Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a framework that helps businesses – including healthcare providers – uncover what people are really trying to achieve when they “hire” a product or service. At its core, JTBD is about motivations: Why is the patient here? What result are they hoping for? What emotional or functional need are they trying to fulfill?

Unlike traditional approaches that look at age groups or health conditions in isolation, JTBD digs deeper to examine the full context of a person’s behavior. It considers not only what is being done, but why.

Understanding the ‘Job’ a Patient Needs Done

A “job” in this context isn’t about employment – it’s the progress someone wants to make. In healthcare, that might be:

• “Help me feel in control of my chronic condition”
• “Reassure me that I’m making the right health decisions”
• “Make this process as quick and painless as possible”
• “Give me confidence in my care plan”

These motivations are often emotional and extend far beyond clinical needs. Two patients with the same diagnosis may want vastly different things from their care experience. One may seek autonomy, wanting more access to data and control over decisions. Another may look for clarity and trust, wanting a provider to simplify options and tell them the best course of action.

Why JTBD Is a Game-Changer in Healthcare

When healthcare providers explore the jobs patients are trying to get done, they gain a much more complete picture of what drives behavior. The JTBD framework allows them to:

• Design care experiences based on real-life patient goals
• Segment by emotional and behavioral needs – not just demographics
• Identify gaps and opportunities in service delivery
• Drive healthcare innovation that aligns with how people actually experience care

For example, a fictional clinic specializing in post-operative care applies the JTBD method and finds that some patients “hire” their follow-up appointment to regain a sense of normalcy, while others see it as a chance to address lingering fear. By identifying these emotional jobs, the clinic adapts its approach – offering check-ins designed around either reassurance or empowerment, depending on patient need.

In this way, JTBD in healthcare unlocks a deeper level of service personalization. It aligns care delivery with human motivations, not just clinical checklists – an essential step for any healthcare strategy focused on improving patient experience.

In most healthcare settings, patients are grouped by demographic categories such as age, gender, diagnosis, or insurance type. While these categories are helpful for administrative or clinical purposes, they don’t always reflect what matters most to the patient – the emotional and functional needs behind their healthcare decisions.

This traditional model of healthcare segmentation can make personalized patient care feel transactional or one-size-fits-all. It often overlooks why people seek care, how they want to feel throughout the process, and what outcomes they perceive as valuable. That’s where the Jobs To Be Done framework reveals its true advantage.

The Limits of Demographic Segmentation

Consider two patients, both 55-year-old males diagnosed with high blood pressure. In a traditional system, their care might look identical. But in reality, their personal needs and motivations could be very different:

• One may feel anxious and want frequent reassurance and progress tracking
• The other may want minimal interaction and prefers self-service tools for independence

If both patients are treated the same, one may feel overwhelmed, while the other feels neglected. This gap demonstrates why demographics alone don’t tell the full story. Emotional context matters – and that’s what traditional segmentation often misses.

How a JTBD Lens Reveals Deeper Patient Needs

The JTBD method offers a way to go beyond surface characteristics by examining the situation, motivation, and goal behind each patient’s interaction with the healthcare system. Instead of segmenting by “age 40-60” or “Type 2 Diabetes,” providers can explore scenarios like:

• “Patients seeking clarity in a confusing diagnosis”
• “Patients balancing care with work and family commitments”
• “Patients anxious about side effects and needing reassurance”

This approach doesn’t replace clinical segmentation – it complements it. When healthcare providers pair clinical profiles with behavioral insights, they create richer, more relevant care pathways. It’s a more human-centered way of working, and one that elevates patient trust and satisfaction.

Why Emotional vs. Clinical Segmentation Matters

Traditional segmentation views patients as cases. JTBD views them as people striving to make progress. This shift allows clinics to personalize services in ways that resonate deeply with each individual. And with healthcare innovation increasingly focused on patient-centered care, adopting this framework leads to smarter design, improved patient experiences, and grounded healthcare strategy decisions.

In short, traditional segmentation organizes people. JTBD helps you understand them.

In healthcare, understanding what drives a patient’s decision-making goes far beyond knowing their age, medical condition, or insurance type. That’s where the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework comes in. This method helps healthcare providers uncover not just the functional needs – like receiving treatment or scheduling an appointment – but also the emotional needs that influence how patients experience care.

What Are Functional vs. Emotional Needs?

Functional needs are the practical tasks a patient wants to get done. Examples include filling a prescription, receiving test results quickly, or booking a follow-up visit. These are the 'how' and 'what' of patient behavior.

Emotional needs capture the underlying feelings and expectations that shape the patient’s experience. For example, a patient may want to feel in control of their care decisions, be reassured through empathetic communication, or avoid the anxiety of long wait times.

