JTBD Helps You Identify Real Customer Needs

• Pain points with current solutions
• Unmet or underserved needs
• Emotional and functional drivers of behavior
• The tradeoffs customers are willing to make

JTBD Supports Smarter Entry Strategies

A Practical Example

Jobs Vary by Cultural Lens

JTBD Helps You Navigate Market Assumptions

Uncover Emotional and Functional Jobs

How to Start Identifying Cultural Differences with JTBD

• Conduct qualitative research (interviews, ethnography) with local users
• Listen for underlying motivations behind product use – not just features liked
• Map jobs across regions to spot overlap and divergence
• Adapt solutions, not just translate them, to meet local needs

When businesses are looking to enter a new market, the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework offers a powerful way to find untapped opportunities by spotlighting what customers are really trying to accomplish. Rather than focusing solely on demographics, JTBD uncovers the motivations behind decisions – the “job” a customer hires a product or brand to do in their life.

In new and unfamiliar markets, where consumer behavior may be shaped by cultural, economic, or environmental differences, this method can help businesses shift from assumptions to insight. It reveals the functional, emotional, and social needs driving customer choices – helping business leaders better define value through the eyes of the local customer.

How JTBD Helps Identify Opportunities When Entering a New Market

Traditional market research often starts with identifying the competition or measuring market size. JTBD complements this by digging into the unmet or underserved needs of real people. It answers questions like:

• What are customers in this new market trying to achieve?
• What obstacles do they face in completing those “jobs” today?
• What workarounds or substitutes are they currently using?
• Where do current offerings fall short in delivering what people want?

By identifying where these gaps exist, businesses can shape products, messaging, or services around what actually matters to consumers – not just what has worked somewhere else. This insight is especially useful when planning global market entry or understanding unique regional behaviors.

Turning Jobs To Be Done Into Business Strategy

Let’s say you’re launching a financial app in Southeast Asia. Instead of assuming customers want budgeting tools (as they do in the U.S.), you use JTBD interviews to learn that people are looking for ways to feel secure during unexpected job loss – a social and emotional job. The opportunity? Build features that cater to financial confidence and contingency planning, reflecting the local mindset.

By aligning your offerings with actual customer needs discovered through JTBD, you move away from guesswork and toward a customer-centered strategy that reduces risk and drives business growth.

The Jobs To Be Done framework is more than just theory – it's a proven approach companies have used to successfully enter diverse and competitive markets. These examples highlight how JTBD has translated into impactful strategy across industries and regions.

Fast Food in Latin America: “Feeding My Family” vs. “Snacking with Friends”

When a global fast-food brand sought to expand in Latin America, their original positioning as a quick lunch option underperformed. JTBD research revealed two dominant customer jobs: parents looking for affordable, trusted meals for their families, and teens looking for a casual, social hangout.

This insight led to a two-pronged strategy: family combo deals backed by community-focused messaging, and youth promotions tied to socializing. The new messaging and menu adaptations significantly boosted market penetration and brand loyalty.

Health Tech in Rural India: “Monitoring My Health” as a Community Job

A healthcare startup seeking to enter rural areas in India initially assumed individuals would download their wellness app to track personal health metrics. However, JTBD analysis showed the job was not individual, but communal – local caregivers and family heads were responsible for managing the health of larger groups.

By shifting to group registration and simplified dashboards tailored for community health leaders, the brand met the customer need where it existed – resulting in higher adoption and long-term usage.

Consumer Electronics in Europe: Entertainment as Escape

During its European expansion, a consumer electronics company discovered through Jobs To Be Done interviews that customers didn’t see smart speakers as utilities, but as ways to escape stress and reconnect with their passions. The “job” was less about convenience, and more about emotional well-being.

This led the company to reposition its product around mental wellness, music for mindfulness, and sound quality for immersive experiences, with great success in key European cities.

These cases show how uncovering customer needs through JTBD provides clarity that reshapes marketing, innovation, and product design. Especially during market entry, understanding what job your product is being hired to do – and how that varies by culture or region – becomes a critical edge.

While Jobs To Be Done sheds light on the underlying motivations behind customer behavior, pairing it with other market research methods creates a holistic view that leads to stronger decision-making. Each tool offers a unique lens, and when thoughtfully combined, they help unpack both the “why” and the “how” of customer actions in new markets.

Combining JTBD with Quantitative Research

JTBD excels in identifying deep, qualitative insights – but once themes and core jobs are identified, surveys and data modeling can scale those findings. Quantitative analysis can test which jobs are most widely experienced in a population or assess how different segments prioritize certain outcomes.

For example, imagine discovering through interviews that parents in a new market want solutions that “help them feel like good caregivers during stressful mornings.” A follow-up quantitative study can validate how many parents feel this way and compare it across age groups, number of children, or income levels – turning insight into actionable segmentation.

Contextual Observation and Ethnography

Pairing JTBD with real-world observation helps you understand how people behave naturally. Observing how customers currently complete a task – including the workarounds they use – can reveal friction points or patterns that verbal feedback alone may not surface.

This method is especially useful in non-Western or less digitally connected communities, where the “job” might involve cultural norms or processes that live outside traditional surveys.

Social Listening and AI-Powered Tools

Digital tools like social listening platforms and AI-driven trend discovery can complement JTBD by identifying emerging themes at scale. These signals can inspire new JTBD interviews or highlight shifts in customer priorities. However, the human insight gleaned from JTBD research brings needed nuance to make sense of what’s being said, felt, or shared.

Making the Most of a Layered Research Approach

• Use JTBD to explore customer problems and define what they uniquely value
• Use quant tools to validate and size the importance of those jobs across audiences
• Use observation to add context to how those jobs are performed
• Use digital analytics to monitor evolving sentiment or cultural shifts

Successfully entering a new market is rarely about one answer – it’s about connection. At SIVO Insights, we help brands integrate the right mix of research tools, ensuring JTBD insights are amplified, verified, and transformed into meaningful business strategies for market expansion.