UX teams and digital product managers have long relied on a standard set of metrics to gauge performance. Usability scores, task completion rates, System Usability Scale (SUS), and Net Promoter Score (NPS) are just a few commonly used indicators. While these metrics provide a snapshot of user interactions, they don’t always tell the full story. And often, they don’t reveal what users actually set out to achieve.

The limits of surface-level metrics

Most traditional UX metrics focus on usability and satisfaction. For example, if a user completes a checkout flow, the task completion rate is successful. But what if the user had to repeat the process three times due to confusion or encountered obstacles partway through?

Important context, such as effort required, emotional frustration, or unfulfilled goals, can go unnoticed in surface-level metrics. A system might be functional, but not truly useful.

What these metrics miss

Even seemingly solid measurements like NPS can be misleading. A user might recommend a product, but still encounter hurdles that prevent them from fully realizing their goals. Or, they might abandon a tool entirely, not because it was hard to use, but because it didn’t meet a core need.

In other words, just because something works doesn’t mean it’s solving the user’s actual problem.

Disconnect between metrics and outcomes

One of the biggest challenges is linking UX metrics with business results. A jump in click-through rates or happiness scores may not translate to increased customer retention or conversion. That’s because traditional UX measurement often prioritizes interface usability without considering the broader context of user motivations.

• Usability metrics (e.g., time on task) focus on efficiency, not effectiveness.
• Satisfaction ratings tell you how users felt, not what they didn’t achieve.
• Click data reveals behavior but not user intent or unmet needs.

The need for goal-based insight

To make UX measurement more actionable, teams need to understand what users are trying to do – their "job." Enter Jobs To Be Done. This framework doesn’t replace traditional metrics, but it enhances them by grounding your evaluation in real user goals.

By focusing on outcomes, JTBD offers a way to design UX metrics that align with both user needs and business value – cutting through the noise and bringing clarity to why certain experiences succeed or fail.

Jobs To Be Done, or JTBD, is a framework that centers on people’s goals – what they're trying to accomplish in a specific context. Applied to user experience, it unlocks a different type of measurement: one that goes beyond usability and into real-world effectiveness.

Understanding the “job” in your UX strategy

In JTBD terms, a ‘job’ is not a task on a screen – it’s a broader goal a user wants to achieve. For example, someone isn’t just “booking a hotel” online. They’re “finding a comfortable, convenient place to stay for a business trip so they feel prepared and rested.” That context shifts the way we evaluate success.

JTBD-based UX metrics aim to answer: Did the experience help the user complete their job as they define it? And if not, why not?

What makes JTBD UX metrics different

Traditional UX measurement tracks how a product performs. JTBD shifts the lens to how the user performs with the product. It’s a subtle but powerful distinction. Here’s what sets JTBD-based UX metrics apart:

• They are grounded in user-defined outcomes, not system-defined tasks.
• They account for context and motivation – what’s driving the behavior.
• They prioritize the removal of friction that blocks the user from achieving success.

Example: Identifying job-based metrics

Let’s say your product is a fitness app. Traditional metrics might measure daily log-ins or workout tracking completion. But JTBD-based UX metrics would instead ask:

• Was the user able to stay motivated and hit their fitness goal for the week?
• Did the app adapt to their changing schedule or physical condition?
• Were there friction points that caused them to abandon workouts?

That framing results in digital product metrics that are more actionable. For example, if users consistently drop off after creating a workout plan, the real issue may not be UI usability – it could be that the plan didn’t match their lifestyle or needs. That’s a friction point hidden in traditional metrics, but exposed by a JTBD approach.

Benefits for UX and CX teams

Measuring user experience using JTBD helps teams connect UX performance to actual outcomes. Here’s how it supports stronger decision-making:

• Clearer priorities: You focus on optimizing what users care about most.
• Better alignment with CX insights: Because JTBD captures journey-wide context, it complements customer experience strategies.
• Reduced user friction: By targeting specific barriers to the job, you can fix issues that truly matter.

Ultimately, jobs to be done for UX teams provides a shared language for product managers, researchers, and designers to evaluate success – not by how a system works, but by whether users got what they came for.

One of the most actionable outcomes of applying the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework to UX research is the ability to make user friction visible. Rather than focusing solely on usability metrics like task time or error rate, the JTBD approach zooms in on obstacles that prevent users from completing their intended job – the progress they actually came to make.

What Is User Friction?

User friction refers to anything that makes it harder for users to accomplish their goal: confusion, extra steps, poor feedback, or irrelevant features. Traditional UX metrics might indicate something is wrong (e.g., users drop off), but they don’t always explain why.

