Presented at UX Brighton 2016, 4th November

1. Inventing with Jobs-To-Be-Done
Jillian Wells
Senior Product Researcher
Intercom

5. innovationresearch

6. designer researcher

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12. If it’s not believable…

13. If it’s hard to understand…

14. If it’s hard to use…

17. Personas: from love to hate
Information from UX mag, February 2013
1983
Alan Cooper interviews
users and uses them to
hold imaginary
conversations as he
designs programs
1983-2000
Ethnographic user profiles
are used in software to
define requirements with
characteristic categories
for roles, technical
proficiency, and education
1993
Olgilvy presents
‘Customer Prints’ at CHI
conference using
marketing characters for
representative users
1995-2005
Cooper and Goodwin
lead the charge on
formalising personas for
use with clients and
development teams
2000’s+
Personas are generally
adopted by agencies,
often blaring original
user experience vision
with marketing
2007
Jason Fried of 37Signals
states that ‘[personas] are
artificial, abstract, and
fictitious.’ This starts internal
industry debate on personas
2009
Kim Goodwin writes
Designing for the Digital Age,
discussing the difference
between marketing and user
experience personas
2012
Dan Saffer skewers
personas in ‘How to Lie with
Design Thinking’ at
Interaction 12 in Dublin
2012
Lynda.com and Bolt-Peters team
up at SXSW interactive 2012 to
expose ‘BS Personas’ and offer a
new strategy for creating
meaningful useful personas
1983
2013

19. motivationsattributes
(Likes baking and puzzles in her
spare time)
(Looks for activities that will regularly
challenge her mentally)

20. motivationsattributes
(Likes baking and puzzles in her
spare time)
(Looks for activities that will regularly
challenge her mentally)

23. JTBD works!

24. JTBD isn’t a rigid technique
+

25. What is JTBD?

26. JTBD Technique Uncovers
Motivations: why customers buy your product
Situations: why customers switched from another product
Anxieties: whether or not customers are struggling with your product

27. Three Schools of Thought
Tony Ulwick Clay Christensen Bob Moesta

28. “…People don’t want a quarter-inch
drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.”
THEODORE LEVITT, 1960

29. Re-inventing angioplasty
balloons

30. 75 need statements focused on
desired outcomes

31. 19 inventive products became
number 1-2 in their market

34. Three Schools of Thought
I want to impress
people at an expo
We looked at customer motivations
I want to impress
investors
I want to impress
people on Twitter

35. Customers weren’t buying what
we thought we were selling.
It’s not a map. It’s a showpiece!

36. Three Schools of Thought
DESIGN A BETTER MAP:
• Cartographical improvements
• Geographical accuracy
• Better country boarders
• Drag to create regions
We saw that we could make something new
DESIGN A SHOWPIECE MAP:
• Beautiful visual design
• Hide sensitive information
• Easy for customers to share

37. Three Schools of ThoughtJTBD helped us innovate

38. Three Schools of Thought

39. Three Schools of Thought

40. Three Schools of Thought
successinnovation

41. JTBD v Personas

45. AS A ______
PERSONA
I WANT TO ____
ACTION
SO THAT ____
EXPECTED OUTCOME
User Story
As a 62 year old grandma named Anna, I want to play a
game on my iPad, so that I don’t get bored in my free time.

46. Why do Grandma Anna and Just Jack
play Two Dots?
As a 62 year old grandma named Anna,
I want to play a game on my iPad, so that
I don’t get bored in my free time.
As a 29 year old marketer named Jack, I
want to play a game on my iPhone, so that
I don’t get bored when I’m on the bus.

47. There’s a lot of information!
As a 62 year old grandma named Anna,
I want to play a game on my iPad, so that
I don’t get bored in my free time.
As a 29 year old marketer named Jack, I
want to play a game on my iPhone, so that
I don’t get bored when I’m on the bus.

48. There’s not a lot of relevant information
As a 62 year old grandma named Anna, I
want to play a game on my iPad, so that I
don’t get bored in my free time.
As a 29 year old marketer named Jack, I
want to play a game on my iPhone, so that
I don’t get bored when I’m on the bus.

49. Not a lot of consistent information
As a 62 year old grandma named Anna, I
want to play a game on my iPad, so that I
don’t get bored in my free time.
As a 29 year old marketer named Jack, I
want to play a game on my iPhone, so that
I don’t get bored when I’m on the bus.

50. Grandma Anna and Just Jack play Two
Dots because they’re bored?

51. AS A ______
PERSONA
I WANT TO ____
ACTION
SO THAT ____
EXPECTED OUTCOME
TOO MANY ASSUMPTIONS
IRRELEVANT
IS THIS THE BEST
ACTION TO TAKE?

