When most people hear about the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework, they think of product design: adding a new feature, tweaking UX, refining a prototype. But JTBD is not just about improving a product – it’s about understanding people. And once you uncover the real job a customer is trying to do, you start to see how your entire business model can better support that journey.

The heart of JTBD lies in a simple yet powerful idea: people “hire” products and services to help them accomplish specific goals in their lives. These goals aren't always functional – they can be emotional or social as well. For example, someone who signs up for a meal kit service might not just want convenience. Their underlying job might be "help me feel like I'm taking care of my family in a busy week." That insight has implications far beyond which recipes are included.

From product features to full experiences

By focusing on the complete customer job – not just the product – businesses can find new opportunities to innovate across experiences, pricing, and even their communication strategy:

• Go-to-market strategies: If a customer’s job is time-sensitive, emphasize ease of access and speed in your distribution and promotion.
• Packaging and bundling: Thoughtful bundles allow customers to complete an entire job in one step. Instead of selling parts, sell outcomes.
• Business model innovation: What happens if you shift from selling one-time purchases to ongoing subscriptions designed around recurring jobs?

In market research, we call this type of insight a shift from the “what” to the “why.” Rather than focusing only on demographics or usage data, JTBD dives into motivations – giving your consumer insights team richer input, and your strategy team clearer direction.

A different kind of customer need

This approach also reframes how you think about customer needs. It's not about what customers want from your product – it’s about what they’re trying to achieve overall:

• A gym member may not be “looking to exercise” – but trying to build daily routine or overcome anxiety.
• A small business owner may not need just new software – but a way to reduce admin time so they can focus on customers.

Understanding these jobs opens doors to new forms of innovation. It gives grounding to your business strategy that’s rooted in what people actually value. And it reminds your team that every feature, service, or business model choice should help your customer get something meaningful done.

As you’ll see in the next section, JTBD isn’t just a method for product teams – it’s a shared language across marketing, service design, pricing, and leadership.

If a customer’s true value lies in completing a job, then every touchpoint along their journey becomes an opportunity to help – or a point of friction. Service design is where JTBD proves to be especially powerful, because it forces teams to think not in isolated interactions, but in end-to-end customer outcomes.

Service design, subscriptions, and customer experiences are no longer just about smooth interfaces or extra features. They're about sequencing and delivering value aligned with the customer’s job. This perspective leads to higher satisfaction, better retention, and smarter resource allocation across your teams.

Designing around the full job, not just the product

Let’s say you're building a wellness app. On the surface, your product helps people meditate. But what job are they hiring you for? Is it to reduce stress, build routines, or feel more in control each day? Identifying that underlying job reshapes your service model:

• Do you need human coaches? Daily nudges? Integration with other daily tools?
• How should your subscription be structured – monthly or lifetime value?
• Should onboarding center around tasks or emotional wins?

“Building services around customer jobs” turns service design into a strategic advantage. You’re not designing for usability alone – you’re helping people make progress in areas that matter deeply to them.

Improving subscriptions and pricing with JTBD

Designing a pricing strategy or subscription model without understanding your customers’ jobs can lead to misalignment. On the other hand, when you know the frequency, urgency, and emotional stakes of a job, pricing becomes more intuitive and effective. Here are a few JTBD examples for pricing and packaging inspired by real research:

• A financial newsletter identifies that users are “trying to feel confident making investment decisions” – so it launches premium content tiers that match beginner vs. advanced investor needs.
• A home cleaning service used consumer insights to see that their customers weren't “just buying cleaning” – they were “regaining control of home chaos.” This led to a recurring model built around peak-life stress events (move-in, newborn, holidays).

These aren’t product tweaks – they’re business model innovation using JTBD. By adjusting how the service is delivered, priced, and messaged, they make the experience more relevant, and often more profitable.

Tapping into deep consumer insights with JTBD

With a clear Jobs To Be Done foundation, qualitative or quantitative market research becomes far more actionable. Instead of only measuring satisfaction, you can learn:

• Where in the journey customers get stuck
• How emotional triggers shape decisions
• Which types of support customers hire from competitors

SIVO Insights helps businesses build strategies that link these discoveries to tangible design choices – not just in the product, but across the entire experience. That’s the key to using the Jobs To Be Done framework for service design – it gives teams a clear target and a shared language to collaborate better.

In the next section, we’ll explore how these same principles help shape wider commercial strategies, from pricing and bundling to marketing messages – all by staying focused on customer outcomes, not just touchpoints.

Aligning Pricing Models with Customer Jobs

One of the most immediate ways the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework can transform your business model is by shaping pricing strategies that reflect how your customers truly measure value. Traditionally, pricing is often based on features, cost structures, or competitor benchmarks—but those don’t always align with the actual value a customer receives when trying to get a job done.

By identifying your customers’ core needs and motivations, you can design a pricing model that feels intuitive and fair to them—because it’s based on outcomes, not just features.

