For many organizations, business strategy still tends to revolve around products rather than people. Teams often start by asking, “What can we build?” instead of “What does the customer need to accomplish?” This product-centered mindset can lead to feature overload, underused offerings, and missed opportunities to solve real problems.

The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework flips this logic by reframing customer research around the actual outcomes people are trying to achieve. Instead of viewing customers as static personas, JTBD encourages companies to think of them as individuals trying to make progress in their lives – whether that’s catching a quick lunch, finding peace of mind, or managing a complex workflow.

From product-first to people-first

With JTBD, businesses make a deliberate shift from defining value in terms of what they offer, to understanding value through the lens of the customer. This means going deeper than demographics or purchasing habits and asking essential questions like:

• What is the customer actually hiring this product or service to do?
• What triggers them to start looking for a solution?
• What trade-offs are they making today?

By answering these questions, organizations unlock powerful customer insights that go beyond surface-level preferences and reveal emotional and functional needs. These insights become the foundation for building a true customer-centric culture – where teams align around solving the right problems and making evidence-based decisions.

Aligning around true customer intent

At its core, JTBD makes it easier for cross-functional teams to work together with a shared understanding of consumer behavior, motivations, and goals. Whether you're in marketing, design, product, or support, everyone can rally around the same central question: “What job is the customer trying to get done?”

This clarity benefits more than product teams. It influences:

• Business innovation: JTBD insights help identify unmet needs and unlock new ideas for growth.
• Market research: Shifting research to explore motivations and goals leads to more actionable findings.
• Organizational culture: A shared customer focus fosters collaboration and strategic clarity across departments.

Ultimately, using JTBD to understand customer needs changes the conversation. You move from asking, “How do we sell more of this?” to “How can we genuinely help our customers succeed?” That’s how a more customer-centric culture takes root – and sticks over time.

Empathy in business isn’t just a nice-to-have – it's a critical part of building products and services that truly resonate with customers. But empathy doesn’t happen automatically. It needs to be fostered intentionally, across departments and throughout all levels of organizational culture. That’s where Jobs To Be Done can play a significant role.

When teams understand what their customers are trying to achieve – and the barriers standing in their way – they begin to see the world from the customer’s perspective. This shift creates stronger emotional connections and encourages teams to work together toward solving real human problems, not just hitting performance metrics.

Customer insights that humanize data

Traditional customer data often paints an incomplete picture. Metrics like conversion rates or NPS scores answer the "what" but rarely uncover the "why." JTBD helps close that gap by surfacing the underlying reasons behind customer choices. These insights are practical and human – revealing frustrations, anxieties, desired outcomes, and unexpected workarounds customers adopt to get the job done.

For example, when a customer chooses a new accounting tool, their goal may not simply be “better software.” The real job might be “feel confident during tax season” or “avoid errors that could cause penalties.” Once you understand those core jobs, solutions and messaging become more relevant, and teams can design with intention and care.

Creating shared understanding across teams

One of JTBD’s most powerful benefits is how it enables cross-functional alignment. When everyone in the organization – from product to marketing to leadership – is working from the same customer insight foundation, silos begin to fade. Teams become more customer-centered in their roles because they share a mental model rooted in empathy.

This can show up in:

• Product development: Features are prioritized based on real user needs, not assumptions.
• Marketing: Messaging connects with what the customer values most.
• Support & Service: Teams anticipate challenges before they arise, improving the customer experience.

A foundation for culture change

Building an empathy-driven organization takes time, but JTBD offers a repeatable, scalable way to start that journey. It becomes a lens through which teams view not just customer interactions, but their own work. Over time, this approach helps shape a customer experience culture strategy – one that invites empathy, listening, and evidence-based thinking into everyday operations.

Customers don’t always articulate what they need. It’s up to organizations to discover those needs with curiosity, compassion, and rigor. JTBD provides the structure to do that – helping turn raw information into meaningful understanding that drives innovation, loyalty, and long-term success.

One of the biggest challenges companies face when trying to create a customer-centric culture is making decisions based on assumptions rather than facts. The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework helps anchor decisions in real customer needs, using research to remove guesswork and personal bias from the equation.

JTBD research starts with deeply exploring why someone chooses a product or service – not just what they buy, but what they are really trying to accomplish. When you understand the desired outcome behind the purchase, you can make smarter, more informed business choices rooted in customer behavior.

From instinct-led to insight-led decisions

Many organizations make product, marketing, or service decisions based on internal opinions or competitor behavior. But JTBD research encourages companies to pause and ask, “What job is the customer trying to get done?” This simple shift leads to better outcomes by grounding strategies in actual, observed needs.

