Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a framework that helps businesses understand what truly drives customer decisions. Instead of asking, “Who is my customer?” JTBD asks, “What are they trying to accomplish?” This shift helps you see your product or service through the eyes of your customer – as a tool they hire to solve a specific problem or fulfill a need.

At its core, the JTBD framework is built on the idea that people don’t buy products for the product itself. They buy them to get a job done. For example, someone buying an exercise bike might say they want to get fit. But dig deeper, and their real motivation might be saving time compared to going to the gym, or even managing stress at home. These underlying motivations – the ‘job’ – can guide more meaningful business decisions.

Why Does It Matter?

With customer expectations evolving rapidly, businesses often struggle to create solutions that resonate. That’s because many decisions are based on assumptions, demographics, or basic usage data alone. What’s often missing is the human context that connects customer behavior to real-life needs.

Here’s where JTBD shines. It goes beyond traditional segmentation or personas to uncover the real purpose behind a choice. It clarifies the emotional, functional, and social drivers that influence how and why someone makes a decision. That depth of insight leads to stronger ideas, clearer messaging, and more strategic focus.

Benefits of Using Jobs To Be Done in Business

• Clarity on customer needs: JTBD reveals what customers are really trying to achieve, giving you a clearer path toward satisfying those needs.
• Better product innovation: By focusing on real-life problems customers face, JTBD helps teams create products with purpose and relevance.
• Smarter market research: JTBD can enhance your consumer insights by making research more focused on outcomes and motivations.
• Alignment with strategy: It connects product development, marketing, and business strategy around shared customer goals.
• Competitive advantage: When you understand the job better than your competitors, you can create better solutions – and grow faster.

Whether you’re launching a new product, repositioning an existing service, or just trying to improve the customer experience, Jobs To Be Done is a tool that helps you make better, more human-centered business decisions.

The Jobs To Be Done framework begins with a simple idea: customers 'hire' a product or service to get a job done. If the product does the job well, they’ll hire it again. If not, they’ll look for a better solution. So, how does this idea become part of a business strategy?

Applying JTBD involves uncovering the progress a customer wants to make in their life – in other words, their desired outcome. That desired progress is what defines the ‘job.’ The next step is identifying what solutions fulfill or fail to fulfill that job, and then improving your offering accordingly.

The Anatomy of a Job

Each 'job' can be broken into three layers:

• Functional: The core task the customer wants to complete (e.g., commute to work, clean their home).
• Emotional: How they want to feel while doing it (e.g., relaxed, safe, confident).
• Social: How they want to be perceived (e.g., smart, trendy, responsible).

By understanding all three dimensions, you gain a deeper, more comprehensive view of what drives customer behavior.

What Does JTBD Research Look Like?

Companies often apply JTBD by conducting interviews, observational studies, or surveys to uncover real customer stories. The goal is not just to collect data, but to understand the context of a customer’s decision: What situation were they in? What led them to search for a solution? What alternatives did they consider?

For instance, a fictional example: A frozen meal brand might find that customers aren’t just buying for convenience – they’re buying it to feel like a good parent on a busy night. That insight can guide product development, messaging, and experience design in ways that resonate more deeply.

Applying the Framework in Business

Here’s how businesses can start using Jobs To Be Done in their strategy:

1. Identify the job: Conduct research to learn what your customer is trying to accomplish when they use your product.
2. Map the journey: Outline how customers currently get the job done, and where their pain points or unmet needs exist.
3. Segment by job, not demographics: Group customers based on similar jobs instead of age, gender, or income alone.
4. Innovate with intent: Design solutions, features, and messages that match real needs and motivations.

This process gives businesses a meaningful framework for innovation, putting customer insights at the center of each decision. Whether it’s for new product development, refining UX design, or sharpening your growth strategy, JTBD bridges the gap between market research and tangible business impact.

By applying JTBD in your market research, you’re not just learning what people do – you’re discovering why they do it. That’s where the opportunity to stand out truly lies.

Understanding how the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework works is easier when you can see it in action. While the process itself is rooted in understanding customer needs and outcomes, its power lies in its real-world application to drive product innovation, enhance customer experience, and spark business growth.

A Fictional Example from the Food Delivery Industry

Imagine a food delivery service noticing that customers order lunch during the workweek. Instead of assuming their fast delivery or menu variety is the main draw, a JTBD-focused study uncovers something deeper: customers say they "hire" the service to regain 30 minutes of their day to decompress between meetings. The job isn’t simply about eating – it’s about restoring energy and control during busy schedules.

With that insight, the company introduces a new "quick reset lunch kit" complete with a guided meditation and a 30-minute delivery guarantee. Loyalty increases, as the company meets not just the functional need (food) but the emotional and social elements of the customer's job to be done.

