Today, I’m going to upset some of you. I’m going to compare Journey Mapping to Jobs-to-be-Done across twenty-two (22) dimensions. I just found this in my notes and thought “it’s not doing anyone any good sitting in my notes.” Therefore, I decided to write a controversial headline that ties in well to my controversial content.

This is a long one, so if you’re email provider truncates it, you may need to click through to read it directly on my blog. Okay, let’s go…!

Time (qualitative)

Journey mapping is essentially a qualitative process. The end result of all the work is a relatively low fidelity visualization with bulleted insights grouped in inconsistent ways (each to their own). Jobs-to-be-Done also has a qualitative phase, but the entire point of this exercise is not to generate insights, it’s to build a logical model of a problem-space.

That space could be a functional job (for product innovation) or it can be used to build a model of a consumption job, which is essentially a journey. The big difference is in the level of fidelity. Jobs generally don’t conflate journeys together, and they also incorporate success metrics (which will later be prioritized).

Even if you stop at qualitative, the model can be used to much better effect than a journey map.

Resources (qualitative)

With the advent of Generative AI, and the fact that in Jobs-to-be-Done we aren’t polling end users for insights, we have the luxury of considering AI tools to build out our models. The collective knowledge of the universe is at our fingertips, and since Jobs are stable over time - and solution agnostic - we don’t need to worry about whether the model is up-to-date on the latest solutions.

As a result, we get some time and cost benefits over Journey Mapping, which is highly solution focused and requires direct contact with end users. A single person can construct models quickly, given access to well developed prompts and the proper scope.

Time (quantitative)

Journey mapping is not a quantitative exercise, therefore you won’t find any statisticians or data scientists in that profession.

Resources (quantitative)

See above 👆

Output

With journey maps, you get journey maps - a highly visual work product that is entertaining in that no two ever look alike. Job maps are a part of a rigorous and consistent data-oriented framework which will include the maps, and success metrics which are actually prioritized for a multitude of different analyses.

Durability of Output

A good Jobs-to-be-Done study can inform product teams for years. It is the perfect companion for those that must develop strategic roadmaps that anticipate the future better than the competition.

Precision of Output

The granularity of Jobs-to-be-Done often puts off creative minds. I have both minds, but prefer systems vs non-targeted ideation any day of the week.

Leverage

Jobs-to-be-Done does require some different competencies (today) but overall because it’s a system, it can be automated to a large degree. That will soon include the consumption, organization, and analysis of the datasets returned from complex surveys.

Balance

It’s foolish to trust prioritizations derived from limited qualitative research when you can simply use a more robust approach that takes less time and effort.

Breadth of Coverage

Journey mapping focuses on what happens. Jobs-to-be-Done focuses on what end users are trying to accomplish, which means it addresses what doesn’t happen as well.

Depth of Coverage

Journey maps are generally category level in nature and often conflate multiple consumption chain processes. As a result, there is no room for the granular insights you can get from a Jobs-to-be-Done study.

Focal Point

Journeys focus on the solution-space, Jobs-to-be-Done focuses on the problem-space. I’m sure there are problems in the solution-space too 😏

Noise vs Signal

The amount of synthesis and interpretation that must take place as end users describe their world with different words or concepts is what makes journey mapping a non-starter for me. Jobs-to-be-Done is clear and comprehensive in what it delivers.

Translation

What’s this mean to me? Jobs-to-be-Done models are very clear and useful across many use cases.

Segmentation

There’s this confusion around marketing segmentation and innovation segmentation. They are two totally different things. I’m not sure why problem-solvers incorporate marketing segmentation techniques.

Approach

Journey mapping consultants are performers. It’s all about how to put on a visual show. With Jobs-to-be-Done, Ben Stein would sound interesting.

Win | Win

Understanding customer needs with out understanding how addressing them will positively impact the business has proven to fail over and over again. Not everything a customer asks for should be delivered to them.

Guessing vs Knowing

Ultimately, insights from journey mapping are a guess. What’s certain is that someone will feel the need to do another journey mapping exercise because the last one went no where. I’ve gotta story for ya’ll.

Facilitates

The repetitive nature of journey mapping means you’ll get to redecorate your office more frequently.

Addresses

Jobs-to-be-Done addresses many things at many levels and from many angles.

Sizing

Analyzing the purchase journey of a product category that is on the decline is a fools errand. I wonder if Research In Motion (aka Blackberry) spent a lot of time doing that.

Definition of Need

Journey mapping looks for pain points in the journey, and they represent them on a map as though they apply to everyone, or to the fake personas they create. Jobs-to-be-Done creates stateless performance metrics that can be prioritized in a survey to gain statistical confidence in the results.

There you have it. From my raw notes into your open minds. Hopefully, someone will challenge something below. 👇

End the Analysis Paralysis

If you or your team is struggling with Jobs-to-be-Done, we’d like to help. We’re leading the way to a better innovation and product development process.

We’re here for companies who don’t want to, or can’t invest in Big ‘N’, or specialty consulting firms and their leveraged resource models.
We’re 20x faster and 10x less expensive than your traditional options because We’ve embraced modern tools and methods that can scale.
We’re not here to engage you with theatrics, We’re here to collaborate and systemize. It’s not about me, it’s about you.

Using our adapted approach to Jobs-to-Done - with a little bit of human experience on top - we can help you to get the insights you need in days and weeks without the need for an army of inexperienced consultants and analysts that add unnecessary cost and deliver static PowerPoint decks.

Qualitative Research - at the speed of light ✅
Quantitative Research - with dynamic leave-behinds ✅
Strategy Formulation - focusing on the top things you should do today ✅

You can reach me at mike@pjtbd.com

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