JTBD Lesson #2: The Job to be Done doesn’t change.

The second key lesson you might have already spotted in the example from Lesson 1: The JOB doesn’t change, The Product we hire does. Consider the previous JTBD, “sharing a moment with others”…

Below is a (totally science fiction today) product from Magic Leap, an Augmented Reality startup working on overlaying 3D images on your reality.

This was produced by Weta Workshop, so is basically CGI today, but imagine what adding depth to our digital images will do to shift the products we hire again. Apple in particular seems to be flexing it’s R&D in this area, first with FaceID using depth to make sure it’s you who is accessing your phone. The latest iPad has a full on LiDAR camera on board. Both the hardware and software are underwhelming today, but what might happen as it gets better in many ways?

Another possible “new product” that we might employ for this same JTBD is Virtual Reality, where using a headset you can be transported anywhere – so I could perhaps share with all of you what it’s like to get barrelled in Indonesia.

Of course, we’ve seen these shifts many, many times before. Consider how much the way we listen to recorded music has changed over the last 50 years:

Vinyl to cassettes, to CDs, to MP3, to various forms of streaming today. Again: the job has stayed largely the same, but we have switched the products we hire for this job many times.

The lesson here is to really, really consider alternatives. Your product may be unique, but the underlying JTBD is not. Don’t be lazy or closed-minded here. If you really can’t identify an alternative, then there’s a good chance that you’re solving a problem that no one has!