Using JTBD for evidence-based decision making in business moves companies from reactive to proactive – creating solutions people will actually value, not just features that sound innovative. It helps reveal unmet needs, showing where to focus effort and investment.

For example, if you're a food delivery brand, the “job” might not simply be about receiving food quickly. Through JTBD research, you might discover that customers hire your service to feel more in control during a hectic day. That insight could redefine everything from messaging to menu options.

JTBD complements broader market research

JTBD doesn’t replace other research methods – instead, it enhances them. Whether you're already investing in customer surveys, usage tracking, or AI-driven analytics, JTBD adds a layer of human context and empathy that’s often missing from purely quantitative data.

The result? A company culture where strategy is routinely grounded in real-world customer context. Leaders and teams feel confident knowing their moves are backed by insight, not assumptions.

Benefits of using JTBD for decisions:

• Surface hidden customer needs and motivations
• Reduce wasted investment in features people don’t want
• Make confident, informed product and experience decisions
• Align teams on what matters most to the customer

At its core, JTBD helps companies understand why customer insights matter for company culture. When everyone sees the “why” behind the data, teams innovate with empathy and clarity.

Bringing departments together to focus on shared customer goals is a key part of building a successful customer-centric culture. Yet in many organizations, marketing, product, service, and leadership teams operate in silos. The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework helps tear down these walls by creating a unified view of the customer that everyone can rally behind.

Because JTBD focuses on the underlying reasons customers choose and use products or services, it naturally aligns all functions around one common question: “What job are we helping the customer get done?”

Creating shared understanding across teams

Each department has its own priorities – product teams want technical accuracy, marketing wants engaging messaging, customer service wants smooth experiences. JTBD gives all these teams a shared lens for decision-making. Instead of debating from different angles, teams begin speaking the same language: what matters most to the customer.

For instance, a B2B software team using JTBD might discover that their users are “hiring” the product not just to automate tasks, but to feel more competent and in control at work. With that understanding:

• The product team can prioritize intuitive features
• Marketing can focus on empowering messaging
• Customer support can reframe onboarding around confidence-building

JTBD improves cross-functional alignment around customer goals by connecting these dots through a user-centered perspective. This reduces duplicated work, speeds up decisions, and ensures every function is pulling in the same direction.

Why alignment matters for organizational culture

Alignment goes beyond smoother workflows. It cultivates a deeper sense of purpose among employees. Teams feel motivated when they understand how their work fits into the customer journey and contributes to solving real problems.

JTBD can also drive more effective planning cycles by centering strategy around identifiable, validated user goals. Instead of planning based on internal preferences, leadership sets objectives that are rooted in JTBD-based insights – helping focus innovation on areas that matter most.

If you're working to improve customer experience culture strategy, improving communication between teams is a critical piece. JTBD helps everyone move from working around the customer to working with the customer in mind, across every touchpoint.

Transforming your company’s culture into one that values the customer starts with small, intentional changes – and Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a great way to begin that shift. Whether you're just learning how to build a customer-centric company culture or looking to take your insights practice deeper, JTBD can support you in building empathy and aligning strategy around genuine customer needs.

Start by listening to your customers

The heart of JTBD is understanding what your customers are trying to achieve – not just what they say in surveys, but the motivations behind their actions. Start by hosting a few in-depth interviews or exploring existing qualitative or behavioral research. Ask open-ended questions like:

• “What led you to choose this product/service?”
• “What problem were you trying to solve?”
• “What outcomes mattered most to you?”

The answers you receive will likely uncover surprising insights about their real motivations. From there, you can begin mapping out common jobs your product or service is hired to do.

Educate and engage your teams

JTBD is not just for researchers – it’s most powerful when embraced across functions. Host a workshop or internal training to introduce the concept. Use real customer stories to bring the framework to life and show how it connects to each team’s goals.

As teams begin using JTBD thinking in their day-to-day work, you’ll see a positive impact on organizational culture: more curiosity, more empathy, and more shared purpose.

Apply consistently, not just in silos

JTBD can guide not only product development but also marketing, employee training, service design, and more. Integrate JTBD insights into key planning cycles, customer journey maps, and personas. Make sure everyone is working from the same understanding of what the customer really wants to achieve.

This consistent focus on the customer’s job can help spark ongoing business innovation and embed empathy into everyday decisions – whether you're launching a feature or redesigning an onboarding experience.

And remember, you don’t have to go it alone. Partnering with a market research team like SIVO Insights can help you uncover meaningful customer insights using the right mix of research methods, including JTBD. The key is making those insights visible and actionable across your organization.

When JTBD becomes part of how your company thinks and operates, you’ll know it’s working – because your customers will feel it in every interaction.