JTBD vs. Design Thinking

JTBD and Design Thinking share a user-centered ethos but operate at different levels. Design Thinking is a process: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. It is excellent for generating solutions to known problems. JTBD is a lens: what progress is the user trying to make, and why do they hire and fire solutions? It is excellent for understanding the problem before solving it. Design Thinking often produces elegant solutions to the wrong jobs. JTBD ensures you're solving the right job but doesn't prescribe how to design the solution. The most effective teams use JTBD to identify the job and Design Thinking to design the solution.