Where does JTBD fit into strategy and vision?

A question that's come up in response to my recent writing on developing a vision and strategy is "where does jobs to be done (JTBD) fit into all this?"

If we think of a product vision as a picture of a better future for our customers, and the strategy as the path to realize that vision, then...where are the jobs?

(If you aren't familiar with JTBD, the idea is that customers don't buy products, they 'hire' them to get a job in their life done—that is, to make progress, which is the heart of value.)

A core idea of jobs theory is that jobs are fairly stable over time, while the solutions that customers "hire" for those jobs evolve.

In this sense, the many of the jobs your product delivers on for your customers are going to be the same in the future. What the vision is really imagining is a radically better way of addressing those jobs.

Visions-in-development need to be validated, in the sense that when they encounter the vision, the users whose future is imagined in that vision should care! We want to see their eyes light up about what their user/customer journey could look like in the future.

This is just a longer way of saying that the vision should show a radically better way of addressing customers' jobs in an imagined future. (The other implication that I want to make explicit is that a vision should be all about your customer, not your business. They are the hero of the story.)

Recently, I stressed how there is an essential part of vision development that is often skipped at first: the prep. That prep is the foundation of your vision, and customer research is the foundation of the foundation. JTBD is one useful tool and model to develop deep customer insight and distribute that insight throughout your whole org.

One resource I can offer to go deeper on JTBD, and specifically how it ties into vision and strategy, is the conversation I had with Bob Moesta, the godfather of JTBD.