Job-to-Be-Done Opportunity Scan
Observe customer behavior, identify the real job, and redesign the offer
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 94%
Start by watching customers interact with the existing offer rather than asking them to predict what they might buy. Look for workarounds, modifications, repeated requests, and adjacent purchases that reveal the outcome they really want. Define that outcome as the job, then distinguish it from the product currently enabling it. Build a more complete offer that performs the job with less effort, delay, or compromise. Shaich applied this reasoning when bakery customers bought baguettes and added their own meat and cheese: the bread was merely an input, while the desired outcome was a convenient, high-quality sandwich. The completed solution increased relevance, expanded meal occasions, and supported a higher transaction value.
Origin
Ron Shaich developed this approach while watching Au Bon Pain customers turn purchased baguettes into sandwiches. Extracted from Masters in Business.
Core principles
- 01Customers buy progress rather than isolated products
- 02Observed behavior can reveal needs customers never articulate
- 03The enabling product may be less valuable than the completed solution
- 04A strong offer performs a specific job better than available alternatives
How to run it
- 1
Watch real behavior
Observe customers at the point of use and record modifications, workarounds, abandoned purchases, and repeated requests.
Pro tip Give greater weight to repeated behavior than to stated preferences.
Watch out Do not begin with assumptions about what the existing product is supposed to do.
- 2
Name the underlying job
Describe the practical or emotional outcome the customer is trying to achieve in one clear sentence.
Pro tip Use the form: When this situation occurs, the customer wants to achieve this outcome.
Watch out Avoid defining the job using the name of your current product.
- 3
Find the incomplete solution
Identify what customers must supply, assemble, tolerate, or do themselves after buying from you.
Pro tip Workarounds often point directly to valuable product extensions.
Watch out An unusual behavior is not a market signal unless it recurs.
- 4
Complete the job
Design an integrated offer that produces the desired outcome more conveniently or effectively than the current alternative.
Pro tip Preserve the attributes customers already value while removing their extra work.
Watch out Adding features that do not advance the job creates complexity rather than value.
- 5
Validate customer pull
Test the offer through purchases, repeat visits, transaction value, and observed substitution away from alternatives.
Pro tip Run a contained pilot before changing the entire business.
Watch out Interest without changed purchasing behavior is weak validation.
In the wild
Customers bought Au Bon Pain baguettes, asked for them to be cut lengthwise, and added meat and cheese from grocery bags. Shaich inferred that many customers did not merely want bread; they wanted a convenient, respectable lunch. The company began selling the completed sandwich within a bakery-cafe format.
→ The bakery expanded into meals, increased transaction value, and helped create a scalable bakery-cafe concept.
Shaich saw heavy foot traffic but almost no cookie demand before noon. He identified a morning eating occasion his existing product could not serve and introduced French bakery goods through an Au Bon Pain license.
→ The store gained a breakfast offer and opened the path to Shaich's bakery business.
Common mistakes
Listening without observing
Customers may describe preferences inaccurately, while their repeated actions expose the outcome they genuinely value.
Confusing the product with the job
Defining the opportunity as selling more bread would have missed the larger opportunity to provide lunch.
Scaling before validating
A plausible interpretation of behavior should be tested in a limited setting before major capital is committed.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for operators redesigning products, menus, services, or customer experiences around unmet demand.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when direct customer behavior cannot be observed or when regulatory constraints dictate the offering.
From the transcript
“the opportunity is not in the bread recroissant. The opportunity is and what the bread incroissant can allow the consumer to do.”
“And again I'm always looking for what job am I doing for people? What's the need I'm meeting?”
“instead of selling the bread and croissant, let's sell the product they want, which was the sandwich.”
From the episode
Panera Bread Founder Ron Shaich on Fast Casual Dining
Ron Shaich