Introduction
- A simple definition of Jobs to Be Done
- Clarity on how JTBD differs from focusing on features or demographics alone
- Real-world ways businesses apply the approach to gain strategic advantage
- A simple definition of Jobs to Be Done
- Clarity on how JTBD differs from focusing on features or demographics alone
- Real-world ways businesses apply the approach to gain strategic advantage
What Is Jobs to Be Done? A Simple Explanation
Jobs to Be Done is a framework that helps businesses understand what customers are trying to achieve – the 'job' they are 'hiring' a product or service to do – so they can design better solutions that meet those needs.
Instead of focusing solely on customer demographics or product features, JTBD centers on the real-life context that drives decisions. For example, someone buying a high-protein snack may not just be hungry – they might be trying to stay energized during a busy workday. The job isn't “eat a snack,” it’s “stay sharp between meetings.” This perspective helps uncover the reasons behind behavior, providing deeper customer insights. It moves beyond "what people buy" and looks at "why they buy it."Key Concepts of JTBD
- The job: The goal or task the customer wants to achieve
- The circumstance: The situation the customer is in when they need to get the job done
- Desired outcome: The result they hope to experience by completing the job
JTBD vs. Traditional Research
While traditional market research might ask, "What features do you like or dislike?" the JTBD framework asks, "What are you trying to achieve in this moment, and what’s getting in your way?" This approach offers more actionable insight for product innovation and service design. By looking at customer needs through the JTBD lens, businesses can:- Design products that solve real problems
- Identify overlooked opportunities in the market
- Create messaging that resonates with what customers truly care about
Why Businesses Use the Jobs to Be Done Framework
Turning Customer Insights into Strategic Action
At its core, JTBD transforms abstract customer research into concrete, actionable insight. It guides teams to ask better questions like: "What progress is this customer trying to make?" or "What’s preventing them from succeeding today?" From there, companies can design solutions that remove those obstacles. Here are some common ways businesses apply JTBD:1. Product Innovation
Understanding the functional, emotional, and social jobs customers are trying to do opens the door to more targeted innovation. Instead of simply improving features, businesses use JTBD to:- Develop entirely new offerings that serve an unmet job
- Simplify existing products based on customer context
- Refine MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) with user goals in mind
2. Strategic Market Research
Jobs to Be Done provides a growth framework that complements traditional market research by illuminating the “why” behind customer behavior. It helps teams uncover white space – areas where customers are struggling in ways the market hasn’t yet addressed. SIVO often sees brands use JTBD to:- Generate new product ideas that fulfill unmet needs
- Understand shifts in consumer behavior and adapt fast
- Improve customer journeys based on real life motivations
3. Marketing and Messaging
JTBD doesn’t just help product teams – it also improves go-to-market strategy. When marketing focuses on the job the customer is trying to do, messages become more relevant, emotional, and persuasive. For example, instead of promoting a protein drink as “high in B12,” a JTBD-inspired message might say: “Fuel your focus from 2 to 5 PM.” It speaks directly to the job being done in the buyer’s life.4. Business Model Innovation
JTBD can even inspire changes in how a service is delivered or packaged. If the customer job requires flexibility, speed, or reassurance, companies can transform part of their delivery model to better match those needs. All of this makes JTBD more than just a research tool – it becomes a lens that supports smart, customer-centered business strategy.The Value for Modern Business Leaders
If you’re a business leader looking to turn market insights into real-world action, the JTBD framework can help you:- Clarify customer needs vs. surface-level wants
- Focus teams around the real purpose of your offering
- Confidently prioritize innovation efforts with a job-centered roadmap
How JTBD Unlocks Real Customer Needs
One of the core strengths of the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework is its unique ability to uncover the true reasons behind customer behavior. Instead of simply asking consumers what they want, JTBD digs deeper to understand what they’re trying to accomplish – both functionally and emotionally – in a given situation. This shift in focus from solutions to motivations provides far more actionable customer insights.
Looking Beyond Product Features
Traditional approaches to market research often emphasize product attributes or user preferences. But preferences don’t always explain behavior. With JTBD, the question changes from “What do you like?” to “What are you trying to get done?” This encourages teams to look beyond the product and examine the entire customer context, revealing overlooked opportunities for product innovation and service design.
For example, a customer buying a light bulb isn’t just purchasing a product – they’re trying to create a comfortable and well-lit space, perhaps to make reading easier or create ambiance. JTBD helps businesses focus on that deeper intent, which might suggest solutions far beyond simple wattage or bulb shape.
The Value of Functional and Emotional Jobs
Every decision a customer makes involves a blend of functional goals (getting something done) and emotional drivers (how they want to feel). The JTBD framework captures both:
- Functional jobs: Completing a task, solving a problem, achieving an objective
- Emotional jobs: Gaining peace of mind, feeling successful, looking good, building confidence
It’s the combination of both that gives market research using JTBD its depth and usefulness. Teams end up understanding not just what customers are doing, but why they’re doing it, opening the door to more empathetic, customer-centric decision-making.
Uncovering Unmet Needs and Growth Opportunities
By mapping out jobs customers are hiring products or services to do, business leaders can more clearly identify:
- Gaps in the current experience where customer needs are not being fully satisfied
- Misalignments between what companies offer and what customers truly seek
- Potentially new markets with similar jobs to be served in different ways or segments
This makes the JTBD method a foundational tool in identifying untapped demand – the kind that fuels growth frameworks and innovation strategies across industries.
