What truly motivates customers to buy a product? That is the central question in the Jobs to be Done session, delivered by Assistant Professor Jermain Kaminski. Using the now-famous McDonalds’ milkshake case, he illustrated how seemingly irrational consumer behavior can make perfect sense, through the ‘Job to be Done’ lens. Rather than focusing on features or demographics, this framework looks at what someone is trying to achieve — the “job” they want to get done.

Meet Jermain Kaminski

The interactive and lively Jobs to be Done (JTBD) session is part of the module Entrepreneurship and New Business Development. Kaminski opened with a personal introduction. He is Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship at the School of Business and Economics of Maastricht University. His research explores the use and limitations of machine learning in innovation and entrepreneurship. He conducted research at the MIT Media Lab and Center for Collective Intelligence, and completed his PhD at RWTH Aachen.

Kaminski also worked as a data analyst for a Bundesliga football club. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Marshall Memorial Fellow. His work is published in leading scientific journals, and he co-founded the Causal Data Science Meeting, attracting over 1,600 participants. He serves on the advisory board of RWTH Aachen’s Entrepreneurship Team and has consulted for various startups and companies. In 2021, he received Maastricht SBE’s best tutor award. Kaminski also shared his own entrepreneurial journey, from building a tool that mapped social networks in movie scripts (moviegalaxies.com) to applying AI and causal inference in academic and startup contexts.

Know your customer!

Following an introduction to the JTBD framework and practical group exercises, Kaminski discussed McDonalds’ effort to increase milkshake sales. Initially the company focused on attributes like sweetness, thickness and temperature. However, since none of these changes lead to higher sales McDonalds invited Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen, the pioneer behind the JTBD theory. Christensen’s team observed customers in restaurants, noting the time of purchase, whether the buyer was alone, what they wore, and what else they ordered.

The results were surprising: many milkshakes were purchased early in the morning by solo male commuters who bought nothing else. Interviews revealed the underlying “job”: these customers had long drives to work and wanted something filling, portable, and long-lasting. The thick milkshake kept them occupied for 23 minutes. Once McDonald’s understood the job, they didn’t change the flavor. Instead, they improved the drive-thru experience and redesigned the straw to extend the drinking time. Sales increased by seven times!

Three customer needs

Kaminski emphasised that customer needs exist on three levels: functional (what problem does the product solve), emotional (how does it make the customer feel), and social (how does the customer want to be perceived by others?)

A student’s perspective

Ruggero Canova (42), former executive manager and now shareholder of a restaurant in Venice, reflected on the session: “The JTBD framework is a valuable tool for business planning and the design, positioning, and communication of products or services. Besides that, Jermain offered fascinating examples of AI applications, machine learning, and algorithms to analyse patterns in complex information — like films or communication strategies.”

Shifting from the product to the problem

One of the session’s key takeaways is that the JTBD approach helps companies innovate in ways that truly matter to customers. It shifts the focus from the product to the problem, leading to more meaningful solutions. Many innovations fail because they are based on internal product thinking instead of external problem-solving. Kaminski urged students to always start by asking ‘what is the customer trying to get done?’. By combining the JTBD framework and generative AI they can design product ideas in a relatively short time. And sometimes the most effective solution is as simple as changing the size of a straw.

This article displays the student insights and experiences of our On-Campus MBA Entrepreneurship & News Business Models module. Our On-Campus MBA track is part of the executive modular part-time MaastrichtMBA programme and next to that, we offer also an Online MBA learning format. The programme has a Triple Crown accreditation and is aimed for professionals with at least 5 years of working experience.