At its core, the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework helps organizations shift from an inside-out to an outside-in perspective. Instead of focusing solely on what your company wants to sell, JTBD asks: what are our customers actually trying to achieve, and how can we help them get there?

This mindset isn’t just valuable for your research team – it benefits almost every department. Whether you're in product development, marketing, sales, or even customer support, understanding the "job" your customer is hiring your product to do informs more effective decisions across the board.

JTBD connects teams around a shared understanding of customer needs

By focusing on underlying motivations rather than surface-level tasks or features, the JTBD framework creates a common language for different teams to align on strategy. This leads to more consistent messaging, improved customer experiences, and more meaningful innovation.

For example, if your customers are hiring your product to “save time during busy mornings,” the product team can prioritize simplicity, the marketing team can highlight ease-of-use benefits, and the customer service team can anticipate quick-resolution issues. Everyone is working toward the same customer outcome, even if they're doing so through different roles.

From consumer insights to product development: a clear path forward

JTBD helps bridge internal gaps between research findings and execution. It translates raw customer insights into actionable strategies that drive product innovation and design. Instead of starting with internal assumptions, teams build strategies informed by real-world needs.

It supports:

• Marketing: Crafting messaging that resonates with the actual motivators behind purchase decisions
• Innovation strategy: Identifying unmet jobs as signals for new product opportunities
• Product development: Designing features that directly support customers' core tasks and problems

Why this matters in today’s market

In a competitive, rapidly changing environment, internal alignment around customer needs is essential. Businesses that ground themselves in the JTBD framework are more adaptable, more customer-centric, and ultimately more successful at creating long-term value.

By rooting discussions in real customer behavior and unmet needs, your team avoids circular debates and product misfires. Instead, you focus on solving real problems, which is exactly what customers reward with brand loyalty and business growth.

Introducing a new framework like Jobs to Be Done can be incredibly valuable – but it’s also a change, and change can face resistance. Understanding the potential roadblocks early can help you design an approach that not only informs but also energizes your team about JTBD.

Obstacle 1: Lack of awareness or confusion about JTBD

For many team members, especially outside of research or innovation roles, JTBD might be completely unfamiliar. They may confuse it with traditional personas or see it as another temporary trend. This is common – and addressable.

How to overcome it: Start with simple, relatable examples. Show how JTBD shifts the focus from what a product is to why a customer uses it. For example, a common JTBD case is that people don’t buy a drill because they want a drill – they buy it because they need a hole in the wall. This kind of storytelling can help make the framework intuitive and memorable.

Obstacle 2: Perceived redundancy with existing frameworks

Teams already using personas, journey maps, or user stories might wonder: how is JTBD different? Or why do we need another framework?

How to overcome it: Emphasize that JTBD isn’t here to replace other tools – it enhances them. While personas describe who your customers are, JTBD explains why they buy. It fills in critical gaps by uncovering unmet needs and functional or emotional drivers behind behavior. Present JTBD as a complementary layer that sharpens your existing market research and strategy tools.

Obstacle 3: Limited executive buy-in

Without leadership support, it’s hard to scale any new methodology. Leaders typically want to understand how JTBD contributes to measurable business outcomes.

How to overcome it: Frame JTBD in terms of how it supports business growth, innovation strategy, and competitive advantage. Share brief case studies or success metrics – like how uncovering an unmet customer job led to a new product feature or opened a new market segment. When introducing JTBD to executives, speak their language: outcomes, ROI, and customer-driven growth.

Obstacle 4: Inconsistent application across teams

When only one team is using JTBD, it can remain siloed, limiting its effectiveness. Without cross-functional adoption, the organization may miss the alignment that makes JTBD truly powerful.

How to overcome it: Encourage collaboration from the beginning. Involve multiple departments in early workshops or use JTBD language in cross-team meetings. The more teams see how JTBD supports their specific goals, the more likely they are to adopt it organically.

Create an internal communication plan

One effective way to ease these challenges is by building a simple internal rollout strategy. Consider:

• Hosting short learning sessions or lunch-and-learns on JTBD concepts
• Sharing quick wins from early-stage projects or pilot studies
• Creating a JTBD glossary or quick-reference sheet for your team

JTBD can play a major role in aligning teams and fueling innovation – but it needs champions inside the organization who can connect the dots. By anticipating resistance and communicating simply, you can build momentum that lasts well beyond the first introduction.

One of the biggest hurdles in evangelizing the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework is getting non-research stakeholders on board. Many teams – whether in marketing, product, or leadership – may not have experience with market research terminology or strategy models. That’s why it’s crucial to explain JTBD in language that’s clear, relatable, and focused on outcomes.

Start with the core idea: People don’t buy products – they hire them

A simple way to introduce JTBD is by using this basic concept: customers 'hire' products or services to get a specific job done in their life. For example, someone may hire a smoothie not just to satisfy hunger, but to feel healthier in the morning. This focus on goals and motivations helps shift thinking from product features to customer intent.

