In the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework, the term “job” refers to the underlying goal or task a customer is trying to achieve. These jobs go beyond product features – they highlight the true purpose behind why someone chooses a solution. The framework breaks these down into three types: functional jobs, emotional jobs, and social jobs. Understanding these categories helps decode customer behavior more effectively.

Functional Jobs: The Practical Task

A functional job is the basic goal a person is trying to complete – typically clear, measurable, and outcome-focused. This is what often comes to mind first when thinking about why someone buys a product or service. For example:

• Using a fitness app to track daily workouts
• Hiring a moving company to relocate your belongings
• Buying a blender to make smoothies

These types of needs are usually easy to identify in customer research because they’re tied to specific actions or results. However, they rarely tell the whole story of why a product gets chosen.

Emotional Jobs: The Personal Feeling

An emotional job reflects how the customer wants to feel as a result of doing the functional task. It’s subjective and often deeply personal. Emotional jobs can drive preference even when more “logical” options exist. Examples include:

• Feeling confident when presenting in a new outfit
• Reducing stress by booking a vacation that runs smoothly
• Feeling in control by using a budgeting app

Even if several products fulfill the same functional need, the one that supports a customer’s emotional state may win out.

Social Jobs: The External Perception

Social jobs revolve around how customers want to be perceived by others. These needs are powerful because they tie into identity, status, and group belonging. For example:

• Choosing a luxury vehicle to signal success
• Buying eco-friendly packaging to appear environmentally conscious
• Sharing photos of a healthy meal to show wellness to peers

Social motivations are often under the surface but play a critical role in purchase decisions, especially in today’s interconnected digital world.

JTBD Framework Explained for Beginners

At a beginner level, the JTBD framework encourages us to ask three types of questions when talking to customers:

• What task are they trying to get done? (Functional)
• How do they want to feel while doing it? (Emotional)
• How do they want to be seen by others? (Social)

This layered approach allows brands to move past surface-level assumptions and build more well-rounded consumer insights that drive strategic decisions.

Recognizing the difference between functional, emotional, and social jobs allows businesses to uncover the full picture of what drives customer decision-making. While functional jobs explain what customers do, emotional and social jobs often reveal why they do it. If your research stops at the functional layer, you risk missing the deeper motivations that guide loyalty, satisfaction, and ultimately, purchase behavior.

Improved Product Innovation

When companies only focus on functionality, product development can become a checklist of features. But by incorporating emotional and social needs, you can uncover hidden opportunities. For example, noise cancellation might be a functional feature in headphones, but reducing anxiety in a loud environment (emotional) or appearing trendy (social) can guide important design and marketing decisions. Identifying these layered needs supports more customer-centric innovation.

Smarter Messaging and Positioning

Understanding how to apply Jobs To Be Done in customer research helps brands align their messaging with what customers care about most. When your brand message speaks to all three job types, it resonates more deeply. Consider the difference between saying “This water bottle keeps your drinks cold” (functional) versus “Feel more energized and confident while staying hydrated on the go” (emotional + social). The latter taps into more compelling motivations.

Stronger Market Segmentation

Not every customer is driven by the same combination of job types. Some may prioritize cost and convenience (functional). Others may emphasize confidence, pride, or group belonging (emotional/social). Understanding the spectrum equips teams to better segment their audience and prioritize product features or messages accordingly.

Better Research and Insight Gathering

When conducting market research basics or advanced consumer insights work, knowing what types of questions to ask is key. Asking only about functionality often leads to surface-level responses. To get insights that drive action, researchers must explore deeper layers. Differentiating job types gives structure to interviews, surveys, and observational work – and leads to more meaningful data.

Why It Matters for Decision-Makers

For business leaders and decision-makers, this clarity around layered customer needs can improve:

• Strategic planning and go-to-market approaches
• Product design and differentiation
• Customer experience improvements
• Marketing and brand storytelling

By understanding both the functional and the hidden emotional and social jobs your customers are attempting to complete, you can identify opportunities that competitors may overlook. You’re not just meeting needs – you’re exceeding expectations.

In short, separating and understanding these types of jobs empowers companies to design better experiences, speak more effectively to their audience, and grow with intention. It’s a foundation that every insight strategy can – and should – build upon.

Now that we’ve covered the theory behind functional, emotional, and social jobs in the JTBD framework, let’s bring those layers to life through a few practical examples. One of the most effective ways to understand the difference between these types of customer needs is to look at how a single product or experience might serve all three layers—just in very different ways.

Example: Buying a Running Shoe

Functional Job: The primary job is to provide comfort, support, and durability during physical activity. The shoe needs to fit well, reduce impact, and help users move efficiently.

