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What job do you do in your relationship? Applying a marketing strategy to real life
My partner discovered the jobs-to-be-done concept in Clayton Christensen’s book How Will You Measure Your Life?. Afterwards she asked me an excellent question:
“So, husband, what job did you hire me to do?”
I had to think about it. I hadn’t thought about it, and applying this approach to relationships was a new idea. What job does one hire a partner for? (I tried to generalise the question at first to give myself time to think. It’s not the kind of question you want to answer incorrectly.)
Jobs-to-be-Done refresher
Jobs-to-be-Done is a concept which directs you to think about the outcome someone is trying to achieve (i.e. the what), rather than the method they might use to achieve it (i.e. the how).
Two popular examples of jobs-to-be-done:
“People don’t want a drill, they want a hole.”
Quote Investigator traces this sentiment back to 1946. The gist is that people don’t buy a drill because they want a drill; they just want holes. If you just talk about how good the drill is — but don’t talk about how it makes holes — you’re not helping deliver what the customer wants.
Example #2: The job of a McDonalds milkshake (Video | Text). Christensen’s research team asked people what “job” they “hired” a McDonald’s milkshake to do — trying to discover why people bought milkshakes before 10am, and therefore how to sell more of them. The “job” was to relieve the boredom of a long drive to work; and the attributes they valued were that they could do it one-handed (oh dear, between this and just wanting a hole… I promise this is a clean topic!), it lasted a long time (😆), and they didn’t feel guilty afterwards (😊). Other times, instead of hiring a milkshake to do the job, they might have hired a banana, or a bagel, or a Snickers bar, but they each had drawbacks.
(Incidentally, I use my drill as a screwdriver more often than a hole-maker. I don’t want to make holes so much as put things in h…😶 oh goodness, I had better move on.)
