Glossary
Jobs to Be Done
A lens that frames products around the progress customers want to make.
In short
Jobs to be done, or JTBD, is a framework that views products through the progress a customer is trying to make in a given situation. Instead of focusing on demographics or features, it asks what job the customer hires the product to do, which reveals real motivations and uncovers competing alternatives.
Jobs to be done reframes a product around the progress a person wants to achieve. The core idea is that customers hire a product to do a job, and understanding that job explains their choices better than their attributes do.
This lens surfaces unexpected competitors, since anything that does the same job competes. Kithspark supports the approach by capturing the situations and motivations behind requests, keeping each one credited to the customer who raised it.
Example
Users do not want a drill, they want a hole, so a team studies the job of mounting shelves rather than the tool itself.
Related terms
Turn your customers into your roadmap
Spin up an AI-moderated feedback forum, weight every request by real deal value, and keep each requester in the loop from idea to ship.