52. SITUATION MOTIVATION EXPECTED OUTCOME
Jobs Story
When my granddaughter is napping, I want to do something that will
challenge me mentally, so that I can stay sharp and improve my memory.
WHEN ______ I WANT TO ____ SO I CAN ____

53. Two job stories
When my granddaughter is napping, I
want to do something that will challenge
me mentally, so that I can stay sharp
and improve my memory.
When I’m sitting on the bus with nothing to
do, I want to do something that will
challenge me mentally, so that I can
stay sharp and improve my memory.

54. Grandma Anna and Just Jack aren’t
bored, they want a mental challenge!

55. As a 62 year old grandma named Anna,
I want to play a game on my iPad, so that
I don’t get bored in my free time.
As a 29 year old marketer named Jack, I
want to play a game on my iPhone, so that
I don’t get bored when I’m on the bus.

56. How to use JTBD

58. Identify the
sub jobs
Identify high
level jobs
Observe how
it’s done today
Conduct JTBD
interviews
Write job
stories
Develop
Solutions
Focus on a simple process

59. Identify jobs with quantitative data
TUTORIALS! TIME
LIMITS! HINTS!

60. These become high-level jobs
TWO DOTS TOP FEATURE REQUESTS
TUTORIALS
CUSTOMISABILITY
ADDING GAME CONSTRAINTS
MULTI-PLAYER GAMES

61. Sub-jobs come from themes
TUTORIALS
HOW-TO’ TUTORIALS ON NEW LEVELS
HINTS’ IN INDIVIDUAL GAMES
TOOLTIPS ON NEW LEVELS
DESCRIPTIVE LEGEND FOR EACH LEVEL

62. JTBD Interviews

63. Goals of JTBD interviews
Why do people hire our
product?
What are customer’s
motivations behind using our
product?
How can we make sure
no one switches away?
Do we need to iterate or
innovate?

64. Core elements of JTBD interviews
TIMELINE FOUR FORCESFIRST THOUGHT

65. FIRST THOUGHT

69. Questions for physical products
What time of year
was it?
Was anyone else with
you at the time?
When did you purchase
the product?
What was the weather like
when you went to buy the
product?

71. Questions for software products
What tool were you using
when you started looking?
Can you remember if anyone
else was with you when you
started looking?
Tell me about the old
solution, can you remember
how well it was working?

72. Look to uncover purchasing decisions
Motivations: why customers buy your product
Situations: why customers switched from another product
Anxieties: whether or not customers are struggling with your product

73. Write the Job Story

74. SITUATION MOTIVATION EXPECTED OUTCOME
Jobs Story
WHEN ______ I WANT TO ____ SO I CAN ____

75. Job stories are stand-alone artefacts
When my granddaughter is napping, I want to do something that will
challenge me mentally, so that I can stay sharp and improve my memory.

76. Developing solutions becomes easy!

77. Combining Research Techniques

78. What should I do when..
My job stories are
too granular?
My job stories aren’t
validated?
There are too many job
stories?

79. Use JTBD with other methodologies
WHEN ______
I WANT TO ____
SO I CAN ____
+

80. Too many job stories

83. JOB 1 JOB 2 JOB 3 JOB 4

84. WHAT
WHY

85. DEFINE
INDENTIFY
LEARN
COMPARE
INVESTIGATE

86. JOB 1 JOB 2 JOB 3 JOB 4
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job
sub-job

87. Affinity diagrams helped us define a
common process
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5

88. Each part of the process had associated sub-
jobs that stemmed from the high-level jobs
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB

89. We could focus on developing one part of the
process at a time
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STEP 5
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB
SUB-JOB

90. Affinity diagrams helped us organise
our job stories
WHEN ______
I WANT TO ____
SO I CAN ____
+

91. How else can I combine JTBD
with other methodologies?

92. If you want to narrow down job stories,
prioritise them
WHEN ______
I WANT TO ____
SO I CAN ____
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SURVEYS
STACK RANKING
BEHAVIOURAL ANALYSIS

93. If you want to validate job stories,
research them
WHEN ______
I WANT TO ____
SO I CAN ____
+
JTBD INTERVIEW
CONCEPT TESTING

94. If you want to organise job stories,
map them
WHEN ______
I WANT TO ____
SO I CAN ____
+
AFFINITY DIAGRAMS
JOURNEY MAPPING

95. When in doubt, combine techniques
WHEN ______
I WANT TO ____
SO I CAN ____
+

96. Look to uncover purchasing decisions
Motivations: why customers buy your product
Situations: why customers switched from another product
Anxieties: whether or not customers are struggling with your product

98. Thanks!
@sillyjilly_uxr