From Paper Maps to Smart Navigation: How Jobs to Be Done Evolve with Context

Imagine it’s 1990. You’re heading to a new client meeting across town. In the glove compartment sits a thick, folded paper map. You study the route before starting the car, cross-check street names, and hope for the best. One wrong turn, and anxiety spikes instantly. Fast forward thirty years: your smartphone knows the fastest route, warns you about traffic jams, suggests shortcuts, alerts friends to your ETA, and even guides you on foot through busy city streets. Two very different solutions—but the underlying job is the same.

This is the essence of Jobs to Be Done (JTBD): people hire solutions to make progress in their lives. The functional goal—“help me get from point A to point B safely and efficiently”—remains stable, but context, social meaning, and emotional expectations evolve. Leaders who define their business solely by the tools they offer often miss these shifts, leaving products obsolete the moment they launch.

Nobody hires a GPS. They hire confidence, freedom, and peace of mind that they’ll get there safely.

The Functional Core

At its simplest, navigation is functional. We need to move from one place to another. For decades, this functional job shaped the evolution of products: paper maps, in-car GPS devices, smartphone apps, and now integrated mobility solutions.

Yet functional progress alone doesn’t capture the full story. Circumstances change, social expectations evolve, and emotional experiences shift. Ignoring these dimensions is why many companies struggle to adapt—even when the core job seems obvious.

To innovate successfully, leaders must ask: What is the customer really trying to achieve, in all dimensions—functional, social, and emotional?

Navigation in Context: A JTBD Timeline

Paper Maps (1970s–1990s)

• Functional: Avoid getting lost; plan the route in advance.

• Context: Driving, often in unfamiliar areas, reliant on memory and map-reading skills.

• Social: Minimal; navigating successfully confers competence, but privately.

• Emotional: Anxiety about getting lost; relief when you succeed.

Paper maps were reliable for their era but inflexible. Any change—a sudden detour, traffic jam, or missed turn—required recalculation, adding stress. Maps demanded attention, planning, and trust in one’s own memory. They solved the functional job but left emotional and social needs largely unmet.

Insight: Products often fail not because they lack functionality, but because they ignore the evolving context and emotional stakes of the user.

Early GPS Devices (2000s)