[Founder's Mindset] Jobs to Be Done: The McDonald's Milkshake Strategy

Customers Don't Want a Milkshake — They Want a Job Done

McDonald's once set out to sell more milkshakes. They surveyed customers: thicker or thinner? Sweeter, or more flavours? They improved the product based on the feedback — and sales barely moved.

Then the research team changed the question. Instead of asking "what kind of milkshake do you want?", they watched: in what situation, and to get what job done, do customers "hire" a milkshake?

The story was made famous by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, who used it — including in his 2016 book Competing Against Luck — to explain the Jobs to Be Done theory.

One Milkshake, Two Completely Different Jobs

Nearly half of all milkshakes were bought early in the morning. These customers were usually driving alone, facing a long, boring commute. They needed something they could hold in one hand, thick enough to last, and filling enough to hold off hunger until lunch. A milkshake did the job perfectly — better than a bagel (crumbs), a banana (gone too fast) or a doughnut (sticky fingers).

In the afternoon, a different crowd bought milkshakes: parents treating their kids. Same product, an entirely different job.

From "Improve the Product" to "Get the Job Done"

Once you see the job a customer hires your product to do, the strategy changes completely:

• For the morning commuter, make the shake thicker, add small chunks so it lasts, and move pickup to the front to speed things up.
• For the afternoon parent, offer a smaller size that reaches the child faster.

The question shifts from "what makes a better milkshake?" to "how do we get the customer's job done better?" That is the heart of Jobs to Be Done.

For another story where a different question changed the outcome, read "Takeru Kobayashi's Hot Dog Record: Disrupting How the World Thinks."

How Can You Put Jobs to Be Done to Work in Your Marketing?

Stop asking only whether customers like your product. Ask first:

1. In what situation do they think of you?
2. What job are they really trying to get done?
3. What do they use today (or which competitor) to get it done?

In practice this can be simple: add one question to a survey form — "What situation made you look for us?" — tag your list by the answers, and send different messages to customers with different jobs at each stage of the customer journey.

Answer those three, and every step of your message, offer and marketing funnel can aim at what the customer truly needs — not what you assume they want.