Ultimately, JTBD reveals the human side of customer behavior by focusing on motivations instead of transactions. It gives organizations the clarity they need to create solutions that genuinely align with the way people think, feel, and act – driving smarter, more strategic business decisions.
Examples of JTBD in Everyday Business Decisions
Understanding the Jobs to Be Done framework becomes a lot easier when we look at how it's applied in real-world scenarios. These fictional examples show how businesses – from startups to global brands – have used JTBD thinking to make better decisions and uncover hidden growth opportunities. While hypothetical, they demonstrate the everyday relevance of JTBD across industries and customer types.
Example 1: A Food Delivery App
A startup initially thought customers chose their app because of quick delivery times. But when they applied JTBD interviews, they uncovered the deeper job: users were “hiring” the app to simplify weeknight dinner planning, especially after a long day. Speed was helpful, but predictability, variety, and minimal effort were more important. With this insight, the team redesigned features around meal bundles, recurring order setups, and better dietary filters – solving a more meaningful customer job.
Example 2: Financial Services
A bank wanted to launch a new budgeting app. Instead of asking customers what features they wanted, they used the JTBD method to explore financial behavior. They discovered that their audience wasn’t just trying to “track spending,” but was hiring budgeting tools to “feel in control” and “reduce anxiety about the future.” This led to emotional-oriented reminders, encouraging savings messages, and progress tracking toward financial goals – turning what could have been a functional tool into something motivational.
Example 3: Home Improvement Retail
A large retailer noticed declining sales in DIY painting products. JTBD interviews revealed that many shoppers weren’t actually trying to “paint walls” – they were trying to “refresh their space quickly before visitors arrived.” These quick-fix jobs led to innovations like peel-and-stick wall treatments, easier color matching kits, and faster-drying paints – product innovation sparked directly by reframing customer needs.
What These Examples Show
These real-life jobs to be done examples highlight a few important lessons:
- Surface-level data often hides deeper motivations
- Functional and emotional drivers can work together
- Examining the full customer context leads to stronger product-market fit
Whether it's for product innovation, refining business strategy, or understanding consumer behavior, JTBD helps businesses design experiences that align with the way real people live and make decisions.
Getting Started with Jobs to Be Done in Your Organization
If you’re new to the framework, implementing Jobs to Be Done in your organization might sound like a big leap – but it’s entirely achievable, even in small steps. The most important starting point is shifting your mindset: from thinking in terms of products and demographics, to focusing on outcomes and motivations. That simple change lays the groundwork for customer-centric innovation.
Step 1: Align Around the Purpose
Begin by helping your team understand what JTBD is – a way to look at customer behavior through the lens of goals, not just features. Share resources or a beginner guide to Jobs to Be Done during internal meetings or workshops to build foundational knowledge across cross-functional teams like product, marketing, and insights.
Step 2: Start Listening Differently
Next, apply a JTBD approach to your existing customer interactions. Analyze current feedback from surveys, customer service calls, or interviews not for likes/dislikes, but for clues about what customers are trying to achieve. This lens can help you identify unmet customer needs and areas where your offerings may be misaligned with intended jobs.
Step 3: Conduct JTBD-Focused Research
When ready, consider a more structured market research effort using the JTBD method. A research partner like SIVO Insights can help design studies that surface deep customer motivations and unmet desires. This could include:
- In-depth interviews focused on contextual customer stories
- Surveys reframed around outcomes instead of product satisfaction
- Comparative journey mapping between what customers do and what they actually want to get done
This kind of custom research makes the complex simple – generating market insights that fuel product innovation and align with real drivers of behavior.
Step 4: Integrate JTBD Thinking into Everyday Strategy
Finally, look for opportunities to embed the JTBD lens into your regular business processes. Whether it’s in product roadmaps, campaign briefs, or strategic planning, ask: “What job is the customer trying to get done here?” It’s a simple but powerful habit that can elevate your business strategy over time.
JTBD doesn’t replace your existing tools – it enhances them. It works in harmony with customer segmentation, journey mapping, and competitive analysis. And as organizations continue to prioritize deeper customer insights, JTBD becomes a core approach to thinking more like your customers and innovating more effectively.
Summary
The Jobs to Be Done framework offers a practical, compelling way for business leaders to understand people – not just as buyers, but as individuals trying to accomplish something meaningful. By shifting the focus from what customers want to what they’re trying to do, JTBD reveals customer needs with new clarity and helps transform market research into a strategic growth tool.
We explored what JTBD means through a simple definition, why it matters for customer insight, how it uncovers true motivations, and what it looks like in real-world applications. And most importantly, we’ve shown that getting started doesn’t require a massive overhaul – just a better way of asking questions and listening to your audience.
Whether you’re developing a new product, refining your customer experience, or exploring new markets, JTBD can help your organization move from assumptions to understanding, from guesswork to growth.
Summary
The Jobs to Be Done framework offers a practical, compelling way for business leaders to understand people – not just as buyers, but as individuals trying to accomplish something meaningful. By shifting the focus from what customers want to what they’re trying to do, JTBD reveals customer needs with new clarity and helps transform market research into a strategic growth tool.
We explored what JTBD means through a simple definition, why it matters for customer insight, how it uncovers true motivations, and what it looks like in real-world applications. And most importantly, we’ve shown that getting started doesn’t require a massive overhaul – just a better way of asking questions and listening to your audience.
Whether you’re developing a new product, refining your customer experience, or exploring new markets, JTBD can help your organization move from assumptions to understanding, from guesswork to growth.
