Jobs To Be Done (Bova's Application)
Nobody buys a quarter-inch drill bit — they buy a hung shelf.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 87%
Bova borrows Theodore Levitt's jobs-to-be-done and turns it into a growth decision tool. The classic form: people don't go to Home Depot for a quarter-inch drill bit, or even a quarter-inch hole — they're buying the ability to hang a shelf. Her extension is the time axis: a thousand years ago people used smoke signals to communicate, today they text — the job is identical, the solution moved. That gives a diagnostic for product decisions: is my solution still solving the job, or has somebody changed the solution for the same job and left me irrelevant? Where the job is unchanged and you have a better, faster, better-designed solution, you double down. She also links it to storytelling — telling the shelf story, not the drill-bit story, is how customers understand the value.
Origin
The concept originates with Theodore Levitt's drill-bit/hole insight. Bova adopted it as her frame for product and service growth decisions and extended it with the smoke-signals-to-text-messages formulation, which she uses to show that jobs persist across millennia while solutions churn.
Core principles
- 01The job to be done stays constant; only the solution changes.
- 02Customers don't buy the tool or even the immediate output — they buy the end outcome.
- 03Disruption happens when someone changes the solution to an unchanged job.
- 04Solutions shift generationally — the same job has different preferred solutions by cohort.
- 05If you can't name the job, you can't decide whether to invest, build, or stop.
How to run it
- 1
Name the job, not the product
Ask what job your customer is actually trying to get done. Push past the product and past the immediate output — not the drill bit, not even the hole, but the shelf on the wall.
Pro tip Keep asking 'and then what?' until you reach the outcome the customer actually cares about.
Watch out Stopping at the intermediate output (the hole) still leaves you selling features.
- 2
Check whether the job has changed
Test the job against history. Communication, entertainment on a Friday night, music while running — these jobs are stable across decades or centuries. Usually the job hasn't moved.
- 3
Check whether the solution has changed
Ask whether someone has introduced a new solution to that same job — smoke signals to text, CDs to iPod, magazine ad to Instagram, article to podcast. Note that preferred solutions differ generationally.
Watch out This is where irrelevance starts — the job stayed and someone else took the solution.
- 4
Make the invest/build/stop call
Decide: develop a new product, develop a new service, or keep investing in what you're doing — based on whether your solution still serves the job or has been displaced.
Pro tip Where the job is unchanged and your solution is better, faster, better-designed or a better experience — that's where you double down.
- 5
Tell the job story, not the spec story
Communicate the value in terms of the job. If you're helping them hang the shelf, tell the shelf story so customers understand what you actually provide.
Pro tip A framework wrapped in a simple story gets remembered and repeated in meetings.
In the wild
A thousand years ago you'd smoke-signal someone in another town because you wanted to communicate. Today you text them. The job to be done is identical — I want to communicate with you — while the solution moved from smoke to SMS.
→ The canonical demonstration that jobs persist and solutions churn.
The job was listening to music on a run or a walk. Existing solutions failed — radio didn't reach, a Walkman meant the same tape, a CD player meant the same disc, and you can't run carrying ten CDs. Apple kept the job and changed the solution: 10,000 songs, and power moved from the radio station to the listener.
→ Apple's 'i' prefix also reflected the internet moment and a people-centered rather than technology-centered framing.
The job was entertaining the family on a Friday night at home. The solution went from driving to Blockbuster and back, to a DVD arriving in the mail, to streaming on a phone or iPad.
→ Three solution generations against one unchanged job — the frame that explains the whole disruption.
Common mistakes
Optimizing the drill bit
Investing in a better version of your product while ignoring whether the customer's job is now better served by an entirely different solution is how relevance quietly evaporates.
Confusing the output with the job
Selling the hole rather than the hung shelf still misses the outcome — a hole for its own sake is worthless to the buyer.
Assuming one solution fits all generations
The preferred solution to the same job shifts generationally; a magazine ad and an Instagram post serve the same job for different cohorts.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and product leaders deciding whether to build a new product, launch a new service, or keep investing in the current one.
Not ideal for
Teams needing granular feature-level prioritization within an already-validated solution.
From the transcript
“Do people go to Home Depot or Lowe's to buy a quarter-inch drill bit, or do they go to buy a quarter-inch hole? But what…”
“The job to be done is the same — I want to communicate with you. The solution to do that has gone from smoke signals…”
“Is it still solving the job to be done, or has somebody changed the solution for the same job and you're no longer as relevant?”
From the episode
Tiffani Bova: Growth Hacking Your Business
Tiffani Bova