146: Jobs To Be Done: Why Your Customers Don't Want Your Product

Framework Sunday: The Harvard theory that explains why features don't sell — and what actually does.

Hey everyone, Chase here from CreativeOS.

In 2011, Clayton Christensen walked into a McDonald's and changed how we think about marketing forever.

He wasn't there for lunch. He was there because McDonald's had a problem.

They'd spent months improving their milkshakes. Thicker. More flavors. Better ingredients. Sales barely moved.

Christensen and his team watched customers for hours. Then they asked the right question.

Not: "What do you want in a milkshake?"

But: "What job are you hiring this milkshake to do?"

The answers changed everything.

What you'll learn:

• The research behind Jobs To Be Done and why it upended product development

• The two types of jobs every product is hired for

• How to use JTBD to write briefs, hooks, and creative that converts

The Research: Clayton Christensen's Milkshake Study

Most people buying milkshakes at 8am weren't hungry.

They had a long, boring commute. They needed something to do with their hand. Something that would last the whole drive, not make a mess, and feel like a small act of self-care before a long day of other people's problems.

The milkshake wasn't the product. It was the solution to a specific job: make my commute less miserable.

Christensen called this Jobs To Be Done — the idea that customers don't buy products. They hire products to get a job done. When a better solution comes along that does the same job, they fire your product and hire the new one.

The reframe changes everything.

You're not selling a protein powder. You're selling the ability to show up to the gym tomorrow. You're not selling a project management tool. You're selling the feeling that things are under control. You're not selling a skincare product. You're selling the version of yourself you want to be by summer.

The job is emotional. The product is the mechanism.

The Two Types of Jobs

Every product gets hired for two kinds of jobs at once.

Functional jobs: What the customer actually needs to accomplish.

"I need energy for my afternoon." "I need to finish this report." "I need my skin to stop breaking out."

Emotional jobs: How the customer wants to feel while doing it.

"I want to feel like I have my health together." "I want to feel like a competent professional." "I want to feel confident without thinking about my skin."

Most advertising addresses the functional job. Brands that win address the emotional one.

Red Bull doesn't sell caffeine. It sells "wings." The functional job is energy. The emotional job is the feeling of being the kind of person who pushes through.

Apple doesn't sell computers. It sells creative identity. The functional job is a powerful machine. The emotional job is belonging to a tribe of people who see things differently.

When creative only speaks to the functional job, you're competing on features. Features get copied. Feelings don't.

The 3 JTBD Questions Before Any Brief

Before briefing a single piece of creative, answer these:

1. What is the customer doing right now to get this job done? This is your real competition. Not other brands — whatever behavior your customer is using as a substitute. For a meditation app, the competition isn't Headspace. It's scrolling Instagram before bed.

2. What's frustrating about their current solution? The friction is the opening. "I can never stick to it." "It takes too long." "I feel guilty every time I open it." That frustration is your hook.

3. How do they want to feel when the job is done? This is the emotional payoff. Write your creative toward the feeling, not the feature.

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 JTBD in Ad Creative

The fastest application: rewrite your current hooks through the job lens.

Feature-led hook: "Our protein bar has 20g of protein and only 5g of sugar." Job-led hook: "You're not tired because you didn't sleep enough. You're tired because you ate garbage."

Feature-led hook: "500+ integrations. Automate your workflow." Job-led hook: "The feeling of opening your laptop Monday morning knowing exactly what you're doing."

Feature-led hook: "Dermatologist-tested SPF 50 moisturizer." Job-led hook: "Five minutes in the morning. Never think about your skin again."

Same product. Different job. Different resonance.

The job-led version earns the next second. The feature-led version earns a comparison chart.

What We Learned

1. Customers hire products, they don't buy them. The framing changes what you compete on. Features are easily compared. Jobs are emotionally sticky.

2. Your real competition is behavior, not brands. What is your customer doing right now instead of buying from you? That substitute is your real enemy.

3. Emotional jobs outlast functional ones. Features get copied. The feeling of being the kind of person who does this — that's much harder to replicate.

How to Apply This Week

1. Pick your best-performing ad. Ask: what job is this hiring for? If it's only functional, write a version that addresses the emotional job and test it.

2. Write three JTBD statements for your product. "When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can feel [outcome]." Build your next hook from the feeling, not the feature.

3. Audit your competitor's creative. What job are they addressing? If they're going functional, your opening is emotional. If everyone's emotional, find the unclaimed functional angle.

Keep Creating,

Chase Mohseni

P.S. Callouts:

• Sign up for our events calendar & join us this Tuesday at 11am PST for Creative Playbook - where we work through Ad , Landing Page, and Email Creative, sharing what’s working in market.