Every customer journey includes ups and downs – moments when things either work smoothly or fall short. A struggling moment is one of those critical downpoints in the journey when a frustration, obstacle, or unmet need becomes clear. These are often moments people don’t think to describe unless asked, but they carry important clues for businesses trying to understand why customers switch brands or change their behavior.

In the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework, a struggling moment isn’t just a complaint – it’s a sign that something isn’t working well enough. It shows that a person is open to finding a better solution. Think of it like this: when someone says, "There’s got to be a better way to do this," they’re giving you a front-row seat to their decision-making process. That’s where new products, services, or features can make a real difference.

What Do Struggling Moments Look Like?

Struggling moments take many forms, depending on the context. They might include:

• Difficulty using a product or service (confusing instructions, poor design, etc.)
• Unmet needs or missing features (“It would be great if it had…”)
• Emotional triggers like frustration, stress, or disappointment
• Wasted time or effort (“It takes way too long to…”)

For example, imagine a business traveler who’s constantly digging through emails to find their travel itinerary. That friction point – the struggle – may lead them to seek out a better way to track trips. That moment is where opportunity lives.

Recognizing the Signs of Switch-Readiness

Understanding customer switching behavior starts with acknowledging these signs. When your customer begins to experience frequent breakdowns in their current solution, their dissatisfaction creates space for innovation. Here’s what that might look like:

• They begin searching for alternatives online
• They express disappointment in reviews or customer feedback
• They ask others for recommendations
• They start using workarounds or patch fixes

Each of these is a form of quiet but valuable insight. It’s here that customer pain points spark new decisions and create market gaps for innovators to fill.

When companies know how to identify struggling moments in the customer journey, they can meet customers exactly when – and where – they’re looking for something better. It’s not about convincing someone to switch. It’s about deeply understanding when they already want to.

Struggling moments aren’t just moments of friction – they are moments of possibility. For businesses trying to achieve growth and stay relevant in changing markets, these signals represent untapped opportunity. They’re not just pain points. They are the emotional, functional, and practical cues that tell you what solutions people actually need.

How JTBD Helps You Tap into Growth Opportunities

The JTBD framework is built around one simple principle: people “hire” products or services to get a job done in their life. When their current solution doesn’t help them do that job well, a struggling moment occurs. That’s when they start considering other options. For businesses, this is a prime moment to step in with something better.

By identifying struggling moments early, companies can:

• Spot unmet needs that aren’t obvious in surveys or existing usage data
• Gain consumer insights anchored in real-life behaviors and emotions
• Innovate in ways that remove friction or improve outcomes
• Prioritize product features or improvements based on what actually matters

Let’s say a busy parent struggles to pack healthy lunches during the workweek. That specific pain point could lead to the development of a pre-packed, nutritious lunch kit designed for working families. Without recognizing the struggle first, such a product might not even come to mind.

Supporting Product Innovation and Customer Experience

Understanding struggling moments in product development encourages businesses to stop guessing and start observing. Traditional feedback often centers on what users say they want. JTBD looks deeper – it asks what they’re trying to achieve, and where they get stuck.

This approach leads to better business outcomes because it keeps the focus on real customer jobs. More than features or trends, it’s about solving problems that actually matter. That’s where the magic happens for product innovation.

And it’s not only for new offerings. Recognizing these moments helps improve the customer experience across the board – from digital tools to service interactions. Once you know where the friction is, you can remove it, smooth the path, and gain loyalty in the process.

Putting Consumer Research to Work

If you’re wondering how to interpret these signals or gather the right data, that’s where market research basics come in. Through qualitative interviews, journey mapping, and real-time behavior tracking, businesses can uncover not just what’s happening, but why it’s happening. SIVO’s custom research services are designed with exactly this purpose in mind – revealing those hidden moments that change everything.

Understanding the JTBD struggling moment empowers your team to confidently decide where to focus development efforts, how to stand out from the competition, and when customers are most ready to make a switch. When you listen for these moments, growth becomes less about chasing trends – and more about solving real problems.

Struggling moments don’t happen randomly. They are often triggered by specific situations where people feel that their current solution no longer meets their needs. Understanding these triggers is central to applying the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework effectively. Recognizing these moments allows businesses to uncover customer pain points and anticipate switching behavior before it happens.

What Typically Causes a Struggling Moment?

Struggling moments arise when there's a mismatch between a customer’s expectations and their actual experience. This can show up in both emotional and functional ways – anything from feeling frustrated to being physically unable to complete a task.