How JTBD Helps Uncover Friction

JTBD gives teams a lens to investigate friction in context. Instead of generically testing whether users can navigate a feature, you’re identifying what's disrupting their underlying job. For example, if a user’s Job To Be Done is “quickly reorder a previous purchase,” the friction might not be navigation – it could be missing reorder buttons, unclear past order history, or poor autofill behaviors.

To identify user friction through the JTBD lens, try these steps:

• Conduct user interviews around real goals: Ask users about specific tasks they’re trying to achieve and what barriers they encountered.
• Map the user journey by job: Visualize each phase of progress – from job initiation to completion – and plot potential moments of friction.
• Observe job failure points: Look for repeat abandonment, workarounds, or signs that the product is not aligning with the user’s intended progress.

Example: Friction in a Digital Banking App

Suppose users consistently struggle to schedule recurring payments – a service feature is technically there, but engagement is low. A JTBD approach would uncover that the job is actually “avoid late fees automatically” and the app’s flow doesn’t deliver enough reassurance or reminders. That moment of insecurity is the friction, not a visibility issue.

By aligning UX measurement around user outcomes, teams can more effectively quantify and correct friction points that matter, not just those that appear on surface-level dashboards.

Once customer Jobs To Be Done are clearly understood, the next challenge is to turn these insights into useful, trackable UX metrics. Many teams want to know: How do we measure success in a way that reflects whether users are completing their jobs, not just interacting with our design?

Shifting from Feature-Based to Outcome-Based Metrics

Traditional usability metrics – like completion rates or satisfaction scores – are often disconnected from real-world outcomes. JTBD reframes success around user-defined progress. For example, instead of asking “Can they use the search bar?”, a team might ask, “Did the user find helpful suggestions that advanced their primary job (like making a decision or finding an answer)?”

Steps to Create JTBD-Aligned UX Metrics

• Define the job outcome: Start by capturing what 'success' looks like for the user. This might be saving time, reducing complexity, or feeling in control.
• Break the job into milestones: Deconstruct each step in the user’s journey – what progress indicators align with each phase?
• Develop metrics for each milestone: Translate jobs and sub-jobs into measurable touchpoints. Track friction, job abandonments, or completed outcomes rather than just clicks or time on page.
• Validate with real users: Ensure the metrics matter to users. A confirmation message might seem helpful to the UX team but could actually be slowing progress if it interrupts flow.

Examples of Job-Based UX Metrics

Let’s say a streaming service identifies the job “find something to watch with my partner quickly.” Instead of simply measuring scroll depth or average session time, JTBD UX metrics might include:

• Time from opening app to pressing play (goal completion time)
• Number of abandoned unique titles before selection (frustration indicator)
• Repeat usage of 'co-watch' recommendation feature (habit formation)

These actionable metrics tie directly to the user’s definition of success. When teams measure the right moments, they gain more targeted CX insights and know which tweaks will have the biggest impact on user experience.

Once you’ve established JTBD-based UX metrics, the final – and most powerful – step is putting them into action. These insights can strengthen not only UX design but also broader customer experience (CX) strategies. When products are optimized based on what users are really trying to achieve, engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty naturally follow.

Guiding UX Design with JTBD

Instead of chasing surface-level improvements, UX teams can use JTBD metrics to prioritize features, streamline flows, and remove friction where it matters most. For example, if the job is “easily upload multiple documents for my application,” and user friction is high during file formatting, redesigning the upload process (not just the interface) becomes a clear priority.

Job-based UX research results in more purpose-driven design sprints. Teams shift their questions from “How can we improve the homepage?” to “How can we help users accomplish X faster, with fewer errors?”

Connecting UX Gains to CX Outcomes

Customer experience measurement using Jobs To Be Done doesn’t stop at the product level. Jobs often cross channels – from website to support, app to marketing. By embedding JTBD metrics across all CX touchpoints, teams gain a full view of progress and pain points.

Consider how job-based metrics can influence broader CX improvements:

• Service Design: Align cross-functional teams around supporting core customer jobs, not internal department goals.
• Support Content: Use JTBD friction data to create faster, more relevant self-service content.
• Voice of Customer (VoC) Programs: Refocus feedback measurement efforts on outcomes that matter to users.

JTBD vs. traditional usability testing metrics? It’s not a matter of choosing one over the other – it’s about layering job-based insights on top of usability data. A task might be easy in a usability test, but if that task doesn’t reflect a true user need, it’s not helping your business or your audience move forward.

Driving Better Design and Business Value

Ultimately, UX measurement guided by Jobs To Be Done leads to smarter decisions. Designs get better because they are serving real jobs. CX improves because it is targeted at reducing customer effort for the things they care about.

And on the business side? More meaningful digital product metrics – like activation, retention, and loyalty – often improve once you address the gaps between user intent and feature execution. JTBD brings clarity and direction where there used to be noise.