Jobs theory, also known as “Jobs-to-be-Done” theory, provides a useful framework for designing, delivering, operating, and deprecating APIs. This theory complements an agile approach, helping to define the needs of consumers in the shortest possible time frame, iterate quickly, and respond faster than your competitors.
- Get Something Done - People buy a product or a service to get something done. They don’t care what a company’s incentives are, they just want to accomplish their job.
- Jobs are Functional - APIs must have a purpose that speaks to the needs of consumers, making and retaining an emotional connection.
- Reaching Maturity - A Job-to-be-Done is stable over time. Your APIs should reach a level of maturity after several iterations, stabilizing into a reliable product for consumers.
- Agnostic Interfaces - A Job-to-be-Done is solution-agnostic. APIs don’t know or care about other APIs. Each one does one thing and does it well, focused on the job at hand.
- Measuring Right Thing - Success comes from making a job, rather than the product or the consumer, the unit of analysis, focus on the value it delivers.
- Marketing Has Impact - A deep understanding of the customer’s job makes marketing and API iteration more effective.
- Get It Done on the Cheap - People want products and services that will help them get a job done better, and when possible, less expensively, opening up a perpetual opportunity for APIs.
- Bring Value to Consumers - People seek out products and services that enable them to get an entire job done on a single platform, making API integrations ideal for what they need.
- Delivering Success to Consumers - Innovation becomes predictable when “needs” are defined as the metrics customers use to measure success for getting a job done.
A Jobs-to-be-Done methodology provides an unrelenting focus on the value delivered by an API. The key is providing what consumers need, then relying on your feedback loop to help guide the rapid iteration of your API products, always keeping in alignment with consumers. A jobs-based orientation provides the fuel for your APIs and helps you prioritize operations to move your enterprise forward.
A common organizational misconception is viewing APIs as technical details. Focusing on Jobs-to-be-Done helps us approach APIs from the business end, rather than losing sight of business goals in a forest of code.