The Jobs to be Done (JTBD) Framework: From Milkshakes to AI

How Clayton Christensen's McDonald's epiphany is changing software categories in the age of AI.

A curious interaction occurred at a nondescript McDonald's one morning. As people made their purchases at the drive-through, they met researchers who asked them why they bought their milkshakes. This seemingly mundane encounter would spark a revolution in how businesses approach product development and customer needs.

The Story Behind Jobs to be Done:

The year was 2005, and Clayton Christensen, the renowned Harvard Business School professor, was working with McDonald's to boost milkshake sales. Christensen, already famous for his groundbreaking work on disruptive innovation in his 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma, was about to stumble upon another insight.

As Christensen and his team observed customers and conducted interviews, they noticed something peculiar. Nearly half of all milkshakes were purchased in the early morning by commuters who bought nothing else. When asked why they chose a milkshake, the answers were illuminating. These customers wanted something to make their long, boring drive to work more interesting. The thick milkshake took a long time to finish, kept them full until they reached their destination, and could be neatly consumed with one hand on the wheel.

This revelation led Christensen to a realization: people weren't just buying products; they were "hiring" them to do a specific job. In this case, the job wasn't to satisfy hunger or quench thirst, but to alleviate boredom and provide a convenient breakfast during a monotonous commute.

From this insight, Christensen developed the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) framework. The core idea is simple: customers don't buy products or services; they "hire" them to make progress in specific circumstances. This perspective shift encourages companies to focus not on customer demographics or product attributes but on the underlying job customers are trying to accomplish.

The framework quickly gained traction in the business world. Companies like Procter & Gamble, Intuit, and Airbnb have since adopted JTBD to drive innovation and improve their products. For instance, when Intuit applied this framework to their TurboTax software, they realized that customers weren't just hiring the product to file taxes, but to feel confident about their financial decisions.

As for McDonald's, the JTBD insight led to several changes. They made their morning milkshakes thicker to last longer during commutes and easier to sip through a straw. They also moved the milkshake machine to the front of the counter for faster service during the morning rush.

The Software Revolution: From Tracking to Doing

Fast forward to today, and the Jobs to be Done framework is proving its relevance in the world of B2B SaaS (Software as a Service). As AI reshapes the business landscape, we're witnessing a shift in the 'job' that software is being hired to do.

Traditionally, B2B SaaS solutions have primarily focused on tracking and organizing work rather than actually performing tasks. Consider Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, for instance. While they excel at monitoring sales pipelines and facilitating email communication, they don't actually close deals. The 'job' they were hired to do was to organize and streamline the sales process, not to replace the salesperson.

But now, we're entering a new era where software is evolving from a passive observer to an active participant. Let's explore some of the early innovators in this revolution, keeping in mind that while not all of these projects may come to fruition, their very existence signals a change in how we view software's role in our work lives.

EvenUp: Lawyering Up with AI

EvenUp is aiming to dominate the personal injury law vertical by redefining the 'job' of legal software. Instead of selling yet another tool to help lawyers create demand packages (those all-important summaries of cases and settlement recommendations), EvenUp is asking, "Why not sell the demand package itself?"

11x.ai: Taking B2B Sales to Eleven

Then there's 11x.ai, whose name suggests they've watched "This Is Spinal Tap" one too many times. They've unveiled Platform X, a no-code platform that promises to let anyone create and deploy 'Digital Workers'.

Their first digital employee, Alice, is billed as an AI-powered Sales Development Representative. According to 11x.ai, Alice books 5x more meetings at 10x lower prices than human SDRs.

Asana: From Task Master to Task Doer

Asana, the project management tool, is stepping up its game with Asana Teammates. This AI-powered feature is no longer content with just nagging you about overdue tasks - it wants to do them for you.

One of Asana's customers, a global cybersecurity company, is exploring using these AI teammates to craft on-brand marketing content, translate documents, and enforce naming conventions.

Devin: The AI Developer Who Never Sleeps

Cognition Labs unveiled Devin in March 2024, billing it as the first AI software engineer. Devin claims to be able to plan and execute complex engineering tasks, learn over time, and fix its own mistakes. The potential for disruption is so significant that investors have already invested $175 million in Devin at a $2 billion valuation.

The Future of Software: From Copilot to Colleague

As these AI-powered tools evolve from assistants to active participants in our work, the 'job' we're hiring software to do is transforming. The question now is not just "Can AI help us work better?" but "Can AI do the work for us?"

This shift has the potential to disrupt entire software categories. Many existing software solutions promise efficiency gains for expensive human labor, often touting improvements of 10% or 20%. But in a world where AI workers can potentially drop the cost of labor dramatically, why bother with efficiency improvements?

If you're a product manager, your challenge is no longer just about how AI can enhance existing products. Instead, you must grapple with a more existential question: If customers have access to AI workers, will they need your software at all?

In the end, the Jobs to be Done framework reminds us to look beyond the product and focus on the fundamental needs it's addressing. As AI reshapes the software landscape, successful companies will be those that can anticipate and fulfill the evolving 'jobs' that businesses and individuals need done.