The New New Thing
A short introduction to the jobs to be done theory.
I think technology businesses win when they look at problems through the lens of a job to be done. A job to be done is a constant struggle for progress towards a desired end state. For instance, you probably listen to music to wind down after a long day. The job, in this case, is to help you relax.
Jobs never change. Some persist for centuries. What changes, however, is the tools or technologies human beings ‘hire’ to do those jobs.
Imagine Tobias, a merchant from Frankfurt in the 1890s coming home after a long day to play a key or two on his Steinway. Then imagine his youngest son, Luca, listening to Mozart’s Ninth Symphony through radio in Weimar, Germany, during the Second World War.
Then take a leap to midnight on a Tuesday, two weeks before Christmas in 1989. You find Jonas, Tobias’ great grandson dancing shirtless in an underground nightclub in Berlin. They are playing the hardest steam punk rock through electronic synthesizers from a DJ booth. The wall dividing east and west Germany had fallen a month earlier. In the late 90s, Tobias descendants own Sony walkmans. In 2007, they own iPods.
Then there’s you in 2022, streaming Tems’ latest album on Spotify or Apple music, from your phone to a soundbar, or a bluetooth enabled sound system.
For over 100 years, you have all been listening to music. But you have consistently upgraded the ‘technology’ you use to listen to music.
So, if you want to build a successful technology business, it behooves you to start from your customer’s job to be done. It’s the ‘jacket’ that carries all your opportunity. Everything else changes, it behooves you to identify a job, and keep changing with it, if you want to stay profitable.
