When I sent my old boss and mentor a picture of my son in the onesie she had recently sent him, she replied, “You’ll have him learning Jobs to Be Done in no time!”
She not only knows me well, she also knows the value of applying Clayton Christensen’s theories to our life circumstances.
I share this with you because recently, something I had dreaded might occur for the last four years became my reality. But, I could spring into action when it did, because I fully understood the Job to Be Done.
So what happened?
My whole family caught COVID-19.
Since March 2020, we effectively skirted it. All of our extended family members, many preschool classmates, and children’s neighborhood playmates had caught it. But somehow, perhaps thanks to intense infection prevention strategies, or divine intervention, or both, our number hadn’t come up yet.
That all changed on July 15th. And it actually changed before that. I just didn’t realize it…
When you understand the Job to Be Done, you can hire the right products or services to achieve progress
For the 1,585 days between March 13, 2020, and July 15, 2024, I “hired” a lot of things to help my husband and me achieve the hypothesized Job, “When we don’t know how we or our children will respond to this virus, help us minimize the likelihood of contracting it, so we can preserve our health and the ability to live our lives.”
For unexpected respiratory symptoms and fevers, we hired rapid COVID tests, masks, increased hand washing, air purifiers, etc. (And with small children in the house, there are a lot of these symptoms.) Before going to large gatherings, we originally hired COVID case counts, and more recently, wastewater data to understand how much COVID was in the air. (If you are interested, there is a great wastewater data tool here). Some might find this odd, but I find it akin to checking the weather. You don’t want to be stuck in the rain without an umbrella, and I don’t want to be in a densely populated situation with a lot of COVID and no mask.
When I was expecting our second child, I even hired scenario planning, and my husband and I fleshed out scenarios for what we’d do if our daughter, or one of us, were the first to be infected.
Guess which scenario we forgot? The one where both adults test positive simultaneously.
Guess which scenario occurred? That one.
I also hired a lot of worry. But I can’t say it was effective.
Remembering the Job in a moment of angst
When I woke up feeling achy on Monday, I immediately walked down the hall and got a rapid COVID test out of the pantry. After the assigned 15 seconds of swabbing each nostril and putting it in the test card, it took only a few minutes to see that it was positive. As soon as it was, my husband put on an N95 mask and handed one to me.
“If you have it, I definitely have it. I thought this headache was dehydration, but I bet I’m wrong.” Sure enough, his test turned bright red immediately. (See this compelling piece from Dr. Jeremy Faust, ER doctor and public health researcher, on the power of rapid tests as public health tools.)
Why did we hire masks at that moment? Because in all our planning and discussion of how this might play out, a top desire for progress was to stop the virus from spreading to the kids if it started with us. They are too small to care for themselves, so we couldn’t isolate ourselves as the CDC suggests. But we could try to protect them to the best of our ability.
Even though we hadn’t planned for this exact situation, we still knew the desired progress if it entered the house, and that was to “help me to stop the spread within my household.” Understanding the progress helped us spring into action and hire the available tools.
After a discussion with her pediatrician, I’d later learn my daughter was patient zero, and despite the fact that I’d tested her a day into her “cold” symptoms the week prior, I failed to perform another test during her illness when I likely would have captured the positive result. (Yes, the “mom guilt” is very high on this one.)
Her one-year-old brother tested positive for the virus on Friday, at which point my husband and I were glad to “fire” the masks, the practice of eating alone outside, and the constant questioning of if or when it would get our son.
To be clear, I’m very grateful we made it through the experience. I also recommend it to no one.
Going forward, I’ll continue to hire rapid tests, masks, and air purifiers when COVID enters, or threatens to enter, our house next. I’ll continue watching wastewater data, and I’ll definitely update my scenario plans. But I’ve vowed to fire the worry. That didn’t help anyone anyway.
How my nightmare might help you
Why take the time to share this experience? COVID hits entire households with small children regularly. This isn’t unique.
But like me, you also have clear desires for progress in your life. Have you articulated your Job statements around them? Your “when I am ___, help me to/I need to ___, so I can ___”?
If not, doing so might just help you determine what you need to hire—or fire—to achieve your desired progress.
Understanding the Job at work helps you build products and services that best serve customers’ desires for progress.
In life, understanding the Job helps you hire available products and services to serve your desires for progress in given situations.
I often write about how leveraging Jobs Theory can help you at work, and I hope this story helps you realize it can help you in your personal life, too.
