The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework is a way of thinking about customer behavior by focusing on the underlying purpose or “job” someone is trying to accomplish when they choose a product or solution. Unlike traditional approaches that group buyers by demographics or superficial traits, JTBD digs into the functional, emotional, and social needs that drive decision-making.

In simple terms, think of a product not as something people buy, but as something they ‘hire’ to do a job in their life. That job might be keeping them entertained during a commute, helping them prepare healthy meals for their family, or delivering a sense of confidence in a professional setting. These jobs highlight what customers are really trying to achieve.

Key Components of JTBD

When applying the JTBD framework, we focus on a few core ideas:

• The “Job”: What is the task a customer wants to get done? This can be functional (e.g., “keep my kids busy for 30 minutes”) or emotional (e.g., “feel like a good parent”).
• The Trigger or Situation: What context initiates the need for the job?
• Desired Outcomes: What would success look like if the job is completed?
• Current Solutions: What is the customer currently doing or using to meet this need – and where are the gaps?

Let’s say a small business owner is 'hiring' accounting software. They're not doing so because they match a certain age or income bracket. They're hiring it to simplify tracking expenses, reduce tax-time stress, and stay organized. Understanding that this is the real 'job' helps companies build more relevant solutions and clearer messaging.

Why It Matters for Market Research and Innovation

For teams conducting market research or exploring product development ideas, the JTBD framework is a valuable tool. It shifts the focus from who the customer is to what they are actually trying to do. This unlocking of intent allows researchers and business leaders to uncover deeper customer insights that might otherwise be missed using traditional segmentations.

It’s not about replacing other research methods, but enhancing them. JTBD adds a human-centered layer to data by capturing motivation and context, making it easier to design around actual customer needs.

This framework sits at the core of modern customer discovery methods for new businesses and established brands alike, helping reduce guesswork and uncover true product-market fit.

Customer discovery is all about identifying what your target audience truly wants and needs – often before they even know it themselves. When done well, this process fuels better product development, smarter go-to-market strategies, and more successful business growth. The Jobs To Be Done framework is uniquely powerful in this early stage of innovation research because it prioritizes real-world motivations over assumptions and demographics.

Finding the Problem Behind the Product

Traditional research questions often ask customers what they want to see in a product. The problem? People don’t always have the vocabulary – or self-awareness – to describe their actual needs. “Faster,” “cheaper,” or “easier” are useful starting points, but they don’t tell the whole story. JTBD shifts the lens. Instead of asking, “What features do you want?” it asks, “What are you trying to get done in your life that this product helps with?”

For example, a fictional team developing a new note-taking app might assume users care most about advanced formatting tools. But with JTBD interviews, they discover the real job is helping users quickly capture fleeting ideas before they forget them. This reframes the challenge – and leads to different design decisions that better meet user needs.

The JTBD Advantage in Insight Generation

Here's how Jobs To Be Done supports stronger customer discovery methods for new businesses and teams building for growth:

• Clarifies Core Motivations: JTBD reveals the emotional or situational drivers behind purchasing behavior that often go unnoticed in standard surveys.
• Identifies Unmet Needs: By focusing on where current solutions fall short, teams can expose gaps in the market ripe for innovation.
• Sharpens Targeting: Rather than creating products for a broad audience, JTBD helps businesses focus on solving a specific job for a specific situation – improving product-market fit.
• Reduces Development Risk: Designing based on clearly defined jobs – instead of assumptions – decreases the chances of launching a product no one needs.

Useful Across Roles and Markets

The beauty of JTBD is its flexibility. Whether you're in B2C or B2B, tech or consumer goods, product management or marketing – focusing on the jobs customers are trying to accomplish brings new clarity. The framework also helps cross-functional teams rally around a shared understanding of the user's goals, reducing silos and improving collaboration.

For product teams especially, JTBD and customer research go hand-in-hand. By putting customer context at the core of the discovery process, teams can prioritize roadmaps based on real jobs – not just feature requests or trends.

Ultimately, using the Jobs To Be Done framework isn’t just about innovating smarter. It’s about innovating with empathy. By understanding the job, companies build better products that make people’s lives easier, simpler, or more meaningful – and that’s what drives true business growth.

Start by Identifying the Job Your Customer is Trying to Get Done

At its core, the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework is about understanding what your customer really wants to achieve. This isn’t about demographics or preferences – it’s about uncovering the functional, emotional, and social “job” your product or service is being hired to do.

The key to applying JTBD effectively is to start with thoughtful customer conversations. You’re trying to go beyond surface-level feedback to reveal motivations and struggles that drive behavior. This approach is especially useful in early-stage innovation research or when reevaluating product-market fit.

