---
title: "New book: Intercom on Jobs"
description: "Intercom launched its fourth book, Intercom on Jobs-to-be-Done, to document lessons from applying the Jobs-to-be-Done framework to product, design, and marketing for software. The book addresses a gap: although the framework is nearly 30 years old and often discussed through physical products, few materials cover its application to software companies. Intercom says the framework helped it understand the needs customers addressed with its product and improve their experience. Rather than offering a prescriptive, step-by-step method, the book presents hard-learned lessons intended to be timeless and universal, including customer switching, real competitors, product scope, exact jobs, Job Stories versus personas, and software research."
---

# New book: Intercom on Jobs

[Intercom](https://yomu.fyi/company/intercom) · Des Traynor · Feb 26, 2026

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

Intercom launched its fourth book, Intercom on Jobs-to-be-Done, to document lessons from applying the Jobs-to-be-Done framework to product, design, and marketing for software. The book addresses a gap: although the framework is nearly 30 years old and often discussed through physical products, few materials cover its application to software companies. Intercom says the framework helped it understand the needs customers addressed with its product and improve their experience. Rather than offering a prescriptive, step-by-step method, the book presents hard-learned lessons intended to be timeless and universal, including customer switching, real competitors, product scope, exact jobs, Job Stories versus personas, and software research.

## Context

Jobs-to-be-Done is described as a nearly 30-year-old framework whose existing examples and discussions often concern physical products. The book focuses on applying it to software companies, an area the text says is rarely covered in software-specific detail.

## Approach / What changed

The book consolidates Intercom’s lessons from applying Jobs-to-be-Done to its product, design, and marketing. It avoids a step-by-step prescription and instead presents hard-learned lessons on customer switching, competition, product scope, exact jobs, Job Stories, personas, and software research.

## Takeaways

- Intercom used Jobs-to-be-Done to understand what needs customers addressed with its product and to improve their experience.
- The book covers how customers switch products, how to identify real competitors, how to define product scope, and how to identify the exact job a product does.
- Its material is intentionally not a step-by-step guide; it focuses on hard-learned lessons described as timeless and universal, including Job Stories and software research.

## FAQ

### Why does the book avoid being a step-by-step Jobs-to-be-Done guide?

It argues that prescriptive advice is unsuitable without knowledge of a specific business. Instead, the book focuses on hard-learned lessons intended to be timeless and universal.

### Which software-specific Jobs-to-be-Done topics does the book cover?

It covers customer switching, real competitors, product scope, the exact job a product does, Job Stories compared with personas, and applying Jobs-to-be-Done to software research.

**Tags:** [Customer Experience](https://yomu.fyi/topic/customer-experience), [Jobs-to-be-Done](https://yomu.fyi/topic/jobs-to-be-done), [Research](https://yomu.fyi/topic/research)

- Source: [Intercom](https://www.intercom.com/blog/jobs-to-be-done-book)
- Source URL: https://www.intercom.com/blog/jobs-to-be-done-book
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-17T14:06:27.316Z

[Read original post](https://www.intercom.com/blog/jobs-to-be-done-book)