Use everyday scenarios to illustrate the point. You might say:

• "People don’t buy a drill because they want a drill. They buy it because they need a hole in the wall."
• "You don’t stream a movie just to watch a movie – you’re hiring it to relax, escape, or connect with family."

These relatable examples make the JTBD framework easy to grasp, even for those unfamiliar with consumer behavior models or innovation strategy discussions.

Tie it to business outcomes

When introducing JTBD to your team, it helps to link it directly to priorities like product development, customer insights, and business growth:

“This framework helps us understand what truly drives purchase decisions – not just what people do, but why they do it. That insight allows us to create more relevant solutions and stay competitive.”

Keep it visual and collaborative

Consider using journey maps, simple diagrams, or live brainstorming sessions to make JTBD more interactive. Visualizing a customer’s “job” – their need, trigger, desired outcome, and alternatives – encourages discussion and creative thinking across departments.

Finally, remember to position JTBD as a tool, not a rigid process. It doesn’t replace existing ways of working but enhances them by adding depth and clarity to customer understanding. That message can help lower resistance and foster curiosity within your organization.

Getting internal alignment around the Jobs to Be Done approach doesn’t happen overnight – but it’s absolutely achievable with the right plan. Building cross-functional support means getting multiple teams to see the value of JTBD, even if they come from different priorities or speak different 'business languages'.

Start with early conversations, not presentations

Instead of launching into a formal rollout, begin by having informal conversations with team leads across marketing, product, sales, design, and strategy. Ask how they currently use customer insights and where they feel gaps in understanding exist. When they share challenges – such as misaligned messaging, stalled product launches, or unclear customer personas – you can position JTBD as a helpful tool, not a top-down directive.

Map JTBD value to each team’s goals

Different teams use market research in different ways. To build buy-in, show how the JTBD framework connects directly to what matters for each function:

• Product teams gain clarity on which features solve real customer problems
• Marketing can shape messaging around true motivations, not just demographics
• Sales gets deeper understanding of objections and triggers
• Executives get a clearer view of how decisions drive business growth

This approach makes JTBD feel relevant and actionable – and helps reduce confusion or skepticism about what it adds to existing strategy tools.

Create shared success metrics

Another way to foster collaboration is by aligning on how you’ll measure the impact of JTBD insights. Will you use them to build stronger customer personas? Refine a product roadmap? Improve customer satisfaction? Define these shared goals early so teams feel invested in the outcome.

In cross-functional work sessions, encourage open reflection and dialogue. Ask teams to share what “customer success” looks like to them, and how a deeper understanding of consumer behavior could unlock new opportunities.

Acknowledge learning curves and build advocates

Recognize that not everyone will be fluent in JTBD concepts from day one. Offer training sessions or simple resource guides to support their learning. And as momentum builds, identify early adopters who can serve as internal advocates – leaders who’ve seen value and can vouch for its impact across their own initiatives.

By making JTBD about collaboration and relevance, rather than complexity, you can lay the foundation for a truly cross-functional, aligned innovation strategy.

One of the most effective ways to get organizational buy-in for the Jobs to Be Done framework is to create early wins. These small but meaningful demonstrations of value help teams see how JTBD insights translate into action – and results. For research and strategy leads, these wins are often the turning point that shifts JTBD from theory to practice within a business.

Start with a real customer insight opportunity

Instead of introducing JTBD purely as a methodology, embed it into an active business question. For example, if your product team is trying to improve an onboarding experience, frame the problem through the lens of consumer behavior: “What job is this experience hired to do?” By guiding a specific initiative with JTBD insights, you can surface unmet needs or mismatches that are hiding in plain sight.

Identify a low-risk pilot project

Look for a project that’s already underway, is relatively fast-moving, and where the stakes aren’t sky-high. A landing page redesign, a seasonal campaign, or a new product concept session are good places to start. The goal is to use JTBD thinking to sharpen the focus – helping teams see who the target really is, what they’re trying to accomplish, and what would make the solution more successful from their point of view.

Share clear before-and-after results

After your quick win, document what changed. You might highlight how:

• Positioning shifted based on a deeper understanding of the job
• Feature prioritization was realigned with customer goals
• Customer feedback made more sense once the functional/emotional job was clarified

This storytelling approach – showing how JTBD provided clarity and influenced a better outcome – is often more persuasive than a deck or data report.

Use wins to spark broader curiosity

Once a pilot success is achieved, share learnings across teams. Host informal show-and-tells or team updates where you walk through how JTBD helped break through a strategic block or uncover new customer insights. These transparent shares help demystify the process and surface further interest from other departments or leaders.

Scaling internal alignment around a framework like JTBD often starts with proving its utility in bite-sized ways. Once teams feel the impact firsthand, broader adoption and organizational buy-in follow naturally.