JTBD in the Personal Finance Sector

In a fictional example of a fintech startup, adoption rates were stagnant despite competitive pricing. After applying JTBD interviews, they learned users weren’t just looking to save money – they wanted to "feel control over their financial future." Based on this insight, the company shifted its product messaging and added forecasting tools and visual savings goals. Engagement grew, and retention climbed substantially.

Why These Examples Work

In each case, the companies looked beyond what customers were doing and focused on why they were doing it. By understanding the deeper motivations driving choices, they were able to innovate in ways that standard demographic or behavioral data alone couldn’t reveal.

• Uncovering unmet customer needs led to product innovation tailored to real-life struggles.
• Emotional and social drivers clarified the true value customers sought.
• Actions aligned with business growth – better retention, more engagement, and deeper loyalty.

These fictional illustrations reflect just a few ways the JTBD framework can lead to better business strategy and differentiation in competitive markets. Whether you're aiming to improve customer experience or create a new product altogether, using Jobs To Be Done helps ground your efforts in actual customer motivations – not assumptions.

The Jobs To Be Done framework can become a powerful tool, but it’s most effective when used at the right time in your business decision-making process. Whether you're launching a new product, refreshing your strategy, or trying to solve for stagnating growth, JTBD helps you refocus on what truly drives customer behavior.

Key Moments to Apply JTBD

Consider using JTBD when your business encounters the following scenarios:

• New Product Development: Before designing or building anything, JTBD can help you understand what job your product should fulfill from your customer’s perspective. This minimizes guesswork and increases the chances of market fit.
• Stagnant Growth: If your product or service has plateaued, JTBD can surface hidden needs or secondary jobs that aren’t being addressed. These insights can inspire refinement or add-on features that rekindle engagement.
• Low Customer Retention: Sometimes, the drop-off isn’t about price or performance – it’s because your solution stopped aligning with your customer’s job. JTBD can highlight these gaps.
• Expanding Into New Segments: Instead of assuming one group behaves like another, JTBD research can uncover segment-specific needs and motivations, improving targeting and messaging.
• Repositioning or Brand Refresh: Shifting your value proposition? JTBD helps you anchor your brand in the outcomes that matter most to customers.

JTBD Adds Depth to Market Understanding

Many traditional demographic or psychographic approaches tell who your customer is. JTBD shines because it clarifies why your customer makes purchasing decisions. It adds a layer of insight that can reveal opportunities other methods may overlook.

For example, two people might look identical demographically – same age, income, and location – yet hire a fitness app for very different reasons. One may want structure, while another seeks stress relief. JTBD gives you that lens so you can tailor experiences intentionally.

Ultimately, knowing when to deploy Jobs To Be Done comes down to this: when your team needs to get closer to customer needs and motivations to drive innovation or improve performance, JTBD can illuminate the path forward. It turns abstract data into actionable insight, guiding smarter business strategy based on what truly matters to the people you serve.

While the Jobs To Be Done framework is powerful on its own, it becomes even more effective when combined with other market research approaches. Rather than replacing quantitative or qualitative research, JTBD adds a strategic layer that enhances your understanding of customer needs, motivations, and behaviors.

Pairing JTBD With Quantitative Research

JTBD typically starts with in-depth qualitative insights – such as interviews, shadowing, or observational studies – to extract rich customer stories. But when you follow these up with surveys or other quantitative tools, you can:

• Validate which types of jobs are most common across your segments
• Prioritize opportunities based on volume, frequency, or level of customer dissatisfaction
• Benchmark how well competitors meet these jobs compared to your offering

This layered approach helps ensure that your product innovation or marketing strategy is not only relevant but also scalable.

Combining JTBD With Traditional Demographics

While demographic data shows who your customers are, it doesn’t uncover why they’re making purchases. JTBD fills that gap. However, when paired together, you get both precision and context – allowing you to segment your market not just by “who they are” but by “what they’re trying to accomplish.”

For example, if two segments are both cost-sensitive, JTBD can reveal that one cuts costs to feel empowered, while the other does so out of necessity. With this depth, your messaging and product decisions can speak more directly to people’s real needs.

Using JTBD Alongside AI and Behavioral Data

Advanced analytics and AI tools can reveal patterns in browsing, buying, and online behavior. JTBD complements this data by answering the human “why” behind these patterns. Putting them together gives businesses a full-spectrum view that's both data-rich and emotionally intelligent.

It's a reminder that customer insights are never one-size-fits-all. At SIVO Insights, we believe JTBD is an essential part of a broader market research strategy. Blending it with other proven tools – from journey mapping to concept testing to organizational intelligence – gives your team the clearest possible view of what customers want, need, and value.

In short, applying JTBD in market research does not mean abandoning your other methods. Instead, it helps to humanize, enrich, and focus those methods – amplifying the impact of all your insights initiatives.