The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework is a way to understand why people choose one product, service, or behavior over another. It looks beyond demographics or simple preferences and asks the deeper question: ‘What job is this person trying to get done in their life?’ In other words, what goal or outcome are they trying to achieve? Understanding this allows businesses – including healthcare organizations – to align their offerings more effectively with people’s real needs.

In the healthcare sector, JTBD is gaining traction as leaders look for better ways to engage patients in proactive care. Rather than focusing only on age, diagnosis, or insurance status, JTBD helps uncover what truly motivates health decisions. For example, a patient may get a yearly physical not just because their doctor recommends it, but because they want peace of mind knowing they’re healthy enough to care for their children. That emotional motivator is the patient’s real 'job.'

Why JTBD works in healthcare

Traditional approaches to patient segmentation often leave out the 'why' behind behaviors. JTBD fills this gap by offering a structured way to listen deeply to how patients think, feel, and decide. Here’s how it makes a difference:

• Contextual understanding: JTBD captures the full picture, including emotional, social, and practical needs behind behavior.
• Actionable insights: The framework delivers clear learnings that can be translated into better messaging, services, and care delivery models.
• Improved patient engagement: When messages and experiences match people’s real-life goals, they’re more likely to trust and act on them.

One fictional example: A health provider notes low uptake in cholesterol screenings among 40–55-year-olds. Traditional messaging focused on long-term heart disease prevention had little impact. Using JTBD research, they discovered a common motivator: “I want to stay fit so I can enjoy an active retirement with my spouse.” With this insight, the provider shifted messaging to focus on being healthy now to enjoy life later – and saw significant increases in screening participation.

JTBD for providers and healthcare marketers

JTBD isn’t just a theory – it’s a practical tool for building healthcare consumer insights. Providers can use it to reframe outreach campaigns, patient portals, appointment reminders, and even how clinicians talk during consultations. Healthcare marketers can apply it to uncover what truly drives engagement, allowing them to design outreach that resonates emotionally and effectively.

Whether your goal is increasing preventive care uptake, improving communication strategies, or designing better experiences, JTBD in healthcare offers a lens rooted in empathy and relevance. When used well, it enables organizations to better connect with the people they serve – and in doing so, improve health outcomes at scale.

When people decide to seek preventive care, they’re not just responding to clinical guidelines – they’re usually trying to accomplish a personal goal or meet an underlying emotional need. These goals, or 'jobs to be done,' are rarely about the care itself. Instead, the care is a means to an end – whether that’s peace of mind, preparing for the future, or fulfilling a responsibility to others.

Understanding these 'jobs' can help providers, health systems, and marketers craft more meaningful healthcare messaging and design solutions that truly motivate patients. Here are some of the most common jobs driving preventive care decisions:

“I want peace of mind about my health”

Many people pursue preventive services to relieve anxiety or uncertainty. Getting a screening or wellness exam provides reassurance that everything is okay – or that if something is wrong, it can be caught early. Messaging that highlights calm, control, and confidence often resonates strongly with this job.

“I need to stay healthy for someone else”

This job is driven by responsibility to others – a parent who wants to be there for their kids, a caregiver making sure they stay strong enough to support a loved one, or a working adult who needs to maintain their income. This emotional role can be powerful, especially in family-focused campaigns.

“I’m planning for my future self”

Here, people are motivated by long-term aspirations. They might want to enjoy retirement, travel, or avoid chronic conditions that could limit their lifestyle. Tapping into this future-focused mindset can be effective in promoting procedures like blood pressure management, cancer screenings, or vaccinations.

“I don’t want to be a burden”

This job often surfaces in older adults or people with financial concerns. Preventive care is seen as a way to stay independent and reduce potential costs or burdens on family members. Sensitivity in messaging is key here – emphasizing empowerment and preparation rather than fear.

“I want to take control of my health journey”

Some individuals are motivated by autonomy. They want to make informed decisions, track their progress, and be proactive. These patients appreciate access to clear information and the ability to participate as partners in their care.

It’s important to note that people often experience more than one of these jobs at the same time. For example, a 50-year-old patient might seek a colonoscopy both to ensure they’re healthy for retirement travel and to avoid worrying their adult children. Listening closely helps identify which jobs are most dominant – and which should shape your approach.

This is where behavioral health insights and JTBD use cases in healthcare begin to overlap. When we recognize what’s truly driving decisions, we can create better pathways to care. For providers, understanding these motivations helps align services with what truly matters to patients. For marketers, it powers more effective messaging for preventive care. In both cases, JTBD provides a roadmap for improving preventive health adoption by meeting people where they are – not just where we expect them to be.

Understanding the Link Between JTBD and Messaging

One of the biggest opportunities in healthcare is aligning communication with what patients truly care about. Using the Jobs To Be Done framework helps providers uncover the deeper reasons people seek (or avoid) preventive care – reasons that go beyond clinical risk. By re-centering healthcare messaging around these real-life drivers, organizations can foster stronger patient engagement and improve preventive care uptake.

JTBD reframes traditional messaging. Instead of focusing on the treatment itself, it shifts the perspective to what the patient is trying to achieve – like staying healthy to care for family, returning to work pain-free, or avoiding future hospitalization. When healthcare messaging speaks directly to these goals, it becomes more personal, relevant, and motivating.

