When businesses struggle with internal misalignment, it often shows up in small but costly ways: a product update that doesn’t resonate, a marketing campaign that misses the target, or a user journey that doesn’t reflect how real people behave. These issues aren’t necessarily due to miscommunication – they’re frequently rooted in an incomplete or mismatched understanding of customer needs.

Different teams often view the customer through different lenses. Marketing may focus on awareness and engagement. Product teams hone in on features. User experience experts aim to optimize journeys. Each of these functions is valuable – but without a shared framework for interpreting what the customer is trying to accomplish, teams may begin speaking different languages.

Why teams misunderstand the customer

This type of misalignment usually happens when teams rely on:

• Surface-level demographics – Basing decisions on age, income, or location rather than actual customer objectives
• Generic personas – Assuming a fictional character covers all use cases or motivations
• Internal assumptions – Relying too heavily on what teams believe the customer wants, without validating those beliefs
• Departmental silos – Each team deciding what the customer needs based on their own function’s priorities

For example, a fitness brand might launch an app update based on feature requests, while the marketing team runs a campaign promising lifestyle transformation. Without a shared understanding of the job the customer is hiring the app to do (e.g., "help me fit in short workouts during my lunch break"), both efforts miss the mark – and the disconnect becomes costly in user frustration and low engagement.

The cost of internal misalignment

Misunderstood customer needs can drain resources and confuse strategy. It leads to:

• Duplicate or conflicting initiatives
• Misdirected product features
• Confusing messaging to the market
• Reduced confidence in decision-making

When teams aren't aligned on what the customer truly values, internal friction grows – slowing innovation and compromising user experience. And without accurate, actionable consumer insights, even the most well-intentioned strategies can feel disconnected from reality.

This is where the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework provides clarity. By identifying what your customer is actually trying to achieve – their desired outcome, not just their behavior – JTBD becomes the bridge between product, UX, research, and marketing teams.

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a simple yet powerful framework in consumer insights. Rather than focusing on who the customer is, it focuses on what the customer is trying to do. In other words, instead of asking “Who is Jane, a 34-year-old consumer in Chicago?”, JTBD asks, “What is Jane trying to accomplish, and why?”

JTBD operates on the belief that people buy products and services to get a ‘job’ done in their lives. That job might be something functional, emotional, or social – and unlocking that job reveals what truly drives a customer’s decisions.

JTBD in plain language

Think of ordering a smoothie on a rushed morning. You’re not just buying fruit in a cup – you’re choosing something that helps you skip a full breakfast while still feeling good about your health. That’s your job to be done: “Help me fuel up fast without feeling guilty.”

For businesses, knowing this job changes the game. Product teams might simplify the ingredients list. Marketing could highlight convenience and health. User experience might make reordering easier. Suddenly, everyone is rowing in the same direction – toward satisfying the same customer need.

How JTBD improves team alignment

JTBD goes beyond traditional audience segmentation by:

• Uncovering real motivations – Why do customers choose your brand or a competitor?
• Highlighting different jobs for different contexts – The same user may have different jobs at different times
• Creating a shared language – Use one job statement to align product strategy, marketing alignment, and UX design

Cross-functional teams use JTBD to focus less on features and more on outcomes. It gives product teams clarity on what to build. Marketers can craft messages that meet the customer where they are. And researchers can uncover hidden insights that drive innovation.

JTBD meets consumer insights

At SIVO Insights, we’ve seen how JTBD works best when paired with strong, data-backed market research. It brings together qualitative depth and quantitative scale to not only generate ideas but guide action. Whether you’re launching a new product or refining user experience, JTBD adds a layer of human understanding that your entire organization can rally around.

Business leaders turn to JTBD because it:

• Encourages better cross-functional collaboration
• Helps prioritize features or campaigns based on real needs
• Brings structure to ambiguous data

In short, JTBD is more than a tool – it’s a mindset shift. One that helps teams stop guessing what customers want and start understanding what they’re truly trying to achieve.

One of the most powerful benefits of the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework is its ability to cultivate a shared understanding of customer needs across departments. Whether you work in product development, marketing, user experience, or leadership, misalignment often arises when each team interprets the customer differently. JTBD helps dismantle those silos by refocusing everyone on what truly matters: what customers are trying to achieve and why.

Unlike traditional personas or demographics, JTBD focuses on context and motivation. Instead of asking, "Who is our customer?" it asks, "What is our customer trying to do, and what’s getting in the way?" This simple shift encourages departments to align around specific objectives customers are trying to accomplish – not subjective assumptions about audience segments.

Here’s how JTBD supports cross-functional collaboration:

1. Establishes a Common Language

By describing goals in terms of “jobs,” teams gain a mutual vocabulary. For example, product managers and marketers might both identify that a customer’s job is “to quickly find a healthy lunch during a busy workday.” Now, product looks at how features support speed and options, while marketing frames messaging around convenience and health – everyone works toward the same endpoint.

