---
title: "Jobs to Be Done Theory (Christensen Institute webpage)"
type: source
tags: [jtbd, christensen-institute, webpage, theory-hub]
authors: [Christensen Institute]
year: 2025
venue: "christenseninstitute.org/theory/jobs-to-be-done"
kind: webpage
raw_path: "raw/Task Analysis & JTBD/Jobs to Be Done Theory - Christensen Institute.pdf"
raw_path_alt: "raw/Task Analysis & JTBD/Jobs to Be Done Theory - Christensen Institute.webloc"  # original URL bookmark; PDF is an archived capture of the webpage
url: "https://www.christenseninstitute.org/theory/jobs-to-be-done/"
sources: []
key_claims:
  - "JTBD is a lens that reveals the circumstances — or forces — that drive people and organisations toward and away from decisions."
  - "People HIRE products and services to accomplish specific jobs in their lives."
  - "All jobs combine functional, social, and emotional dimensions simultaneously."
  - "Circumstance is the primary driver: the same person hires different solutions as their situation evolves."
  - "'People don't simply buy or pick products or services; they pull them into their lives to make progress.'"
  - "JTBD research uncovers patterns across groups, not reasons offered by individuals."
created: 2026-04-20
updated: 2026-04-21
---

# Jobs to Be Done Theory — Christensen Institute

Canonical public-facing definition of JTBD maintained by the [Christensen Institute](https://www.christenseninstitute.org/theory/jobs-to-be-done/), the think-tank founded by Clayton Christensen. The page is anonymously authored (no byline, no year), so it is treated here as institutional doctrine dated 2025 (access year).

## Definition

> "Jobs to Be Done is a lens that reveals the circumstances — or forces — that drive people and organisations toward and away from decisions."

The framing is deliberately cross-domain: the "executor" may be an individual consumer, an employee, a team, or an organisation.

## Core concepts

- **Hiring metaphor** — people "hire" products or services to accomplish jobs, and "fire" them when a better option appears.
- **Three dimensional forces** — functional, social, emotional — always present simultaneously.
- **Circumstance drives choice** — more than demographics, product attributes, trends.
- **Progress over features** — "people pull products into their lives to make progress."

## Methodology posture

JTBD research uncovers patterns and underlying circumstances across groups rather than taking individual self-reports at face value — it treats direct "why did you buy?" answers as unreliable and reconstructs the causal story via narrative interviewing.

## Connections

- Acts as the hub page on the public web that the [[frameworks/jtbd]] wiki page mirrors internally.
- Short-form counterpart: [[sources/2025-christensen-institute-jtbd-3-considerations]] infographic.
- Long-form counterpart: [[sources/2016-christensen-jobs-to-be-done]] HBR article.
- Operationalisation: [[sources/2009-ulwick-what-is-odi]] (Strategyn/ODI).

## Related

[[frameworks/jtbd]] · [[entities/clayton-christensen]] · [[sources/2016-christensen-jobs-to-be-done]] · [[sources/2025-christensen-institute-jtbd-3-considerations]]