A Strategic Lens for Understanding How Cultural Organizations Create Value
The theory of Jobs to Be Done (JTBD), introduced by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, reframed how businesses understand customer choices: people don’t buy products, they hire them to fulfill specific life goals. Christensen said, “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill bit. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
Widely used in product innovation and marketing, JTBD shifts focus from what organizations offer to the purpose those offerings serve. What happens when cultural institutions adopt this same lens? What if we stopped asking only what people attend and started asking why?
This perspective invites cultural leaders to look beyond participation metrics and demographic segments. It asks: What role does a concert, exhibition, or workshop play in someone’s life? What emotional, social, or aspirational need is being fulfilled?
From Offerings to Outcomes
Cultural organizations often define their value through formats — performances, exhibitions, festivals. But JTBD focuses on outcomes. It reveals that audiences don’t attend a museum simply to see art, or a play to hear dialogue, they attend to feel something, connect to someone, or become something.
Think of:
- A museum visit “hired” as a mindful retreat from digital fatigue
- A dance performance “hired” to process grief or express joy
- A workshop “hired” to build confidence or reclaim identity
Each interaction serves a different job and understanding those jobs creates a more strategic and resonant foundation for programming and engagement.
Global Case Studies: Art Doing a Job
Across the world, cultural leaders are already operating through this lens—consciously or not. Consider the following:
- Art as Inspiration
Sol Generation | Nairobi
More than a music label, Sol Generation is a creative force redefining African pop. Through bold collaborations and storytelling, it empowers a new wave of artists to lead with purpose and pride. Audiences hire this platform not just for music, but to connect with a cultural identity in motion. - Art as Connection
teamLab Borderless | Tokyo
An immersive digital museum where boundaries dissolve — between artworks, disciplines, and people. Visitors don’t simply “see” art; they enter it, often with others. The job being done? Reconnection—in a society increasingly shaped by isolation and fragmentation. - Art as Escape
Teatro de los Sentidos | Barcelona & Bogotá
No stage. No sight. Just memory, sound, scent, and touch. This theater of the senses immerses audiences in journeys inward, providing profound personal reflection. It’s art hired to transcend, to pause, to feel. - Art as Belonging
Superflex Superkilen | Copenhagen
A public park co-created with immigrant communities and filled with everyday objects from over 60 countries. It’s not just a space, it’s a shared story. People hire it to see themselves reflected in their city, and to stake a claim in collective memory.
These examples show that art isn’t just consumed, it’s used. It creates change — emotional, cognitive, social. That’s where value lives.
Reframing Value: Every Work Does a Job
From this perspective, the true value of art lies not in the object or event itself, but in the shift it creates in a person, in a place, in a system.
- Inspiration.
- Connection.
- Escape.
- Belonging.
These are not poetic side effects, they are strategic outcomes. And they can be designed, measured, and optimized when organizations understand the job being done.
Strategic Insights for Cultural Leaders
Using JTBD as a strategic tool allows cultural leaders to:
- Move from assumptions to insight
- Align programming with real audience needs
- Anticipate future engagement patterns
- Identify new markets based on unmet jobs
For example, a cultural center may discover its youth programs are “hired” not only for creativity but for mentorship and safe space. A heritage festival might learn it’s fulfilling jobs related to intergenerational bonding or diasporic identity-building.
Mapping these motivations clarifies competing alternatives, opportunity gaps, and emotional drivers that conventional market research may overlook.
An Invitation to Look Deeper
The JTBD framework doesn’t replace artistic intuition or community insight, it enhances them. It reminds cultural leaders that people seek meaning, not just content. And that meaning can be deeply strategic.
So, ask not only what your audience attends — but why.
What job are they hiring your organization to do?
How might that job evolve tomorrow?
When the arts are understood as strategy (not just output) everything sharpens: from program design to funding, from messaging to impact. The value lies not in the offering itself, but in the transformation it enables.