Emotional Job: A runner might want to feel confident, motivated, or inspired to train. The shoe becomes a symbol of progress or overcoming a personal challenge.

Social Job: It may also signal dedication to a healthy lifestyle or align with certain community identities, like being perceived as an athlete or environmentally conscious if made by a sustainable brand.

Example: Online Learning Platform Subscription

Functional Job: Helps users access lessons, submit assignments, and track progress easily.

Emotional Job: Users may feel empowered by learning something new, or anxious if the platform is difficult to navigate.

Social Job: Completing a course might help someone gain respect among peers, qualify for a promotion, or share accomplishments on social media.

Key Takeaway

When evaluating customer behavior, it’s rarely just about a product’s core function. What drives true engagement and brand loyalty often lives in the emotional and social layers. Recognizing this layered approach to customer needs equips businesses with a more rounded and actionable view.

If you’re wondering how to apply Jobs to Be Done in customer research or development, identifying all three types is an essential step to informing better UX design, messaging, product innovation, and more. As you’ll see in the next section, these insights don’t live in isolation—they guide strategic decision-making across the business.

Understanding the difference between functional, emotional, and social jobs is not just a theoretical exercise—it’s a practical tool for developing better products, services, and customer experiences. When applied effectively, the Jobs to Be Done framework becomes a compass for decision-making across research, design, innovation, and marketing.

Integrating the Layers into Research

By intentionally exploring all three types of customer jobs during market research, we unlock richer consumer insights. For example:

• Qualitative Interviews: Help uncover unspoken emotional or social motivations behind functional behaviors.
• Quantitative Surveys: Can measure the importance and satisfaction of each job layer to segment audiences more effectively.
• Ethnographic Studies: Reveal real-life contexts where social dynamics and emotions influence product interactions.

This layered approach delivers a deeper understanding of customer behavior—and helps validate assumptions before investing in new ideas.

Shaping Product Innovation

When teams only focus on functional jobs, innovation becomes incremental—adding another feature or making the product slightly easier to use. But when emotional and social jobs are considered, new opportunities open up:

For example, a company designing a kitchen appliance might discover that its core function (speed and convenience) is secondary to an emotional job—making the parent feel like a hero preparing healthy meals. This reorients product messaging and even inspires different design choices.

In short, functional jobs tell you what to build. Emotional and social jobs often tell you why it matters to people.

Informing Go-To-Market Strategy

Each layer can also guide how you bring a product to market:

• Functional needs often drive search behavior and direct comparisons (“What does it do?”).
• Emotional needs can influence tone, imagery, and narrative (“How does it make me feel?”).
• Social needs are closely tied to community, influence, and shareability (“What does this say about me?”).

Bringing the full JTBD framework into research and development ensures your solutions are relevant, motivating, and aligned with the deeper forces driving customer decision-making.

Market research interviews are one of the most effective ways to uncover the full spectrum of customer jobs to be done. However, capturing functional, emotional, and social needs takes thoughtful planning, active listening, and a willingness to go beyond surface-level answers.

Start with Behavior, Not Solutions

Rather than asking customers what they want from a product, ask about what they’re trying to achieve. What do they do now? Where do they struggle? Why do they switch from one solution to another?

This approach reveals the underlying goals rather than prompting feature wishlists. From these answers, functional jobs can usually be identified first—but listen closely for emotional and social cues.

Use Open-Ended Probing

To get past obvious responses, try layering in follow-up questions like:

• “What did that experience mean to you?”
• “How did that make you feel at the time?”
• “How did others react?”
• “Was that important to you? Why?”

These types of questions often reveal emotional jobs (e.g., feeling in control, feeling proud) or social jobs (e.g., wanting to appear responsible or in-the-know).

Look for Contradictions and Tensions

Sometimes the most valuable insights come from when a person’s actions don’t fully align with their stated preferences. For example, someone might say they choose a product for its low cost but later share an anecdote that shows they value brand prestige. That’s a clue to an unspoken social job at work.

Avoid Leading Language

Keep questions neutral and avoid framing answers. Saying “Would you say this made you feel proud?” may nudge the participant. Instead, ask “How did you feel when that happened?” and let them describe it in their own words. This keeps insights authentic.

By structuring interviews to explore the layered approach to customer needs, researchers can extract deeper meaning from everyday choices—and deliver richer recommendations for product and marketing teams.

Ultimately, identifying customer jobs with the JTBD framework gives companies a more human-centered lens on behavior, helping them build solutions that people don’t just use—but truly care about.