Why Emotional Needs Matter in Patient Care

Traditional healthcare segmentation often overlooks emotional motivators. But emotions shape how care is perceived – and whether a patient follows through with treatment, returns for future visits, or recommends a provider to others. By tapping into both emotional and functional drivers, providers can offer personalized patient care that not only treats the illness but supports the whole person.

For instance, using JTBD healthcare insights, a provider might learn that a patient undergoing physical therapy isn't just trying to recover mobility – they want to regain independence and reduce the burden on their family. This emotional job shifts how care is delivered, potentially guiding more motivational feedback, or offering tailored exercises that match the patient’s lifestyle and personal goals.

How to Uncover Patient Needs Using JTBD

Healthcare teams can apply simple yet effective techniques to bring patient motivations to light:

• Conduct qualitative interviews that explore patient backstories and frustrations
• Map out patient journeys to detect friction points and unmet emotional needs
• Ask “Why?” repeatedly to move beyond the symptom to the real driver behind patient decisions

By focusing on motivations – not just problems – clinics and hospitals can better understand how to use JTBD in healthcare and improve patient experiences in meaningful ways.

While Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) may sound like a business strategy buzzword, in practice, it can produce direct, human-centered improvements inside real clinic and hospital environments. Here are a few fictional yet illustrative examples that show how JTBD can be used to guide smarter decisions in patient care.

Example 1: Improving Pre-Surgery Consultations

A hospital noticed low patient satisfaction scores specifically around surgical consults. Using the JTBD method, they discovered that patients weren’t just booking consultations to ask medical questions – they were “hiring” the meeting to gain peace of mind and reduce fear before committing to surgery. These insights led the team to redesign their consultation format, providing extra time for emotional check-ins and decision-making support, resulting in decreased patient anxiety and improved surgical preparedness.

Example 2: Pediatric Care Tailored to Parents' Needs

In a children’s clinic, staff applied a JTBD framework for clinics to better serve parents bringing in toddlers for vaccinations. They learned that while parents were functionally seeking immunization, emotionally, they wanted to feel confident they were doing the right thing and wanted reassurance from a trusted source. Nurses began including short explanations and empathy-driven guidance during appointments. The result: more satisfied and loyal parents, better information retention, and fewer repeat calls.

Example 3: Managing Chronic Illness With a Human Touch

At a community health center treating patients with diabetes, providers used JTBD healthcare research to go beyond lab results. They found many patients struggled with lifestyle change not from lack of education but because they felt overwhelmed and unsupported. By building meal planning and coaching into the treatment process – framed around the job of “regaining control over daily life” – compliance rates improved, and patients felt more understood.

What These Examples Show

These cases all reflect a deeper strategy: segmenting patients by underlying goals and feelings instead of only demographic or clinical categories. Emotional vs clinical patient segmentation helps providers create experiences that feel personalized – even without major systemic overhauls. It’s a form of healthcare innovation that can be implemented at multiple touchpoints, improving satisfaction and outcomes across the board.

Understanding patient motivation is only half the equation. The other half is putting those insights into action. The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) method gives healthcare teams a structured way to redesign services, policies, and communication strategies that align with what patients truly need – both emotionally and functionally. This is where JTBD becomes more than an idea and starts to drive change across care delivery.

Designing Around the Right Problems

Healthcare teams frequently design services around operational needs rather than patient jobs. Traditional models may ask, “How can we reduce appointment backlog?” JTBD reframes the question to, “What job is the patient trying to get done when they seek fast-track care?” This leads to strategies that feel more personal and effective. For example, a same-day visit service might be prioritized not only by symptom severity but by patient anxiety levels or caregiver obligations.

Boosting Collaboration Across Teams

The JTBD approach promotes collaboration because it offers a shared language. Whether it's doctors, nurses, coordinators, or administrative staff, everyone can work from the same insight: “This patient is hiring our service to feel confident managing a chronic illness.” This alignment can improve team communication and create a more consistent, personalized experience from entry to exit.

Creating Flexible, Human-Centered Touchpoints

Services built with JTBD in mind naturally support personalized patient care. Whether it’s adapting communication styles during virtual consultations or creating streamlined follow-ups for patients who value autonomy, understanding how healthcare providers personalize services based on patient jobs helps design thoughtful care pathways. This moves the experience from reactive to proactive, from one-size-fits-all to one-size-for-me.

Outcomes That Matter

By using JTBD to improve healthcare services, providers can expect benefits such as:

• Reduced no-show rates as services better fit patient expectations
• Higher patient satisfaction driven by empathy-based care models
• Stronger loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals
• Staff engagement, as care feels more purposeful and aligned

Ultimately, this isn’t just about innovation for innovation’s sake. It’s about building systems that respect what people are really coming to healthcare for – clarity, confidence, support, and healing. When teams use the JTBD framework to tune into these needs, the result is not only better design but better care.