Introduction
- Why do JTBD findings often lose momentum after the final report?
- How can we identify and prioritize opportunities from JTBD insights?
- What are the next steps after Jobs To Be Done research?
- Why do JTBD findings often lose momentum after the final report?
- How can we identify and prioritize opportunities from JTBD insights?
- What are the next steps after Jobs To Be Done research?
Why Jobs To Be Done Research Often Stalls After the Presentation
1. Too many insights, not enough direction
JTBD research can generate rich, complex data. Teams may uncover dozens of customer motivations, use cases, emotional triggers, and functional needs – all important, but overwhelming without a framework for prioritization.2. Lack of alignment across teams
Product, marketing, design, and leadership may interpret the findings differently. Without a shared language or ownership, it becomes unclear who should act on the insights, or how.3. Insights stay in presentation mode
Findings are often shared through slides, documents, or post-it notes that summarize what was learned – but don’t show specific pathways toward product planning. What’s missing is the bridge between qualitative insight and strategic action.4. No clear process for applying the research
Even well-intentioned teams may lack a clear methodology for integrating JTBD findings into product roadmaps or innovation workshops. Without guidance, insights stay theoretical. That's why it's so important to think beyond the discovery phase. At SIVO Insights, we work closely with organizations to not only capture deep customer understanding, but also guide the activation of that knowledge through clear, actionable steps. After all, the true impact of Jobs To Be Done lies not in understanding needs alone – but in using those needs to inspire product innovation and smarter business decisions.Identifying Key Opportunities from JTBD Insights
Look for struggling moments
One of the most powerful aspects of JTBD research is that it surfaces where people are currently facing friction. These "struggling moments" are areas where customers are trying to complete a job – but the current solutions fall short. For example, if users mention constantly reworking spreadsheets to manage personal finances, that’s a signal of opportunity. It reveals dissatisfaction that your product or service could better solve.Evaluate demand and satisfaction gaps
A helpful way to identify opportunity areas is by mapping each job by two factors:- Importance – How critical is the job for the customer?
- Current Satisfaction – How well is the job being served today (by your solution or competitors)?
Group insights around common themes
During JTBD analysis, you may find repeating goals or emotional drivers that cut across use cases. For example: - Need for simplicity or time-saving - Desire for more control or confidence - Gaps in communication or clarity between steps Clustering insights into themes helps organize the research in a way that connects closely to innovation goals. These themes often become the foundation for brainstorming or concept development.Consider internal capabilities and feasibility
Not all opportunities are equally practical. It’s important to assess each potential area through the lens of your business’s resources, timeline, and market positioning. Some customer needs may be exciting but require long-term investment. Applying a JTBD framework helps keep decisions grounded in what matters most to people – but aligning them with what your team can deliver ensures your roadmap remains actionable.JTBD insights act as a filter, not just a mirror
At SIVO Insights, we encourage clients to use Jobs To Be Done findings as more than just a reflection of customer behavior. Instead, they become a filter through which new product ideas, enhancements, or campaigns are evaluated. This helps build offerings that fit real needs – not just aspirations. By identifying true opportunity areas from JTBD research, your team can move from simply understanding customer needs to turning those needs into product ideas, improvements, and innovations that stick.Prioritizing Jobs by Customer Value and Business Impact
Prioritizing Jobs by Customer Value and Business Impact
Once you've identified the key Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) from your consumer research, the next step is prioritization. Not every job can (or should) be addressed at once. To make your product innovation efforts focused and strategic, it's essential to assess which jobs offer the highest value to customers and the greatest return for your business.
Why Prioritization Matters
Without prioritization, teams often fall into the trap of treating all insights equally. This can lead to wasted resources, diluted product strategy, and confusion across departments. Instead, a simple prioritization framework can help you decide which jobs deserve immediate attention – and which can wait for future iterations.
Evaluating Jobs Based on Two Key Dimensions
You can assess JTBD using two core lenses:
- Customer Value: How critical is this job to your target audience? Does it solve a high-friction pain point or fulfill an unmet need? Jobs that are underserved and highly important should rise to the top.
- Business Impact: How aligned is the job with your business goals? Will solving it drive growth, open new markets, or create differentiation? Prioritize jobs that advance your long-term strategy.
Plotting each job on a simple 2x2 grid—Customer Importance vs. Business Potential—can visually clarify which opportunities are worth pursuing now.
Practical Tip: Use Qualitative and Quantitative Validation
If possible, complement your JTBD research with light quant validation. A short survey or concept test can help you gauge the perceived importance and satisfaction level of each job across a broader audience. This balance of qualitative research and quantitative insights strengthens your prioritization decisions.
Collaborate Across Teams While Prioritizing
Make this step a shared activity. Collaborate with product managers, insights leads, marketing, and even sales teams to align on which jobs matter most. When teams collectively understand why certain jobs are being prioritized, it becomes easier to rally around execution later.
By focusing on the high-impact, high-value jobs first, you’ll ensure your product planning efforts are targeted, meaningful, and easier to activate. It helps bridge the often-difficult gap between consumer insights and business outcomes – turning JTBD into real action.