2. Clarifies Customer Needs Across Functions

JTBD strips away internal bias. Instead of each department projecting what they think matters most based on internal KPIs, teams work from the same customer insight foundation. This creates tighter collaboration between marketing, UX, product, and research by anchoring every decision in real-world motivations.

3. Helps Prioritize Work Efforts

When teams rally around the same customer job, it becomes easier to identify what initiatives matter most. If a primary job for your customer is “to feel confident buying a skincare product online,” then cross-functional teams can more easily prioritize improving product descriptions, simplifying checkout flows, or collecting relevant reviews – rather than focusing on unrelated features or campaigns.

With clear Jobs To Be Done, everyone on the team – from engineers to brand strategists – gains context, empathy, and direction. JTBD serves as a north star that keeps departments from drifting apart, especially in fast-moving organizations.

Whether you're part of a startup or a global enterprise, applying the Jobs To Be Done framework has the power to break down internal walls and drive unified action. Here are a few simple, case examples of how JTBD has helped cross-functional teams gain clarity and collaborate better by aligning around true customer intent.

Example 1: Improving the Grocery App Experience

A grocery retailer applied JTBD through qualitative market research to learn why people used their app. Surprisingly, customers weren't just trying to “order groceries” – their real job was “to reclaim time during a long week.” This shift reframed priorities across departments:

• Product teams prioritized one-click reordering and time-saving features.
• UX teams streamlined navigation based on goal-oriented tasks.
• Marketing reframed campaigns to emphasize “getting your evening back.”

Teams stopped guessing what mattered and started working from the same customer motivation – leading to higher app usage and stronger retention.

Example 2: Launching a New Skincare Product

A personal care brand was launching a targeted skincare line and used JTBD to uncover deeper consumer motivations. The key insight? Consumers weren’t just “buying skincare,” they were trying “to feel in control of their appearance amid changing lifestyles.”

With that clarity:

• R&D and innovation teams focused on easy-to-use formulations.
• Marketing built messaging around empowerment and adaptability.
• Sales teams built retail partnerships that emphasized convenience and self-care.

This shared job anchored the product strategy and customer insights across the organization, boosting launch success.

Example 3: Reducing Churn in a Software Subscription

A SaaS company experiencing high churn realized its departments had fragmented views of the customer journey. JTBD workshops revealed that users weren’t just “using the software” – their job was “to show their boss quick wins from data.” With this realignment:

• Product added in-app reporting features with executive-friendly summaries.
• Customer success teams tailored onboarding to support presentation of business value early on.
• Marketing shifted from technical benefits to showcasing how the tool helps users impress their leadership.

As a result, the entire organization began pulling in the same direction, driving measurable results.

These stories show why JTBD helps cross-functional teams, not just by identifying what to build—but by uniting everyone around why a customer truly cares. It’s a consumer insights framework for teams that fosters better team alignment, clearer priorities, and a more consistent user experience.

Ready to bring your team closer to your customer in 2025? Adopting the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) approach doesn’t require a major transformation – just a shift in how you ask questions and operate cross-functionally. The key is starting with curiosity and a willingness to listen.

1. Start With Research, Not Assumptions

Kick off by exploring customers' true motivations through consumer insights. Whether you begin with internal feedback, interviews, or structured market research, your goal is to understand what customers are trying to achieve beyond your product or service category. Behavioral context matters.

Instead of asking, “Why don’t customers use our feature?” try asking, “What job were they trying to do when they turned to us – and did we help them succeed?”

2. Run a JTBD Workshop With Cross-Functional Teams

Bring product, marketing, UX, and insights teams together to map out customer jobs. These collaborative sessions spark shared “aha” moments. Use sticky notes or digital tools to gather input around key customer goals, pain points, and desired outcomes. Remember: the job is the goal, not your product.

3. Prioritize Jobs That Drive Growth

Once identified, categorize jobs by frequency and business impact. Focus on 1–2 priority jobs to ground your roadmap and messaging. These priorities create a compass for team alignment and help guide new product initiatives, marketing campaigns, or support strategies.

4. Integrate Jobs Into Core Team Strategies

Embedding JTBD into everyday conversations is essential. Reflect the jobs in agile planning, customer journey mapping, content creation, and go-to-market plans. This ensures that cross-team collaboration remains customer-focused beyond the initial workshop or insight gathering.

As 2025 approaches, more organizations are turning to frameworks that connect business strategy with real, human-centered understanding. JTBD is one of the most approachable, actionable ways to ensure your team isn’t just building things – but solving the right problems for the right reasons.

By using JTBD for team alignment, you’re not only simplifying internal collaboration, but also creating offerings that resonate more deeply with your audience. When everyone understands what the customer is really trying to do, your business is better equipped to design meaningful, lasting solutions.