anyone who is seeking product management or already working on PM roles can add or subtract their opinion or views in the comments. If you read till here, I would like to thank you for your time.