Why you need a jobs-to-be-done map
How to build customer empathy by understanding the process they follow to achieve job completion and success.
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One of the many things I love about the product management world is the frameworks!
Today I want to walk you through one of my favorites, a Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) map.
A job map is a single document that details the steps your customers go through to ‘hire’ a product for a ‘job’ they need to do. I think every business needs one job map per customer persona, per product.
By breaking down their process to find, complete, and review their job, we can improve our understanding of the customer - and optimize our product, marketing, and sales to better meet their needs.
What is ‘jobs-to-be-done’?
Firstly, a recap. Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) theory posits that people buy products and services to get a “job” done. Those jobs are mostly functional, however also have emotional and social components that also need to be fulfilled. Success comes from achieving the “job”, rather than gaining the tools to complete it.
You can read more about the JTBD methodology here, but watch Clayton Christensen in this primer:
Why use a job map?
Rather than user story maps, job maps don’t look at the individual actions that somebody takes in this journey, like clicks or searches, but instead look at the macro stages and micro-tasks that someone will do in their search to be successful.
Traditionally they have a lot of value in product management and can provide a foundation for the product discovery process. But I like to use them for two reasons: …..