Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a customer-centered framework used in market research and product development. At its core, it's based on a simple but powerful idea: people don’t buy products or services for the products themselves – they ‘hire’ them to get a specific job done in their lives.

Think about it this way: no one wants a drill – they want a hole in the wall. The ‘job’ is making a hole, and the drill is simply a tool they choose to do the job. This line of thinking applies to everything from fast food and fitness apps to enterprise software and financial services. The JTBD framework centers on understanding these underlying goals – the progress customers are trying to achieve – instead of focusing solely on who they are demographically.

Why JTBD Matters in Market Segmentation

Traditional customer segmentation typically divides markets into categories like age, gender, income, or geography. While useful, these categories rarely explain *why* someone chooses one product over another – or what they might need next. Jobs To Be Done segmentation, on the other hand, digs deeper into customer needs and intent, leading to more insightful, actionable data.

Here’s why this matters:

• Reveals unmet needs: JTBD surfaces tasks customers are struggling to complete today, pointing directly to future innovation opportunities.
• Focuses on intent: Understanding the ‘job’ gives you insight into the circumstances and outcomes that matter most to customers.
• Improves messaging: When you know the job, you can frame your value proposition around what people truly care about.
• Makes segmentation more dynamic: Rather than grouping people based on static traits, JTBD accounts for changing goals over time.

Examples of JTBD in Customer Segmentation

Imagine you're a food delivery service. Instead of segmenting by age or income, a JTBD approach might reveal different jobs such as:

• "I need a quick, reliable dinner when I’m too busy to cook."
• "I want to impress friends with a restaurant-style meal at home."
• "I need healthy options that match my dietary preferences."

Each “job” reflects a unique context and set of customer needs that can influence product offerings, marketing strategy, and even app design. These hypothetical examples show how JTBD helps align segmentation and targeting strategies with real-world scenarios.

By building your segmentation strategy around customer jobs instead of surface descriptors, your business can build closer alignment with actual demand – and uncover new pathways for innovation along the way.

Traditional market segmentation and Jobs To Be Done segmentation differ fundamentally in how they approach understanding the customer. While both aim to divide the market into actionable groups, the criteria they use – and the insights they generate – are quite different.

How Traditional Segmentation Works

Traditional customer segmentation commonly relies on external factors, such as:

• Demographics – age, gender, income
• Psychographics – attitudes, values, or lifestyles
• Geographics – location or region
• Behavioral data – past purchase behavior or brand loyalty

These are useful starting points, but they often miss the “why” behind customer decisions. Two people who look identical on paper – same age, job, and income – may still buy very different things because their goals and context differ. That’s where JTBD makes the difference.

How JTBD Segmentation Differs

Rather than focusing on who consumers are, JTBD focuses on what they are trying to achieve – the outcome they want in a specific moment. This kind of segmentation is built around customer motivations and unmet needs, not just surface-level traits.

Let’s look at a fictional example to make this real. Imagine a company that sells fitness equipment. Traditional segmentation might define three customer segments by age and income. But with JTBD insight, you learn that customers are trying to solve for very different jobs like:

• "I want to build strength to stay active in retirement."
• "I need short, at-home workouts I can squeeze between meetings."
• "I’m recovering from an injury and need low-impact training tools."

These are the actual ‘jobs’ customers are hiring the product to do. Knowing this adds dimension to the customer insight and leads to more targeted product features, design choices, and messaging strategies.

Why This Shift Matters

The biggest benefit of JTBD segmentation is that it draws a direct line between what your customers are trying to accomplish and how your brand can help. Your team gains a deeper understanding of:

• Product innovation – by designing based on real-world use cases
• Target audience refinement – based on shared intent, not just categories
• Marketing message alignment – focusing on outcomes customers value

If you want to connect more meaningfully with your audience, the JTBD approach offers a reliable way to rethink who your customer is – not just in name, but in need. It provides a clearer path to identifying opportunities, solving pain points, and growing your business with data-driven, human-centric research.

Where traditional customer segmentation often focuses on demographics or general behaviors, the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework gives you a deeper understanding of why people buy and how you can serve their unmet needs more effectively. This approach helps businesses target more meaningful segments defined not just by who customers are, but by what they are trying to achieve.

