Intercom on Jobs to be Done

by Des Traynor

Intercom on Jobs-to-be-Done helps you understand the real job customers are using your product for. Business, growth & innovation start here.

Genres: Design, Business, Nonfiction, Entrepreneurship, Technology, Management, Personal Development

97 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 5, 2016

Reviews

[Alex Memus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A practical guide to JTBD framework for apps development.

Key insights:
- People hire a product to do a job. "It’s easier to make things people want, than it is to make people want things."
- Products change with years, but jobs stay the same (e.g. content for commute). Focus on jobs helps to understand real competitors
- The 4 forces influencing a customer switch: problem with current product, attraction of new product, anxiety of change, existing habits
- Job stories: [ When _____ ] [ I want to _____ ] [so I can _____ ]

Minus a star for:
- Too blatant Intercom promotion in the end
- Repetitive blaming of user personas (instead of a deeper explanation of jtbd)

[Nikita Goncharov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice and concise handbook about one of product strategy frameworks. Sometimes it feels like too much concise with open questions. However, as any framework needs an adoption for a specific team you’ll figure out answers for this questions in the field anyway

[Lukas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Said that at the time almost all sources about jobs to be done were about mattresses and milkshakes, not software. Continues talking about drills and snickers for the most of the book...

[Jeroen Corthout · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the great book on JTBD "Competing Against Luck" by Clayton Christensen, I was looking for a practical book that helps applying JTBD to software.

At first it looked like this was what I found here, but then things started getting repetitive and just taking different angles on the same thing. Just one (well written and slightly different, but still similar) blog post after another basically.

Can't help but wondering whether there was clarity on the job this book was going to do when it was compiled.

Still the best book I found to do my job (up till now).

(Note: It's 50 pages, not the currently advertised 97. At least in the pdf format.)

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a much more in-depth discussion of the JTBD framework, and would have preferred a more thorough explanation of the concepts. It felt rushed and a bit disjointed. They talked about concepts without introducing them first (e.g. interviews), and didn't really succeed at putting together a cohesive ebook that felt as though they didn't just slap some blogs posts together and call it a day.

[Vassilena · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great and concise read on some of the finer points of the Jobs To Be Done framework. Interesting, especially for product people.

[Ilia Markov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good basic intro to the jobs-to-be-done methodology. A bit repetitive at times, but good start if you're just learning about it.

[Arnas Račkauskas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this short book straight after reading Competing Against Luck, written by the Jobs Theory father Clayton M. Christensen. As I expected, Intercome went straight to the practical side of the theory what crystalized me how it could be used in practice.

[Mittul Desai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't make up my mind around discarding personas and focusing only on JTBD. At the same time, I can't also disregard JTBD and focus just on the personas as my product's users are exactly like the book says, everywhere. I need to read more about this.

Nevertheless, this book is a significant resource for anyone trying to understand and apply JTBD to their product and its' benefits can't be neglected.

[Dmytro Tymoshchenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

It`s a good thing to read for product managers I think. Not probably for every product manager but this book gives a pretty good alternative for User personas and User stories(not completely agree with that). Good product manager is the one who can give an eye on a problem form different perspectives and JBTD gives this `one more` perspective you need to consider.

I can`t say that this book form must-to-read category of books but definitely from should-to-read.

[Gene Ishchuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish every Product Person and Engineer would be forced to read this handover.
A short introduction to JBTDs winning over User Personas some people still seem to write.
Obviously, it isn't that easy IRL and some jobs are well hidden behind 'appearances' but it is a good brochure anyway.
Just think through it and skip all things irrelevant (it is a recruitment brochure after all, that is why it is free in the first place).

[Thomson Muriyadan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read. Designed keeping in mind to highlight what is important (already job well done!). Breezed through it in 2 days and learned a couple of new perspectives to look at UX. Especially helped me find answers to why I wasn't finding personas as useful in practice as they claimed to be. Definitely going to take this forward in my work.

[Kiên Ngo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book will give you an overview of JTBD which is suitable for one starting to research this field. There are a lot of statements and keywords without an explanation of the reason Why and you should find out the answer on your own.
Overall, it is a good start before deciding to deep dive and you'd better know about personas before reading this book

[Nacho Bassino · Rating 4 out of 5]

conciso y claro

[Jesus Almaral · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, I just loved it, it teaches you a lot about how to decide what to do with your product in a concise way.

[Oleg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good to get know basic ideas about methodology Jobs to be done

[Shiku Njathi]

Very helpful in my job of understanding customers and why they do what they do.

[Claudio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book i have read so far on this theory. Outstanding thinking and actionable insights. A must.

[Max Johansson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buen libro que rescata lo esencial

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great summary and take down of personas!

[Ankesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely could be more detailed and concluded the whole material in a more concise way but wonderful read nothingless.

[Cassie Buckner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, sweet, and gave me a brand new perspective on how to think about problems in Product Management.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great starter read for the JTBD framework

[Marco · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides you with further examples, details and ideas about using JTBD Framework, but you need basic (or actually a bit more) understanding of what Jobs-to-be-done framework is.

[Joshua Pitzalis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was more of a blog post than a book, but it's still a great read.

The book is helpful for people who are designing products, physical or digital.

The main idea is that products match problems, not people. Don't focus on the people, focus on the actual problem they're dealing with.

Forget about using personas and user stories, they rely on too many assumptions, use 'job stories' instead.

The job story format is 'When (situation) I want to (motivation) so I can (outcome)'.

Focusing on the job to be done makes you more aware of the context your solutions exists in. This lets you design a better solution for the way it will actually be used.

You can stop thinking about product categories and types of features. The framework helps you come up with effective, counter-intuitive ways to make your product better.

You sell drills.
The drill is useful for putting holes in the wall.
Most people who use your drill to hang pictures.
When they hang pictures, they end up with a more beautiful home.

If the job is making a home more beautiful then maybe the next feature should be a gorgeous power docking station, not a better motor like all your competitors are focusing on.

[Raymond Besiga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across the Jobs To Be Done approach a couple of months ago and was fascinated with its premise. Reading the book filled the gaps that I had from reading various blog posts on the Intercom blog. It is a practical approach that saves teams lots of design and development time while delivering the results to fulfill specific tasks. I have since applied it to the Product Design process of a side project I am working on to great effect.

[Marichka Dzhala · Rating 5 out of 5]

- The most important thing a product manager does is decide where their product stops and someone else’s product takes over.
- People are experts in their problem, not the solution.
- If we understood the situation in which people encounter a problem to solve, understand the motivation for solving it, and understand what a great outcome looks like, we were confident that we would be building valuable product for our customers.

[Daniel Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light, practical, and easy to grasp — like many of the other Intercom mini-guides. Nice primer on the subject and a good mix of Moesta’s/ReWired’s foundational concepts alongside fresh thoughts from Intercom employees and affiliates.

Chapter 9 was especially interesting as a heuristic / constraint to add to ‘5 whys’-style thinking that I hadn’t encountered before.

Good companion reading with Competing with Luck, but not a sufficient substitute if you want to move beyond the basics.

[Dan Prisk · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're interested in using JTBD for software product management this is worth picking up. It's largely a collection of blog posts from the Intercom blog reformatted into an ebook, so if you read that a lot there a good chance you've read a lot of this before.

Still a great short read on JTBD with a software focus (very little milkshakes).

[Benji · Rating 5 out of 5]

Succinct and to the point - this ebook argues for the general use of job stories over user stories and personas to build the right product. This book perfectly articulates the nagging feeling I've had about user stories and personas that they were not strongly casually linked to product design decisions.