Target Where You're Market's Going with Job Maps

Atlassian just released its annual State of Product report, and one finding stood out: 89% of product professionals worry about AI-native entrants. I’ve been seeing this for the past two years or so. AI-native companies are taking deals from many of the companies I talk to.

So what do we do about it? Instead of focusing on your product or your competitors, focus on where the market is going. The obvious answer is that the market is moving toward more AI and more agents. Everyone knows this. But that insight isn’t specific enough to drive a roadmap that leads a market.

Clayton Christensen’s Jobs to Be Done theory says customers don’t buy your product. They hire it to get a job done. In the age of AI and agents, this is truer than ever. A well-crafted job map can predict what winning products will do to get the customer’s job done better.

Consider a common example. For many consumers who drive to get places, the goal of using Waze, Google Maps, or any navigation app is to reach a destination on time. That’s the job to be done. Like all jobs, it’s more complex than it sounds. A job map tells the story of what it takes for the job to go well.

Here’s a well-crafted job map for “get to a destination on time.” It has two defining traits. First, it contains no technologies or solutions in its job step statements, so it stays stable over time. It doesn’t describe how you use a product. It describes what has to happen for the job to go well, no matter which product you use. If it described how to print directions from MapQuest, it would only show where the market has been, not where it’s going.

Second, it tells the story of the whole job, regardless of what current products do. That makes it possible to identify opportunities to do more for customers than the product category currently expects.

Consider how the market has moved. MapQuest was one of the first internet map players to succeed. You entered your destination, got a route, printed the directions, and carried the paper in the car. Google Maps on mobile devices revolutionized the category. Now you could carry the map on your phone, and it told you when you’d arrive. Google Maps didn’t just help you set a route. It also told you whether you’d get there on time.

For a while, finding a new route when you hit traffic was still a manual process, until Waze came along and nailed rerouting. Google saw that value and acquired Waze for $1.1 billion before Waze had any revenue. Google then extended its reach to other steps in the job. Google Now was folded into the Google Search app and helped with departure time, including whether to leave early because of traffic or weather. Parking remained a problem, and apps like SpotHero tackled it. Around the same time, Google Maps significantly improved its ability to help users plan multiple stops.

Lyft and Uber then attacked the key execution step that navigation apps weren’t touching: traveling to the destination. They picked you up and dropped you off at your door, eliminating the parking and walking steps. Because you didn’t need to use your own car, you didn’t have to prepare it either. Now Waymo is challenging Uber and Lyft by using new technology to serve the same steps. You can see how market leaders move across the job map over time.

The job map predicted where the market went. To see where your market is going, you need to know your customer’s job to be done and its job steps. That used to take one to three months of customer interviews. Now we use thrvAI to generate job steps in minutes, and teams can use the thrv MCP to apply the job map to their roadmap.

If you want to see your market’s job steps and get where your market is going first, reach out.