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Spoke · 6 examples · 9 min read

JTBD examples — 6 real jobs broken down

Six worked Jobs to Be Done examples across food, software, and physical products. Each one shows the functional, emotional, and social jobs — and the insight that changed how the company positioned the product.

Short answer

What is the Clayton Christensen milkshake story?

McDonald's tried to sell more milkshakes by improving the milkshake — flavours, thickness, price — and sales did not move. Researchers working with Clayton Christensen instead watched who bought them, and found that a large share were sold early in the morning to solo commuters who ordered nothing else and drove away. Those people were not buying a dessert. They were hiring the milkshake to make a boring drive less boring.

Write your own job statement →Source: Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School

Why the story matters

The milkshake's real competitors were bananas, bagels and doughnuts — not other milkshakes. Bananas were gone too fast, bagels needed two hands.
The job had three requirements the product category never measured: one-handed, slow to drink, filling until lunch.
Demographics explained nothing. Two people with identical profiles hired the milkshake for different jobs — commute companion in the morning, treat for a child in the afternoon.
The fix followed from the job, not from the product: thicker shakes, placed where a driver could grab one quickly.
The share sold in the morning is retold as anywhere between 40% and half, depending on the source. The proportion is not the point; the switch from "who buys this" to "what is it hired to do" is.

The pattern: customers don't hire products to BE products. They hire products to make progress on a specific situation. Functional jobs explain the action; emotional and social jobs explain why customers stay — and pay.

Example 1

McDonald's milkshake (morning customer)

Functional job

"Make my long, boring commute less boring. One-handed, slow to drink, filling enough to last until lunch."

Emotional job

"Feel like I've started the day with a small reward, not just another bland routine."

Social job

"Look like the kind of person who treats themselves a little, not someone trapped in joyless routine."

Insight:McDonald's tried improving the milkshake itself — flavors, consistency. Sales didn't move. Once they understood the morning job, they put thicker shakes in fast pickup lanes. Sales jumped.

Example 2

Slack (team chat at startup)

Functional job

"Reduce the friction of asking quick questions across the team without scheduling meetings."

Emotional job

"Feel connected to colleagues during long focused work, especially in remote teams."

Social job

"Demonstrate that we're a modern, fast-moving team — not the kind that lives in email threads."

Insight:Slack started as an internal tool inside a failed gaming startup. The job they discovered (async team chat) was so strong that they pivoted the entire company around it.

Example 3

Snickers (afternoon at work)

Functional job

"Get me from "starving" back to functional in 60 seconds without leaving my desk."

Emotional job

"Take a small mental break that feels deserved, not guilty."

Social job

"(Largely absent — eating Snickers alone at desk has no social signaling.)"

Insight:Snickers' "you're not you when you're hungry" campaign hit because it acknowledged the functional job (hunger ≠ stupid moves) AND gave permission for the emotional break. Sales grew 15%+ during the campaign.

Example 4

Casper mattress

Functional job

"Replace my old mattress without spending 4 weekends in showrooms haggling."

Emotional job

"Feel like a competent adult who upgraded my sleep without overthinking it."

Social job

"Show friends I make smart, modern choices — Casper is the brand they'll recognize."

Insight:Casper realized the job wasn't "best mattress" — it was "easiest mattress purchase." 100-day returns + free delivery + simple choice (3 firmnesses, not 30) addressed the social-job anxiety better than mattress quality.

Example 5

Google Calendar (PM at growing startup)

Functional job

"Don't let me double-book or miss meetings across 4 time zones."

Emotional job

"Reduce the low-grade panic I feel about whether I'm forgetting something important."

Social job

"Show colleagues I'm organized — never the person who forgot the meeting."

Insight:The functional job is solved by any calendar. The emotional + social jobs are why people fight to stay on Google Calendar even when their company switches to Outlook. Apps that win are the ones that make you LOOK organized to peers.

Example 6

Gym membership (40-year-old who hasn't worked out in 2 years)

Functional job

"Lose 15 lbs, sleep better, have more energy."

Emotional job

"Feel like I'm still capable of becoming the person I want to be — not slowly accepting decline."

Social job

"Tell colleagues I'm getting back in shape; not be the dad who gave up."

Insight:Gym retention is brutal because most memberships address the functional job ("treadmills + weights") but ignore emotional and social. Gyms that retain (Orangetheory, Equinox, CrossFit) build community + identity — addressing the social job is what makes membership sticky.

Find your product's job

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Frequently asked questions

What is the Clayton Christensen milkshake story, and what does it teach?+

McDonald's wanted to sell more milkshakes and tried improving the product itself — flavours, thickness, price. Sales did not move. Researchers working with Clayton Christensen then spent hours simply watching who bought them, and found that a large share — retellings put it between 40% and half — were sold early in the morning, to solo commuters who ordered nothing else and drove off with them. Those customers were not buying a dessert. They were hiring the milkshake to make a long, boring drive less boring: something they could hold in one hand, that took twenty minutes to drink, and that kept them full until lunch. Its real competitors were bananas, bagels and doughnuts, not other milkshakes. The lesson is the core of Jobs to Be Done: customers hire a product to make progress in a situation, so the useful question is not "who buys this?" but "what job is it being hired to do?" — and the answer changes what you build and who you compete with.

How do I find the job in my own product?+

Run 8–12 switch interviews with customers who recently chose your product over alternatives. The pattern across their stories — what they were trying to make progress on, why now, what they fired — IS the job. You don't guess the job; you discover it from real switch events.

Can a product have multiple jobs?+

Yes, and most successful products do. McDonald's milkshake has at least 2 jobs (commute companion vs kid's treat). Notion has 3+ (personal task list, team wiki, project management). The risk: if you try to be all things to all jobs, you serve none well. Pick a primary job to optimize for, accept that you serve adjacent jobs imperfectly.

What if customers describe different jobs than you expected?+

Listen to them — they're right. Founders who insist customers must be hiring their product for the "intended" job lose to founders who reframe their positioning around what customers actually do. Slack was originally built as a gaming platform. The job customers hired it for (team chat) was so different that they rebuilt the product around it.