Competing Against Luck
by Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan
The Jobs to Be Done theory in full: customers hire products to make progress in a specific circumstance, so the unit of analysis is the job, not the customer. The milkshake story, the functional, social and emotional dimensions of a job, and how to organise around it. It is the most useful of Christensen's later books.
Read it if…
you build products and want a reliable way to understand why people actually buy.
Skip it if…
you want disruption theory; see The Innovator's Dilemma.
Three things you will actually use
- Customers hire products for a job in a circumstance.
- Jobs have functional, social and emotional dimensions.
- Organise around the job, not the demographic.
Do this first
Interview five recent customers about the day they decided to buy, minute by minute.
Our verdict
Why people actually buy.
Compare with other Entrepreneurship books
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
Marty Cagan · Entrepreneurship
The product manager's standard reference.
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