You searched “jobs to be done” or JTBD because someone said: map every job, then open a fight for each until you own the progress. You want to know whether to rebuild discovery around that map. This page does not teach switch interviews. It gives one judgment first: if naming a job only licenses a siege on the customer’s day, you are still counting sieges with interview quotes. Ask three questions before you treat JTBD as the default war map.
“Map every job, then open” sounds like clarity. It may only be siege with interview labels
In product and research today, Jobs to be Done usually means naming the “job” and progress a user is trying to make, then organizing discovery and the roadmap around interviews and stories. That is a modern idea; Sun Tzu never said it. What you read here is this site setting it next to the Laying Plans chapter only to borrow one judgment.
The chapter’s judgment on this site is short: “Compare purpose, leadership, timing, terrain, and rules — then decide to enter or stay out. Staying out is the default unless the aim is worth the cost.” If you only label jobs so every friction gets a casus belli, the map has not made you clearer; it has lengthened the siege list. The page then asks you to: “Write enter or stay out, and name the weakest of the five factors. Verify only that one. Staying out is a judgment.” If you cannot write stay out, JTBD is still a license to open.
Check one: does naming this job tell you to stay out — or only give you more places to attack?
See whether the label makes you more willing to stop, or more willing to open. If after the interview you only have more must-win moments — morning, commute, collaboration, checkout, renewal — you are not clearer about entering; you only have more attack points. Ask yourself: if you closed half of those “job” fronts tomorrow, would the roadmap still hold?
If it would, you may be using JTBD to clarify a few progresses worth entering, and this ground may fit you. If it collapses, admit it: the map is a catalog of opens, not clarity. One check on the chapter page fits: “Is the aim worth a conflict, or would staying out leave the next cycle better?”
Check two: are you clarifying one progress worth entering, or cataloging every friction as a must-win?
List the “jobs” you plan to aim at this quarter and ask of each: is this a progress the user truly needs to make, or friction rewritten as an order to open? The first is worth entering; the second is catalog growth. Not every friction is wrong; some resistance must be faced. But you should know it is pressure you carry, not a reason you won to enter.
Run a plain check on items that recently entered the roadmap. Did they enter because that progress is worth entering, or because someone complained in an interview and you treated it as a must-win? If you can answer, you know what you are building.
Check three: when “doing JTBD” only means more open fronts with interview labels, when do you stop?
Write yourself a stop rule: if the next stretch of “doing JTBD” comes mainly from more labels and more fronts rather than making you clearer about which lines to stay out of, you stop and change posture. Do not treat JTBD as a fight you must take by default.
This site’s Laying Plans page puts the next step plainly for you: write enter or stay out, and name the weakest of the five factors; next, verify only that one. Bring that home to your own case: your team, your users, the people still willing to be interrupted next round. Opening fewer needless fights is harder to copy than turning every hour into a must-win job.
Questions people ask after searching “jobs to be done”
Did Sun Tzu talk about Jobs to be Done?
No. Jobs to be Done, job stories, and progress-making forces are modern product and research terms. Sun Tzu never discussed them, and this site does not present them as his idea. This page borrows only one judgment from Laying Plans: compare purpose, leadership, timing, terrain, and rules — then decide to enter or stay out. Staying out is the default unless the aim is worth the cost. If you read that Sun Tzu already explained JTBD, that is a stretch.
Does that mean I should never run JTBD interviews or write job stories?
Not at all. Naming one progress worth entering can mean fewer needless fights. The question is what you treat JTBD as. As a clarity tool, you will ask whether to stay out. As the default war map, you will mark every friction as a must-win siege. Ask yourself: if you closed half of those “job” fronts tomorrow, would the roadmap still make sense?
Rivals are all pushing JTBD. If I don’t, will I fall behind?
First ask whether naming jobs gives you more room to stay out — or only more places to open. Someone else’s default map is not automatically your ground. If you rebuild discovery only because rivals push JTBD, they are moving you. Write down which progress is worth entering and which lines are only a friction catalog. If you can, put your effort on the few worth entering. If you cannot, the map you build will still be a siege list.
How do I tell clarifying progress apart from labeling sieges with interview quotes?
Keep two ledgers: whether you can say “this progress is worth entering,” and how many roadmap items became must-wins only because friction showed up in an interview. If the first is fuzzy and the second keeps growing, the labels are opening fights. You can also use the check on the chapter page: is the aim worth a conflict, or would staying out leave the next cycle better?
Is this the same as the shiji five-factors, PMF, lean, PLG, or network-effects essay?
No. The shiji five-factors piece owns the chapter judgment itself, with no JTBD frame. PMF refuses whatever-it-takes until fit. Lean refuses fail-fast as the default open. PLG refuses product as siege engine. Network effects refuses lock-in as a moat. This piece owns refusing JTBD as the default war map — and refusing every labeled job as a siege you must open. Do not make those other frames the main subject here.
What should I do after reading this?
Write three lines: after naming this job, are you clearer about staying out, or only richer in attack points; which items this quarter are progress worth entering and which are only a friction catalog; and your stop rule if “doing JTBD” only means more open fronts with interview labels. If you cannot write the first line, stop there. If you can write all three, open Laying Plans and set your answers against the checks on the chapter page.
The next step is not another map for winning every labeled job. Ask whether naming this job tells you to stay out or only adds attack points, separate progress worth entering from a friction catalog, and write your stop rule. That judgment is what this chapter is named for here: Stay out. If your team wants this check first, Contact Us. We talk teaching, training, and content — not besieging people with interview labels. We reply within two business days.