At the core of CFI: The Jobs-to-be-done logic

Jobs-to-be-done starts with the human, not the solution. The core idea is this: “People don’t want a drill, they want a hole in the wall” (Levitt). For Growth Architects this means: When you innovate, don’t focus on the solution first (the drill), but on what customers want to achieve with solutions (the hole). That is the Job-to-be-done:  a goal or purpose a customer wants to get done, in a certain context (Christensen). 

We know what you’re thinking: But no one just wants holes in the wall! You’re right! And that’s Jobs-to-be-done thinking! So: What do they want to achieve with the hole? Let’s assume it is to hang up a picture or more broadly to mount something onto the wall. That is the Job they want to get done. But a drill only gets part of that Job done! Helping customers get the whole Job done better should be your focus. And that does not necessarily mean creating a stronger, faster, better drill. Because a better drill is an engineering question: more torque, longer battery life, etc. But do these features matter to the customer? Is she willing to pay? Or does she just get Tesa strips and the Job is done well enough?

Note that the Job to mount something onto the wall has been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. Well, since there were walls really. The electric power drill was patented in 1889. Jobs-to-be-done fixes the rivers of needs: It’s always about mounting things onto the wall. And this will help navigating the ocean of ideas: It becomes less fluid because you focus on a clear north star beyond solutions – the Job.