Here are a few common situations that often trigger a struggling moment:

• New life events: A change like becoming a parent, moving, or starting a new job can make existing solutions feel outdated or inadequate.
• Increased complexity: When a product or process becomes harder to use as needs evolve. For example, software that was once simple may feel clunky as a company grows.
• Lack of results: If people stop seeing the value or effectiveness of something they once trusted, they begin to question its worth.
• Peer influence or comparison: Seeing others enjoy better results from different options can plant the idea that it may be time to switch.
• Time-consuming tasks: When people feel like they’re spending too much effort or time to get what they want, frustration brews.

Each of these scenarios can spark the internal tension that makes someone start looking for a better alternative – the essence of a struggling moment.

Recognizing Early Signs of Switching Behavior

Often, small hints appear before customers make a move. They may start researching alternatives, asking peers for suggestions, or simply reducing their engagement. These are key signals that the “job” they hired a product to do is no longer being done well enough.

When companies become skilled at spotting these early signs, they can better support customers before they make a switch – or offer something new that reflects their evolved needs.

In short, understanding the triggers behind struggling moments unlocks opportunities to refine existing offerings or create something entirely different. Done right, this kind of insight doesn’t just reduce churn – it powers product innovation.

Recognizing struggling moments requires more than tracking complaints or returns. It calls for a deeper look at why customers behave the way they do and what beliefs or unmet needs drive that behavior. This is where market research plays a vital role in the JTBD framework.

Listening Between the Lines with Qualitative Research

Struggling moments are most effectively uncovered through human conversation – often through in-depth interviews, observational research, or ethnography. These methods allow businesses to get to the core of what people are trying to accomplish, what’s getting in their way, and how they feel about it.

For example, during one-on-one interviews, a participant might talk about being “fed up” with manually entering data at work. On the surface, it’s a mild frustration. But when explored further, it may point to a deeper emotional pain: feeling under-valued, overwhelmed, or stuck. Identifying this moment allows businesses to explore product innovation that reduces friction.

Digging Deeper with Quantitative Validation

Once potential struggling moments are identified qualitatively, surveys and validation studies can be used to measure how widespread these experiences are. Do 50 people feel this way, or 5,000?

Quantitative market research helps size the opportunity and understand what segments of customers are most affected. Paired with demographic or behavioral data, it also reveals how customer decision making varies among different groups.

Tips for Discovering Struggling Moments

• Ask “why” multiple times during interviews to dig beneath surface complaints.
• Map out the full customer journey to spot pain points along the way.
• Listen for signals of emotional frustration, dissatisfaction, or confusion (not just technical issues).
• Use open-ended questions to uncover unmet needs and goals.

In all cases, the goal is to identify situations where customers feel let down, confused, or underserved – the clearest sign that they may be open to a different solution. When combined, qualitative and quantitative research provide the full picture of these buying triggers.

At SIVO Insights, we believe in blending human-centered research with data to truly understand consumer pain points at their root. When teams can confidently answer the question, “Where are people struggling, and why?”, they gain a powerful starting point for growth.

Every struggling moment is a signal that something can be improved – and that’s a powerful opportunity for business growth. Rather than seeing customer frustration as a problem to fix, companies applying the JTBD framework see it as a nudge toward product innovation.

Why Struggling Moments Matter in Product Development

Traditional product design often starts with features. But JTBD starts with the moment: the shift that leads someone to think, “There has to be a better way.”

By focusing on these moments of friction, companies can design solutions that meet real, unmet needs. Whether it’s developing a simpler tool, a faster process, or a more personalized service, innovation becomes more targeted and valuable.

Real-World Example

Consider a snacks company that notices moms are packing small bags of crackers in odd containers for their toddlers. Upon research, it becomes clear their go-to snack doesn’t travel well. This minor inconvenience – a struggling moment – inspired the launch of a resealable, toddler-friendly snack pouch. The product answered a specific need and spurred new growth in an existing category.

Moving from Insight to Innovation

Here’s how organizations can turn struggling moments into breakthroughs:

• Identify and define: Use qualitative research to uncover context-rich consumer stories.
• Frame the struggle as a job: Rephrase the pain point into a job statement, like “Help me snack conveniently on-the-go.”
• Brainstorm solutions: Involve product, marketing, and insights teams to co-create ideas around the need.
• Prototype and test: Validate ideas against the original pain point to ensure it truly resolves the struggle.

When you design from the struggling moment out – rather than from the product in – you unlock relevance. That relevance leads to stronger engagement, reduced churn, and greater brand loyalty.

For businesses looking to stay ahead, knowing “why customers switch brands” is just as crucial as knowing what they switch to. Struggling moments give you the timing, trigger, and reasoning behind those decisions.

And most importantly, they offer a fresh way to connect with customers by showing you understand what truly matters to them.