Think outcomes, not inputs

In the world of JTBD, customers aren’t paying for your product or service itself. They’re paying to make progress on a specific job. This shift in perspective can help businesses align offerings with how customers actually perceive value. For example, a B2B software platform might find that its users are trying to streamline routine workflows. Instead of charging by features, it might make more sense to offer pricing tiers based on workflow complexity or frequency of use.

Real-world JTBD pricing strategy examples:

• Ride-share services: Customers hire the service to “get somewhere safely and quickly.” Pricing models that vary by distance, time of day, or urgency reflect the job being done much more than a flat fee would.
• Streaming platforms: Many customers subscribe not just for access to content, but to “relax after a busy day” or “entertain the whole family.” Pricing tiers that offer family sharing or personalized content bundles cater to these jobs.

How this connects to market research and consumer insights

Understanding the real value behind a job often requires rich consumer insights. Through qualitative and quantitative techniques, you can learn what outcomes consumers are seeking, what they’re willing to pay for, and what causes friction. This is where smart market research comes in—guiding your pricing strategy with direct input from the people you’re looking to serve.

Ultimately, whether you’re pricing a service, an app, or a product suite, using the JTBD framework allows you to tie price more closely to perceived progress. And that leads to pricing models that are not only more profitable but that also build deeper trust and loyalty.

Designing Subscription and Bundled Offerings with Purpose

Subscription models and bundles have exploded across industries—but simply offering them isn’t enough. If you want them to add real value for both your business and your customers, you need to design them around the actual jobs your customers are trying to get done.

This is what sets the Jobs To Be Done approach apart from traditional packaging strategies. It focuses on purpose over product, letting customer needs guide what’s included, how it’s delivered, and how often it's accessed.

Why JTBD matters for subscription design

Think about why customers subscribe in the first place. They’re not just looking for convenience or discounts—they’re often seeking predictable progress on a recurring problem, like maintaining health, staying entertained, or constantly learning something new. A customer job might be “stay updated on industry trends,” which could support a newsletter subscription with curated insights. Or it might be “avoid meal planning stress,” which aligns perfectly with a weekly meal kit bundle.

When viewed through this lens, subscription and bundling decisions feel less transactional and more service-driven. You're not stacking features—you're streamlining progress.

JTBD examples for pricing and packaging

When designing bundles based on JTBD, consider:

• Meal delivery services: Customers often hire these to “save time in the evening” or “eat healthier without thinking.” Bundling recipes with pre-measured ingredients and nutrition guides directly supports those jobs.
• Fitness apps: Instead of bundling workout plans randomly, packages can be organized around jobs like “train for a 10K” or “gain strength post-injury.”

In each case, bundling isn’t about maximizing the number of offerings—it’s about matching those offerings to meaningful outcomes.

Improving subscription models with JTBD

Great subscription experiences anticipate moments of friction or fatigue. With consumer insights gathered through market research, you can understand how your customers use the service over time, when they stop engaging, or what additional support would keep them subscribing.

JTBD also helps you decide how often to deliver, how to communicate value, and what triggers churn. This human-centered approach makes your subscriptions stickier and more sustainable long term.

Bottom line: business model innovation using JTBD leads to bundles and subscriptions that feel less like a sales tactic, and more like a partnership. You’re helping the customer succeed—and they’ll continue to return the favor.

Getting Started: Applying JTBD to Your Business Model

If you're new to using the Jobs To Be Done framework, the good news is: you don’t need to overhaul everything overnight. JTBD isn’t a rigid playbook—it’s a lens you can use to understand your customer with greater clarity, so you can make smarter decisions across product, pricing, and service design.

Step 1: Start with customer conversations

At the heart of JTBD is a deep understanding of your customer’s goals, frustrations, and motivations. This is where tools like qualitative market research shine. Interview real users—or even better, collaborate with research partners who bring experience extracting these insights. Dig into questions like:

• Why did they choose your product or service?
• What outcome were they hoping to achieve?
• What nearly stopped them from buying?
• What are they doing before and after engaging with you?

The aim is to surface the functional, emotional, and social jobs hidden behind behavior.

Step 2: Map your jobs to existing offerings

Once you’ve gathered insights, align your existing offerings with the jobs people are actually trying to complete. You may discover gaps, overlaps, or mismatches—valuable signals for product strategy, service design, and business model innovation. This step often sparks new ideas: bundles that better support certain jobs, pricing models adjusted around pain points, or new experiences that reduce effort.

Step 3: Prioritize high-stakes jobs for innovation

Not all jobs are created equal. High-emotion or high-stakes jobs—like “feel confident in front of clients” or “protect my family’s health”—are often the most powerful levers for change. Focus your innovation efforts there, and explore how your entire customer journey can be reimagined around those needs.

Your JTBD journey doesn't end with discovery

Remember, JTBD isn’t just a research approach—it’s a strategic filter that can be used again and again as your business evolves. And if you’re unsure where to start, partner with experts who specialize in turning raw consumer insights into actionable business strategies. At SIVO, we help organizations uncover the real reasons people engage with your brand—so you can build smarter, more human-centered solutions from the ground up.