What is a jobs-to-be-done interview?
A jobs-to-be-done interview, also called a switch interview, is a conversation with someone who recently started using a new product or way of doing things, where you rebuild the story of that switch minute by minute. JTBD (jobs to be done) is the idea, made popular by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, that people “hire” a product to make progress in a specific situation and “fire” it when something better shows up.
The switch interview comes from Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek, who run jobstobedone.org. They describe 4 forces behind every switch: the push of the current situation, the pull of the new solution, the anxiety about the new choice and the habit of the present. In their words, “When push and pull beat anxiety and habit, people change.” Your job in the interview is to find each force in a real story.
When should you use it?
- When your customers already solve the problem somehow, with a competitor, a spreadsheet, a person they pay, or by doing nothing. Every one of those is a solution they could switch away from.
- When you need to know what really triggers a purchase, so you can time your marketing and write your one-page offer.
- For apps, services and physical products, B2C or B2B. In B2B, interview the person who pushed for the change inside the company.
Skip it when the problem is so new that nobody has switched to anything yet. Start with problem interviews instead, and come back once people are actively trying solutions.
How do you do it, step by step?
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Pick people who switched in the last 90 days. They bought a competing product, started a new routine, hired someone, or quit a tool. Recent switchers remember details. People who cancelled count too, since they switched to something, even if it is “nothing”. Use finding people to interview for outreach and screen with “What did you start using for [task] in the last 3 months?”
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Set the scene like a documentary. Tell them: “I’d like to rebuild the story of how you ended up using [product], like a film. No right answers, small details help.” Then start at the moment of purchase: “Where were you when you signed up? Was anyone with you?” Small physical details bring the rest of the memory back.
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Walk the timeline backwards, then forwards. A common shape for the timeline is first thought, passive looking, active looking, deciding, first use and ongoing use. Questions that work:
- “When did you first think the old way wasn’t working? What happened that day?”
- “Before you looked seriously, did you notice ads, mentions, friends using something?”
- “What made you start looking for real? Was there a deadline or an event?”
- “What else did you consider? Why didn’t you pick that?”
- “What happened the first time you used it?”
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Listen for the 4 forces and probe each.
- Push: “What was going wrong before? What did it cost you?”
- Pull: “What did you picture life would look like with the new thing?”
- Anxiety: “What almost stopped you? What were you worried about?”
- Habit: “What did you like about the old way? What was hard to give up?”
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Follow the energy in their voice. When it changes, with a laugh, a sigh or an “honestly…”, drop your script and ask “Tell me more about that.”
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Draw the forces right after the call. Make a 4-box diagram for each interview: push and pull on one side, anxiety and habit on the other. Write the exact quotes into each box, plus the trigger event that moved them from passive to active looking.
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Write a job statement from the pattern. After 8 to 10 interviews, look across the diagrams. A common format is: “When [situation], I want to [progress], so I can [outcome].” Keep the one that fits most stories.
What does a worked example look like?
Say Ines, a hypothetical founder, is planning a budgeting app for couples. She recruits 9 people who started a shared budget in the last 3 months. 4 moved to a budgeting app, 3 to a shared spreadsheet and 2 tried and quit.
The timelines surprise her. Nobody started because of a vague wish to “be better with money”. The trigger was an event: moving in together (5 people), a large surprise bill (3), a wedding being planned (1). The push was arguments about who paid what. The pull was the picture of “one calm conversation a month instead of ten tense ones.”
The anxiety was the biggest finding. 6 of 9 worried their partner would see every small purchase. The 2 who quit did so after a fight about a coffee habit. Habit showed up as separate bank accounts nobody wanted to merge.
Her job statement: “When we move in together and start sharing bills, I want to split costs fairly without showing every purchase, so we can stay a team about money.” The privacy anxiety becomes a feature idea (shared costs visible, personal spending private) and a marketing message about timing: reach couples right when they sign a lease.
Which free tools help?
| Tool | What you use it for | Free plan |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom | Remote interviews with recording | Free plan with time-limited meetings |
| Otter.ai | Transcripts so you can pull exact quotes | Free plan with a monthly minute allowance |
| Google Docs | A timeline template for each interview | Free |
| Miro | Forces diagrams for all interviews on one board | Free plan with a limited number of editable boards |
What mistakes should you avoid?
- Interviewing people who haven’t switched. Talk about a switch they plan to make one day is a guess. Find people with a recent, real story.
- Asking “why” too early. People give tidy, invented reasons. Ask what happened, where and when, and the reasons appear by themselves.
- Ignoring anxiety and habit. Founders love push and pull because they make the product sound needed. The forces holding people back decide whether they buy.
- Treating “nothing” as no competition. Doing nothing is the solution most people choose. Ask what it would take for them to stop.
- Writing the job as a feature. “I want an app with shared categories” is a feature. “I want to stop fighting about money” is a job.
How do you know it worked?
You can name the trigger event that starts most switches, the top anxiety and the top habit, each backed by quotes from at least 3 different people. That is our rule of thumb for 8 to 10 interviews.
If every story has a different trigger and no force repeats, you have either mixed several segments or chosen people whose switch was minor. Narrow the group and run 5 more before you decide.
What should you do next?
Lay the timeline out stage by stage in a customer journey map, and merge the forces with your other notes in interview synthesis. The trigger events tell you WHEN to show up with an offer. The F/MS startup game lets you turn those findings into a tested offer step by step with an AI co-founder.
FAQ
What is the difference between a JTBD interview and a problem interview?
A problem interview checks whether a problem exists and how painful it is. A JTBD interview takes someone who already acted on the problem and rebuilds why they switched. Do problem interviews first, JTBD interviews once people are buying solutions.
How many jobs-to-be-done interviews do I need?
Our rule of thumb is 8 to 10 per segment. Patterns in triggers and anxieties tend to show by interview 6, and the rest confirm or break them.
Can I do JTBD interviews with people who bought a competitor?
Yes, and they are some of the most useful. They show what pulled them toward the competitor and what nearly stopped them.
Updated 26 October 2026 · Written by the Fe/male Switch team