Going Beyond Demographics

Spotting Unmet or Underserved Needs

• The workarounds customers use when current products fall short
• The moments of frustration or friction in completing the job
• What “success” looks like to the customer when the job is done well

A Structured Way to Uncover Opportunity

• What job is the customer trying to accomplish?
• What current solutions are they using (if any)?
• Where do those solutions fall short?
• What would an ideal solution look or feel like to the customer?

Example: Rethinking Home Fitness

Reframing the Problem, Repositioning the Solution

Defining Your Own Category

 
• Existing products in your space solve only parts of the job, with limited integration or relevance
 
• Customers are using multiple disconnected tools to meet one unified need
 
• The current way of framing the problem feels outdated or misaligned with real behavior

The Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework is often associated with product innovation – designing a new offering that helps consumers solve a specific need more effectively. But JTBD isn't limited to product development. When used strategically, it becomes a powerful lens through which to view entire markets, identify unmet customer needs, and even create new categories entirely.

At its core, JTBD is about uncovering the 'why' behind customer behavior – not just what people buy, but what problem they are trying to solve. This positions JTBD as a growth framework, helping businesses move beyond traditional category definitions and redefine how products fit into customers' lives.

JTBD Helps Reframe Market Definitions

Traditional market research often looks at existing offerings, comparing competitors in known arenas. But JTBD encourages category creation by starting with the consumer and working backward. When you identify a job that isn’t well served by current solutions – or one that consumers don’t yet associate with any existing category – you’ve found white space that could support a new category launch.

Informing Market Positioning and Messaging

Understanding customer jobs does more than guide what to build. It also defines how to communicate. If your offering solves a job in a way nothing else currently does, your marketing narrative shifts from competing on features to educating on a new way to solve a widespread problem. That’s the pathway to strong market positioning and early category leadership.

Connecting to Broader Business Strategy

Using Jobs to Be Done for business innovation strategy goes beyond R&D. It can influence:

• Brand strategy – grounding your brand identity in solving a specific customer job
• Product roadmaps – prioritizing future investments based on unmet needs
• Sales enablement – giving teams clearer ways to articulate value aligned to customer struggles

In this way, JTBD becomes a unifying language across marketing, product, and executive functions – connecting decisions across departments to a shared understanding of customer needs.

Instead of merely improving on what's already out there, JTBD gives organizations the clarity to explore what’s missing – unlocking entirely new solutions, audiences, and growth opportunities in the process.

Understanding Jobs to Be Done can feel abstract until you see it in action. Here are a few real-world examples that illustrate how businesses used the JTBD framework to create entirely new product categories or reshape existing ones by zeroing in on customer needs in a novel way.

1. Airbnb: The Job of Belonging, Not Just Lodging

Airbnb didn’t simply create a new competitor in the travel market – it defined a new category. Traditional hotels solved the job of “providing a place to sleep,” but Airbnb tapped into a deeper customer job: experiencing a destination like a local and feeling like you belong there. By reframing the category around this emotional job, Airbnb positioned itself differently, resonating with millions of travelers worldwide.

2. Peloton: Merging Fitness with Accountability at Home

Peloton redefined home fitness not by making a better stationary bike, but by identifying the job of staying motivated to exercise consistently at home. Users weren’t just looking for equipment – they wanted community, structure, and accountability. Peloton filled a gap not previously addressed by traditional gyms or simple at-home machines, and in doing so, created a new connected fitness category.

3. Headspace: Meditating for Performance and Mental Clarity

The rise of mindfulness apps like Headspace came from understanding the growing consumer job of managing stress while improving performance and overall wellness. Rather than positioning their product as clinical mental health support or pure entertainment, Headspace created a category centered around proactive mental fitness – now a thriving space within consumer health and wellness.

What These Examples Have in Common

Each of these companies:

• Listened closely to underlying customer struggles that weren’t being directly addressed.
• Looked beyond traditional competitive sets and category boundaries.
• Framed their offerings around new or underserved customer jobs.
• Positioned their brands as solutions to functional and emotional needs in daily life.

These examples showcase how applying consumer insights from the JTBD framework can fuel not just incremental improvements but bold leaps that result in defining new markets from the ground up.

Integrating the Jobs to Be Done framework into your category strategy doesn't require reinventing your entire business overnight. It starts with a shift in perspective – one that centers your strategy on truly understanding what your customers are trying to achieve and what obstacles they encounter along the way.

Start With Customer Conversations

The most effective JTBD insights come from talking with real people. Conduct qualitative market research to uncover not just what customers say they want, but what drives their decisions. Look for patterns in phrasing like:

• “I was trying to…”
• “What I really needed was…”
• “I got frustrated when…”

These are signals pointing to the underlying customer needs and unmet opportunities you can build upon.

Map Functional, Emotional, and Social Jobs

Jobs aren’t purely functional. Good JTBD research also explores emotional and social dimensions. For example, a customer might choose a software tool not just because it works well (functional job), but also because it makes them appear competent to their team (social) and feel more in control of their time (emotional).

Look for Underserved or Overlooked Jobs

Innovation often emerges in the gaps – where customers are struggling but haven’t found a good enough solution. These can reveal white space ideas that point to category creation, or at the very least, distinct market positioning.

Use JTBD to Prioritize and Communicate

Once your jobs are clear, use them to prioritize features, inform branding, and differentiate. Frame your product or service around the job it solves rather than just industry jargon or features. This strengthens both product innovation and market positioning from the ground up.

If you're launching a new product, repositioning an offering, or looking for growth opportunities, embedding JTBD in your market research efforts can be key to uncovering unmet needs and defining your role in a new or evolving category.

At SIVO Insights, we help companies apply the JTBD framework through qualitative and quantitative studies tailored to your goals. With the right mix of customer insights, strategic thinking, and validation, you’ll gain the clarity needed to build solutions that drive real value – and carve your place in the market with confidence.