Integrating Around the Job to Be Done
Unlike traditional market segmentations that are based on a correlation of product sales or service with the attributes of the purchaser (such as age, gender, income level, and education level), jobs-based segmentation seeks to understand the causal roots of purchase—when a buyer needs to "hire" a product or service to get a "job" done. This note details the thought process and the methodology behind a jobs-based segmentation and provides numerous examples. It highlights three levels in the architecture of a job: 1) What is the fundamental job or problem the customer is facing? This includes political, functional, emotional, and social dimensions; 2) What are the experiences in purchase and use that, if all provided, would sum up to nailing the job perfectly? (The "hiring criteria"); and 3) What do we need to integrate, and how must we knit those things together, so that we can provide these experiences?
Keywords: Integration planning; Jobs; Market segmentation; Customer Satisfaction; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Integration; Segmentation;
Citation:
Christensen, Clayton, Rory McDonald, Laura E Day, and Shaye Roseman. "Integrating Around the Job to Be Done." Harvard Business School Module Note 611-004, August 2010. (Revised July 2020.) View Details