Two ways of grouping the same customers are on the table: by company size and industry, or by what was happening in their work on the day they signed up. Which grouping does a jobs lens call for?

The principle — group by what was happening, not by who it was happening to.

Why the key is correct — the lens is defined as revealing Jobs to Be Done is a lens that reveals the circumstances—or forces—that drive people and organizations toward and away from decisions. What was going on in someone's work on the day they signed up is a circumstance; the size of their employer is not. The underlying claim is that People don’t simply buy or pick products or services; they pull them into their lives to make progress. and progress is something a situation demands.

Why the others are wrong — firmographics describe the buyer's shape, and identical shapes routinely arrive for opposite reasons. Assuming that companies of one size share circumstances is precisely the substitution the lens rejects, since a hiring spike and a failed audit produce the same signup from firms that look nothing alike. And bolting stated preferences onto a profile grouping adds a third kind of evidence without touching the situation.

Remember this — same circumstance, same job; same demographic, no information.

Sources — the Clayton Christensen Institute on Jobs to Be Done.