Value Driven Objectives with Jobs to be Done
Moving from Agile to Modern Methods
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is a framework for understanding what someone is trying to accomplish in a given context – what “job” they are hiring a product, service, or action to do. It focuses on the progress they seek, not just their, stated needs or preferences. By identifying these jobs, we can design solutions that align with real goals, not just surface-level requests.
Using the jobs to be done approach helps us avoid the following challenges many Agile teams face:
- becoming a feature factory
- having significant changes to the requirements you get at the beginning
- not understanding what’s truly needed
It does this by shifting your perspective from wants and needs, which are notoriously unreliable, to the workflow of the people you’re developing products for.
This workshop is for product owners, business analysts, marketers, and developers.
How Jobs to be Done Thinking Eliminates Much of the Common Rework Seen in Agile
The Jobs to be Done framework is mostly thought of as a marketing approach. And it is.
JTBD Thinking is JTBD extended with the physics of flow, using quickest valuable releases, and integrated with Human Centered Design. This has it become a guide to improve workflow as well. JTBD Thinking incorporates the Lean-Thinking approach of avoiding much of the rework seen in most product development workflows.
Jobs to be Done provides at least eight shifts in perspectives that assist in this. The bottom line of these perspective shifts is that throughout the development value stream the focus is on both the line of sight of the value being created and the consuming stakeholders’ (e.g., users) perspectives which makes the product be both easier to use and be of higher quality.
Here are some of the rework that is eliminated:
Mostly eliminates unnecessary rework when new requirements are discovered.We accept that requirements will change. It’s part of the discovery process. However, when you go from the objective of what’s needed instead of impementations that come to mind, new requirements often don’t require changes to what’s been done. They mostly add detail in what the implementations will look like.
Makes planning more efficient. By using Quickest Valuable Releases planning revolves around the value that will be delivered. This avoids working on features that aren’t needed in the next release. This creates alignment and quickens feedback. Both of these eliminate the cause of much rework. It also limits the likelihood of discovering missing aspects of releases towards the end of the planning session.
Heps manage work in process.The combination of smaller batches and alignment enables managing work in process by facilitating a focus on finishing.
Enables pivoting with less waste.All of the above make your work more interruptible with little waste. This means it will cost you less if you have to pivot to another need.
Minimizes the rework of the UI.Developers tend to focus on their system instead of how users expect it to work. JTBD Thinking’s inclusion of Human Centered Design helps developers shift from what they are building to how it will be used. This both lowers the need for UX specialists and the rework that often happens at the end of development.
Jobs to Be Done Thinking Curriculum
This 15 hour workshop introduces participants to Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) integrated with Design Thinking, Human Centered Design, and a few advanced Flow concepts. Case studies are presented throughout the workshop and participants have an opportunity to work on their own products. All sessions are live and recorded. When delivered as a public workshop there are five 3.5 hour sessions, each session delivering 3 of the sessions listed below.
Session 1a: What is the Jobs to be Done Framework
What is the jobs to be done framework.
Objectives
- Learn the main concepts of what the Jobs to be Done framework are.
- We want to learn how to define requirements in such a way that as they change, we are still able to minimize waste from the change.
- Understand how the integration of the JTBD Framework with Design and Thinking and Human-Centered design creates less waste while enabling he delivery of more value.
Session 1b: Jobs to be Done Thinking Expanded to the Developer Workflow
Objectives
- Why Amplio integrates it with Design Thinking, Human Centered Development, and a few Agile concepts.
- Learn how to expand JTBD to include the entire development workflow.
- Be introduced to job mapping, the JTBD development workflow, and the JTBD Stakeholder workflow.
Session 1c: Job mapping.
Job mapping in Jobs to Be Done outlines the ideal sequence of steps a customer takes to complete a job, independent of any specific solution. It provides a structured view of how progress is made—from defining the objective to achieving the desired outcome—so teams can identify unmet needs and innovation opportunities.
A case study is presented along with the job mappnig process. w
Session 2a: Jobs to be Done Stakeholder workflow mapping.
After job mapping we want to create the sequence of jobs to be done that represents that steps of progress to accomplish the main ob to be done.
This is presented with a case study.
Session 2b: Jobs to be Done in marketing
This is the orignal intention of JTBD. It’s important both for identifying the proper markets and to set the context for all of the work after this identification.
Session 2c: Quickest Valuable Releases
Quickest Valuable Releases are a critical concept in Agile product development. By integrating it with Jobs to be Done Thinking, a waste can be eliminated.
Session 3a: Jobs to be Done in Development.
By continuing to use the jobs to be done framework in the development of the product we’re creating, a significant amount of rework can be avoided. Obectives chang slower than implementations and this enables us to avoid going beyond our vision and causing rework.
Session 3b: Writing Job Stories
The jobs to be done uses a sequence of job stories, outcome stories, context, capabilities and slices. This method of decomposition, while having more parts than the normal sequence of epics, features, and stories is more well defined and easier to learn.
Session 3c: The Physics of Flow
The physics of flow is the integration of the theories of Flow, Lean, and the Theory of Constraints. Understanding this enables one to understand how the Jobs to be DOne approach lowers rework.
Session 4a: Jobs to be done Thinking and Ops
Ops is often left out of the loop – even being an afterthought.The jobs to be done framework tells us to look at our products as long term. This means we must include both how we deply them and support them.
Session 4b: Incorporating the work of Fernando Flores and SPIN selling into the Jobs to be Done framework.
Understanding how people create their own reality in their head enables you to create software that is more natural to them. Software has been notoriously so hard to use for so long it’s just considered normal. It isn’t. It’s possible to write easy to use software without many iteratinos or a strong reliance on UX personel.
Session 4c: Jobs to be Done and Human Centered Development.
Don Norman’s “Design of Everyday Things” is an iconic treatise on how to design quality (from a use perspective) products. Much of this is a perspective shift. JTBD provides this shift in a virtually cost-free manner.
Session 5a: JTBD Thinking as a design technique
Creating requirements from requirements as objectives enables developers to design to the objective. This makes code more extensible without adding complexity to it.
Session 5b: To be determined by participants.
It’s always a good idea to leave a little time left open for the specific needs of the participants.
Session 5c: Closure.
This provides additional time for questions and tying any loose ends together.
This book is the classic Jobs to be Done definition. Beyond the core of the Jobs to be Done, this book focuses on marketing as well.
While we recommend reading both books, we suggest reading this one first is you’re also interested in marketing.
This book parallels Ulwick’s book. It talks more about innovation and what job progress is.
While we recommend reading both books, we suggest reading this one first if you’re interested in innovation.
A note from Al Shalloway
As a coach for as long as I can remember, a consultant with over 40 years of experience, and a trainer of almost 30 years, I have seen that coaching, consulting, training and even mentoring share a common foundation. You need skills in all of these areas. This is why Amplio’s Learning Journes teaches aspects of all of them.
Although there are some special sessions on these topics, much of what’s conveyed is integrated into the materials being taught.