Steps to Create Messaging Aligned with JTBD

To build more meaningful patient communication using Jobs To Be Done in healthcare, consider the following approach:

• Identify core patient jobs: Through interviews, surveys, or past visit data, explore what outcomes your patients are trying to achieve through preventive care. Common jobs might include “I want peace of mind,” or “I want to stay active as I age.”
• Pinpoint emotional and functional drivers: What are patients feeling before care? Fear, confusion, overwhelm? What tangible outcomes do they hope to gain? Use this insight to guide tone and language.
• Map messaging to motivations: Craft your communication around the patient’s job, not the product or service. For example: instead of “Flu shots now available,” try “Protect your family this season – flu shots keep everyone safe.”
• Test and refine with real feedback: Use A/B testing, focus groups, or behavioral insights research to evaluate which messaging variations successfully resonate with different patient segments.

With a JTBD lens, you move from generic outreach to personalized, purpose-centered communication. This approach builds trust and encourages more patients to engage proactively in their health.

The Power of Emotional Relevance

Patients often don’t make healthcare decisions based on logic alone. Emotions like anxiety, duty, or hope can play just as large a role. Messages that reflect the emotional context of a patient’s life – not just medical jargon – are more likely to inspire action. JTBD helps surface these emotions so that your messaging becomes patient-centered rather than procedure-centered.

Ultimately, using the JTBD framework for patient engagement leads to higher relevance, less resistance, and a greater likelihood that individuals will follow through with preventive services.

Turning Patient Motivations into Actionable Results

Once healthcare providers begin applying JTBD in real-world settings, the benefits become clear: more relevant outreach, stronger patient connections, and improved preventive care adoption. Recognizing actual patient goals – rather than healthcare provider assumptions – opens the door to tailored programs that drive behavior change.

Fictional Use Cases to Illustrate Impact

To make this tangible, here are a few fictional but realistic JTBD examples in healthcare that demonstrate how this framework can shift the patient experience and improve outcomes:

Case 1: Encouraging Colonoscopy Screenings

A health system struggling with low colonoscopy compliance surveyed patients and uncovered a common job: “I want to stay healthy so I can enjoy retirement with my spouse.” While medical risks didn’t motivate certain age groups, the idea of protecting time with loved ones did. The organization reframed its messaging and outreach toward maintaining quality of life. Uptake improved by 22% over six months.

Case 2: Boosting Behavioral Health Screenings

In a community clinic, behavioral health insights revealed that many patients avoided mental health check-ins because they feared stigma. By identifying a job like “I want to be taken seriously at work,” the clinic shifted how it framed services. Instead of highlighting the clinical need, the messaging focused on increasing mental clarity, performance, and confidence. This messaging led to a 30% increase in screening completion rates.

Case 3: Childhood Immunizations Through a Family Lens

In pediatric care, caregivers might delay vaccinations due to confusion or skepticism. But through JTBD interviews, one common theme emerged: “I want to feel like I’m being a good parent.” With this insight, providers pivoted communication toward parental pride and responsibility. Instead of focusing on coverage statistics, messaging centered on “giving your child a strong start.” The shift led to more timely well-child visits and vaccination compliance.

What These Stories Have in Common

Across these fictional JTBD examples, we see several key patterns:

• Jobs are highly individual – the same service may serve different purposes for different people.
• Messaging rooted in emotional relevance performs better than factual statistics alone.
• When patients relate care to their own goals, they are more likely to act.

By using JTBD to explore healthcare decision-making insights, organizations can better align offerings with what really matters to their patients – ultimately leading to healthier communities.

A Strategic Partner for Healthcare Consumer Insights

At SIVO Insights, we help healthcare organizations tap into the Jobs To Be Done framework to unlock deeper understanding of patient behavior and motivation. Whether you're looking to improve preventive care engagement, redesign messaging strategies, or shape new service offerings, our team can help guide the process from discovery to activation.

Our approach is anchored in empathy and data. We combine behavioral health insights with both qualitative and quantitative research tools to rigorously explore the “why” behind patient decisions – and uncover the outcomes they’re truly trying to achieve.

What Sets Our JTBD Process Apart

We don’t rely on assumptions. Instead, we build a JTBD strategy tailored to your audience, service model, and care goals. Here’s how SIVO brings JTBD for providers to life:

• Custom Research Design: We structure studies to surface the emotional and functional jobs driving healthcare behavior – be it for preventive care, diagnostics, or treatment follow-through.
• Deep Qualitative Exploration: Through one-on-one interviews, ethnographic observations, and guided discussions, we hear patient stories firsthand and translate them into actionable insights.
• Quantitative Validation: Using surveys and modeling, we identify job patterns across broader populations and link them to measurable engagement behavior.
• Messaging & Activation Support: From insight to execution, we help translate jobs into communication strategies, campaign testing, and ongoing refinements. We can also support internal teams through On-Demand Talent for flexible insight leadership as needed.

We don’t just surface healthcare consumer insights – we turn them into strategies that inspire change. That means engaging patients more effectively, encouraging earlier intervention, and ultimately driving better health outcomes for the communities you serve.

Whether it’s improving preventive health adoption across service lines, or motivating patients to seek care more proactively, SIVO equips providers with the right tools, research design, and empathetic lens to succeed in a complex care landscape.