The Job To Be Done

Shells in the Sands Series #3

The intention for this series is to share cherished thoughts and reflections of life in bite-size pieces. I have been an avid journal writer since my early teens, and most of the original writings were initially captured in my personal journal. I have chosen the most pertinent ones to share with the world through this series. This joy is similar to picking out beautiful shells while walking on a sandy beach.

People don’t want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole. - Theodore Levitt

The Jobs-to-be-Done Theory was recently introduced to me by a good friend. The gist of it is that customers buy products and services to help them get a job done. It is therefore more effective to ask “what is the job they are trying to get done”, which could open up wider horizons instead of constraining to the narrow selection of solutions at hand.

Kurt Lewin, a pioneer in organizational psychology, famously noted that nothing is so practical as a good theory. This theory was certainly at play during this camping trip when we ran into a problem with the battery for my RAD Power bike.