Steps to Apply JTBD in Customer Discovery

Here’s a simplified step-by-step process to get started with JTBD in your own customer research:

• Conduct Interviews: Start with 5 to 10 one-on-one interviews with current, potential, or former customers. Focus on understanding what led them to look for a solution and what they were hoping to accomplish.
• Dig Into the “Why”: Use probing questions to uncover what triggered the need. What were they struggling with? What did they want to avoid, and what outcome were they seeking?
• Map the Journey: Lay out the timeline from first thought to final action. This helps uncover key moments that influenced their decisions.
• Define the Core Job: From your insights, extract the primary job they hired a product or service to complete. Make sure it’s framed in customer language, not internal business terms.
• Look for Related Jobs: Customers rarely have just one goal. Identify secondary jobs (emotional, social, or convenience-focused) that influenced their decision-making process.

For example, in a fictional case of a fitness app startup, users weren’t merely “tracking workouts”; they were hiring the app to stay accountable, feel confident despite a busy schedule, and build self-trust through progress. Recognizing those deeper needs led to a better product focus and go-to-market strategy.

What to Watch For

When using this framework as part of your customer discovery methods, avoid jumping prematurely to features or solutions. JTBD is not about asking “Would you use X?” – it’s about understanding lives, struggles, and progress. By applying JTBD with patience and the right conversations, you gain high-value clarity into true consumer needs, often well before your competitors do.

Applying the Jobs To Be Done framework helps businesses gain richer, more actionable customer insights that go beyond surface-level preferences – a vital input into any product development or innovation research process.

Turn Customer Insights into Smarter Business Decisions

When done well, JTBD research delivers more than a list of wants – it uncovers why people make choices and what outcomes they’re trying to achieve. That depth of customer understanding translates into tangible business value across several areas of product development and strategic planning.

Here’s what happens when you embed Jobs To Be Done into your market research process:

Better Product-Market Fit

By designing products around real jobs – not assumptions about features or personas – companies reduce the risk of launching something people don’t want. You build for the goal, not just the user.

For instance, a fictional meal delivery startup using JTBD found that busy employees weren’t just hiring dinner for convenience – they needed “a guaranteed healthy meal that doesn’t require decision-making after work.” That single insight led them to redesign their subscription model with pre-set rotating meal plans, boosting retention.

Clearer Innovation Direction

JTBD insights help you uncover consumer needs that aren’t yet well-served by current solutions. This provides clear signals for white space opportunities and helps avoid the common trap of “innovation for innovation’s sake.”

Understanding the job to be done brings focus, so you’re not guessing which idea to pursue – you’re solving for progress your users already want to make.

Fewer Failed Launches

Product teams often waste time and money on features users don't value. JTBD helps de-risk innovation by ensuring your ideas are grounded in a validated customer need. You’re not testing features at random – you’re building solutions with purpose.

Alignment Across Teams

When everyone, from product to marketing to leadership, is aligned on the core job your customer is hiring you for, execution becomes clearer. Messaging sharpens. Customer experience improves. Internal decision-making becomes easier across the board.

In short, JTBD helps bring focus and empathy into your business’s growth strategy. It ensures customer understanding is more than a buzzword – it becomes the engine of innovation, backed by structured, actionable consumer insights.

Simple First Steps to Begin Using JTBD in Your Business

If you’re new to Jobs To Be Done, you don’t need to overhaul your entire market research strategy to see value. The beauty of the JTBD framework is that it’s flexible and scalable. Whether you’re a startup founder thinking about your first product or a corporate innovation team tackling new market spaces, the same foundational principles apply.

Start with Existing Customers

One of the easiest ways to introduce JTBD thinking is by interviewing customers you’ve already served. Ask them questions like:

• “What was going on in your life when you realized you needed a solution?”
• “What outcome were you hoping for?”
• “What made you choose our product over others – and what did you wish had gone differently?”

Even a few well-structured conversations can uncover surprising truths about the real jobs you’re being hired to do.

Reframe Your Customer Personas

Instead of focusing on who your customer is demographically, start asking: “What progress are they trying to make?” This shift helps teams escape surface-level assumptions and begin designing solutions around true consumer needs.

Pair JTBD with Other Research Methods

JTBD plays well with both qualitative and quantitative methods. You can begin with in-depth interviews to surface initial patterns, then follow up with a survey focused on testing the importance and frequency of identified jobs. Many teams use JTBD in tandem with broader innovation research or behavioral analysis.

Build a Shared Language Across Teams

Introducing JTBD into your organization is as much about mindset as it is about tools. Start discussing customers in terms of “what job are they trying to get done?” instead of just “what features do they want?” Doing so brings clarity and focus to planning, prioritization, and execution.

Know When to Ask for Help

While the JTBD approach is beginner-friendly, expert guidance can accelerate its impact – especially when designing a complete customer discovery project or integrating it into product development. Partnering with insight specialists can help translate interviews into powerful innovation themes and market strategies.

Ultimately, JTBD is not about guessing what customers want – it's about learning what they’re already trying to achieve, then showing up with a meaningful solution. By grounding your business growth in real customer insights, you set a foundation for ongoing relevance and resilience.