JTBD Interview – Live Demonstration

10 years ago, Bob Moesta recorded a talk on Jobs to be Done for the Business of Software community. Here it is updated, helping you to learn how to conduct interviews yourself.


10 years ago, Bob Moesta recorded a talk on Jobs to be Done for the Business of Software community.

It was one of their most-watched talk.

This year, in Cambridge, he revisited the talk, presenting the concept of Jobs to be Done (JTBD) to a room of product and software professionals looking to view their customers through a different lens.

In this interactive live demo, Bob takes the audience through the steps required to conduct an interview, with the aim of helping them to understand the true forces at play when going through a purchasing decision. 

He – along with Ryan Singer – interviews Nopadon from Startup Core Strengths about his decision to buy a new car. 

It’s a must watch if you’re struggling to sell to customers and want to learn a better way to sync your selling to the way people buy. 


JTBD Interview – A live Demo, 10 years on. 

Key highlights:

An introduction to the key frameworks (09:26) 

– Supply side versus demand side
– Forces of progress
– Jobs to be done timeline 
– Types of energy (emotional, social functional)

The demo itself: the live JTBD interview (29:24) 

  • How to set up an interview
  • Game on, game off – commentary to show you why certain questions are asked 
  • How to kick off an interview (what to say) 

And the initial analysis of the results from the survey (58:52)

  • What anxieities and trade-offs Nopadon made when searching for and finally buying the model he did
  • Why the Push isn’t the Pull in a buying decision
  • Why the patterns are important
  • Unpacking the layers on language
  • And consideration how to integrate this into your product, marketing, messaging…

You can watch Bob’s interview on the Business of Software website, as well as other great talks from April Dunford, Bill Spruill, Matt Lerner and more.