Translating Jobs Into Clear Product Features and Messaging
Translating Jobs Into Clear Product Features and Messaging
With your highest-priority Jobs To Be Done identified, the next challenge is making those jobs tangible. That means turning abstract needs into real product features, functionality, and messages your teams can act on. This step is where actionable insights meet strategic planning.
Start by Reframing the Job as a User Goal
A JTBD statement like “Help me plan family meals so I can save time and reduce stress” isn’t a feature—yet. But it can spark clear ideas once you reframe it as a goal your product must help the user achieve.
From this lens, ask: What features could make planning meals less stressful? How might your platform save prep time? How can your messaging reinforce these benefits?
From Idea to Execution: Designing with Jobs in Mind
Once you have a clear user goal, teams can brainstorm potential solutions across three dimensions:
- Product: What specific new feature, tool, or workflow would satisfy this job?
- Experience: How can the user experience be tailored to make job completion easier or more delightful?
- Messaging: What language should your brand use to show customers you “get” their needs?
This approach marries product development, product strategy, and marketing into a shared understanding of purpose, rooted in consumer insights.
Use JTBD as Creative Constraints
Paradoxically, constraints often spark innovation. When your team understands the job you're solving for, ideas become more focused—and more useful. Instead of asking “What should we build?”, JTBD encourages the team to ask, “What helps the customer succeed at this job?”
Guiding Product Roadmaps and Campaigns
As new features or campaigns evolve, tie them back to the JTBD that inspired them. This creates alignment, ensures consistent problem-solving, and gives stakeholders confidence that your strategy is evidence-based.
For example, knowing a key job is “help me feel in control of my budget” might lead to:
- A new budgeting tool (product)
- Streamlined onboarding with budget education (experience)
- Messaging that reinforces financial empowerment (marketing)
By baking this logic into your development, you’re not only building better products—you’re demonstrating to customers that their goals and challenges are at the heart of your brand.
Aligning Teams to Put JTBD Insights Into Action
Aligning Teams to Put JTBD Insights Into Action
Even the best consumer research can stall if teams aren't aligned on what to do next. Once your Jobs To Be Done insights are prioritized and translated into product ideas, the final – and often most crucial – step is ensuring cross-functional alignment. This step ensures everyone has a shared understanding of the insights and knows how to contribute to activating them.
Why Team Alignment Is Critical
JTBD research spans multiple functions – including product, UX, brand, strategy, insights, and engineering. Ensuring these stakeholders are working from the same playbook helps avoid repetition, divergent strategies, or disjointed experiences.
Bring the Insights Off the Slide Deck
It's one thing to present your JTBD findings in a deck. It's another to embed them into your team’s everyday work. Consider moving beyond slides and using dynamic tools like:
- Visual frameworks: Turn key jobs into journey maps or ecosystem diagrams that show how customer needs interact with product touchpoints
- Persona/job cards: Brief, actionable summaries that combine typical personas with the most critical jobs they’re trying to complete
- JTBD walls or digital boards: Use tools like Miro or Confluence to create living documents that teams can continually reference
Facilitate Workshops to Reconnect to the Customer
Run collaborative sessions with your product, design, and marketing teams to workshop job-to-feature ideas together. This builds stronger internal ownership and surfaces blind spots early. It also creates empathy – reminding teams why consumer needs, uncovered through qualitative research, are at the center of the strategy.
Consider exercises like:
- “How Might We” mappings: Reframe jobs into challenges for ideation
- Feature audits: Are we currently addressing any of these jobs? Where are the gaps?
- Messaging checks: Does our current language reflect the jobs our users are actually trying to do?
Make JTBD a Living Part of the Planning Process
Don't treat Jobs To Be Done insights as a one-off research initiative. Revisit them during sprint planning, roadmap reviews, or strategy sessions. They should serve as a guidepost for future decisions, not just a reference point from the past.
When teams are united around a shared understanding of customer jobs – and how to deliver against them – the entire organization becomes more customer-centric, insight-driven, and outcomes-focused.
Summary
Turning Jobs To Be Done insights into action doesn’t have to be complicated. Too often, teams stop at the research phase – letting valuable consumer intelligence sit in decks or reports. But by identifying the most impactful jobs, prioritizing based on customer value and business potential, and translating those insights into real product and marketing decisions, you can unlock new growth opportunities.
Strong JTBD work doesn’t end at understanding needs – it begins there. By aligning cross-functional teams around clear, shared goals and integrating Jobs To Be Done findings directly into your product planning and strategy conversations, you can ensure customer needs translate into real innovation and competitive advantage.
Organizations that embrace JTBD not only build better products – they build stronger teams, better experiences, and a clearer path to market success.
Summary
Turning Jobs To Be Done insights into action doesn’t have to be complicated. Too often, teams stop at the research phase – letting valuable consumer intelligence sit in decks or reports. But by identifying the most impactful jobs, prioritizing based on customer value and business potential, and translating those insights into real product and marketing decisions, you can unlock new growth opportunities.
Strong JTBD work doesn’t end at understanding needs – it begins there. By aligning cross-functional teams around clear, shared goals and integrating Jobs To Be Done findings directly into your product planning and strategy conversations, you can ensure customer needs translate into real innovation and competitive advantage.
Organizations that embrace JTBD not only build better products – they build stronger teams, better experiences, and a clearer path to market success.
