Jobs to be done vs positioning
Jobs to be done and positioning answer different questions. Clayton Christensen and colleagues define a job as the problem a customer needs to resolve in a situation. The alternatives are whatever else they hire for that progress. April Dunford starts positioning from those alternatives, then chooses the value, the best-fit customer and the category you intend to win.
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The job names the alternatives
Christensen, Scott Anthony, Gerald Berstell and Denise Nitterhouse, writing in MIT Sloan Management Review, define a job as the fundamental problem a customer needs to resolve in a given situation. Their milkshake account makes the alternative set concrete. Commuters hired a shake for a boring drive and to delay hunger. The competition was not only other milkshakes. It included donuts, bagels, bananas and boredom. Later in the day, parents hired a shake as a treat for a child, a different job. The unit of analysis is the situation. Dunford writes that reading jobs-to-be-done work is what convinced her to start positioning with competitive alternatives. Start anywhere else, she says, and the result can sound right in the office and still not be differentiated.
They answer different questions
| Question | Jobs to be done | Positioning |
|---|---|---|
| What progress is underway? | The job in a situation | Why this alternative list, and not another |
| What else could they hire? | Competition for the job | Competitive alternatives |
| What do we have that those lack? | Outside the method | Unique attributes |
| Who do we focus on? | People in that situation | Best-fit customers who care most |
| What do we call it? | Not a category decision | Market category |
A switch still has to overcome habit and anxiety
Bob Moesta, writing from Demand-Side Sales 101, describes four forces. The push of the situation and the magnetism of the new solution move someone toward a change. The anxiety of the new solution and the habit of the present hold them back. He argues that adding features feeds the magnetism, and that the sale still depends on reducing the anxiety. In positioning terms, habit is the status quo alternative, and anxiety is the objection your proof has to answer. The forces do not choose your category. Christensen and his coauthors also say that once a job is clear, you still define the functional, emotional and social experience of buying and using. That experience comes after the position. It does not choose the category.
FAQs
Should we replace positioning with jobs to be done?
No. Use the job to build an honest list of alternatives. Then work Dunford’s sequence. The job does not choose your category or write the homepage.
Is the milkshake example only for consumer products?
The published story is a consumer purchase. The definition still travels. A buyer hires a product for progress in a situation, and the alternatives include whatever else they use, spreadsheet and status quo included.
Do the four forces replace interviews?
No. They are a way to read an interview about a real switch. Ask what the buyer did. The customer interview page covers how.