Hiring Triscuits (a case for Jobs-to-be-done)

I am not a big tweeter. I tweet (@kphelan), I have a few things to say, but last year, probably my most popular tweet was my statement that personas were dead to me now that I had learned about Jobs-to-be-done.

What is Jobs-to-be-done you ask?

It is a method of understanding customer motivations that focuses on the idea that people "hire" your product to do something for them. Examples:

• I hire my apple watch to notify me of new emails & calls
• I hire triscuits, apples & granola bars to help me get food quickly while on the run
• I hire duct tape to tape my derby gear, AND to fix my ducts

Or, I could hire something else to do the job instead:

 I could hire a product to solve a particular problem, but I also have many other things I could do to solve that problem. In the case of triscuits, I could order takeout, I could eat a bigger breakfast etc etc. The reasons I hire triscuits may be very different from someone else. The reasons you hire something translates really nicely into user stories. 

What problem are you solving?

One of the things I tend to harp on (and many of the product managers who've worked with me will attest) is what problem are you trying to solve? what JOB are you hiring the product to do. It leaves alot of flexibility on how the problem gets solved and allows developers to be way more creative on their solutions. 

But what about personas? 

Personas sum up the demographic & motivations of a particular buyer or users. Susie is a 45 year old mom who uses an iphone. etc etc. (here's a link to an article I wrote a few years ago when I was on the persona train) They can be very valuable especially when you're talking about marketing messages. Being able to speak to the general market about their approach can be very valuable. But they fall down when it comes down to the actual jobs they hire your product for. 

All of the personas may hire your product for the same reason. Let me demonstrate using a real-life example.

Clearfit:

When I started at Clearfit 3 years ago, our tag line was "find, hire"**, we helped customers find candidates for their open jobs, and identify who would succeed. We had 3 personas: Owner of a small business, Manager of a larger company department and an HR professional. Demographically they were very different. They cared about different things, they had different backgrounds, and different messages resonated with them. They made a lot of sense when it came to marketing & sales efforts. 

But they didn't help in product development.  It didn't help us drive decisions about the product, instead it forced large generalities for each persona, and there was a lot of cross over between them. When we talked to customers, they actually had very little in common with each other BUT they were hiring Clearfit for the same reasons. and that brought me to Jobs-to-be-done...

Why did customers hire Clearfit?

• they needed applicants for their jobs
• they wanted to avoid the overhead of posting jobs to multiple sites
• they wanted to make good hiring decisions
• they wanted to know if they should promote a particular employee
• etc etc...

What was enlightening about these revelations is that frankly it had nothing to do with their demographics, or role in the company. They had these jobs in common, and when we concentrated on those jobs (or problems) we were able to delight customers. 

Are personas dead entirely? well no. they are great for "target marketing", but when it comes to what you're building...I'll take Jobs-to-be-done any day. 

PS. I haven't even given JTBD justice in this article. it's one of many ideas to come. For example the methods of interviewing are fascinating and I've only just started to properly appreciate the "switch" and how this can be applied to take product management to the next level. Ever evolving :)

**note Clearfit's strategy and approach has changed significantly since 3 years ago, I encourage you to check it out :)