Why JTBD Enhances Customer Segmentation

JTBD reframes your view of the market by centering on true customer intent. Instead of grouping customers by age or income, you group them by the job they want to get done. These “jobs” may include anything from saving time during weekday dinners to feeling confident in a meeting. This shift leads to smarter, more actionable segmentation strategies.

Key benefits of using JTBD in your segmentation strategy include:

• Deeper insight into customer needs: JTBD gets to the root of what motivates your customers, which improves both messaging and innovation strategies.
• Clearer target audience definition: Understanding which job each segment is trying to accomplish allows for more precise targeting and positioning.
• More innovation opportunities: When you know what job your customers are hiring a product or service for, you can design new offerings to serve them better – or enter new markets entirely.
• Stronger alignment across teams: JTBD helps everyone – from product teams to marketers – align around shared, human-centered insights, not assumptions or stereotypes.

By linking consumer insights directly to practical needs, JTBD delivers a more human-centric approach to segmentation. This means your strategies will be more grounded, more relevant, and ultimately more effective in driving growth.

Applying the Jobs To Be Done framework to your market segmentation strategy doesn't require a complete overhaul – but it does require a mindset shift. The goal is to uncover your customers' real motivations and build segments around those motivations, rather than traditional categories like age or income level.

Step 1: Identify Customer Jobs

Start by conducting customer research to discover what jobs people are trying to accomplish when they use your product or service. These jobs can be functional (like making a quick meal), emotional (feeling confident), or social (looking good among peers). Listen carefully to the language they use, especially around pain points and desired outcomes.

Step 2: Group Customers by Job Types

Once you've identified common jobs, group customers who are trying to achieve the same things. This is where your new customer segmentation begins to take shape – informed by intent, not just characteristics. You may find that the same job spans across different traditional demographics, showing hidden opportunities.

Step 3: Prioritize Jobs Based on Opportunity

Next, assess each job based on two factors: how important it is to the customer and how satisfied they are with current solutions. High-importance, low-satisfaction jobs represent opportunities for product innovation or repositioning your offerings.

Step 4: Build Segmented Messaging and Offers

Tailor your communication and product development to each job-based segment. When you understand why people “hire” your product, you can speak their language more effectively and deliver greater value. This leads to more resonant messaging and higher conversion rates.

Step 5: Continually Validate and Evolve

Consumer needs change – so your segmentation strategy should be dynamic. Use ongoing market research to revisit customer jobs, test assumptions, and evolve your segments as new patterns emerge.

Whether you’re creating buyer personas with JTBD or exploring the best way to segment your market using JTBD, the process is rooted in observation, empathy, and practical data. The payoff? Segments that predict behavior more accurately and strategies that drive measurable results.

Understanding how companies apply the Jobs To Be Done framework can help bring its value to life. These simple examples (fictional but realistic) show how emphasizing the job – not just the customer – can unlock new growth paths.

Example 1: A Coffee Brand Repositions Around a Morning Ritual

Rather than segmenting by age or coffee preferences, a consumer coffee brand asked, “What job is our coffee being hired to do?” Through qualitative research, they found that a portion of customers rely on coffee not just for caffeine, but for a moment of calm before a hectic day. These customers weren’t necessarily the busiest or the youngest – they simply valued that peaceful start.

With that insight, the brand created a job-based segment and launched a sub-line focused on morning mindfulness. It resonated strongly, opening up a new niche and boosting customer loyalty.

Example 2: A Meal Kit Company Identifies Jobs by Life Stage

Instead of organizing segments traditionally (e.g. by household size), a meal kit company explored customer jobs across different life transitions. One key group? New parents. Their job wasn’t just about saving time – it was about reclaiming structure and balance during a chaotic period.

This insight shaped the launch of a targeted line called “Next Chapter Meals,” focused on simple recipes, included parenting tips, and flexible delivery windows. By understanding the job behind meal planning, the brand grew share in a previously under-tapped demographic.

Example 3: A Tech Platform Learns What Motivates Freelancers

An online project management tool initially segmented users by industry but wasn’t seeing strong product uptake. Digging deeper, they discovered that freelancing professionals hired the tool to signal professionalism and organize client communication – not just to track tasks.

By repositioning features and messaging around that job, the company attracted more of this high-value segment and increased conversion rates dramatically.

These examples highlight how combining JTBD segmentation with real-world context leads to actionable insights. Instead of guessing at what customers want, you're building segments based on what they’re truly trying to achieve – unlocking smarter targeting and more effective growth strategies.