Introduction
What Is Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) and How Does It Work?
The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework is a methodology used to understand the real reasons customers choose products or services. Rather than asking, “What do customers want to buy?”, JTBD asks the more powerful question: “What job are customers hiring this product to do?”
Think of JTBD like this: when someone purchases a drill, they aren’t buying it just for its features – they’re hiring it to help them hang a shelf or build something. That end goal is the “job” they are trying to get done. This perspective allows organizations to uncover customer needs at a much deeper level.
Key Concepts of the JTBD Framework:
- The Job: What the customer wants to achieve in a specific situation (functional, emotional, or social).
- Hiring: Customers “hire” a product or service to accomplish a job. If it doesn’t get the job done well, they may “fire” it and seek a better solution.
- Context: Understanding when and why a job arises is crucial – the same product can be viewed very differently based on context.
- Competition: JTBD broadens competitive thinking: your product competes with anything else the customer might “hire” for that job – not just similar products.
Unlike traditional segmentation tools that rely on demographics like age or income, JTBD views customers through the lens of progress. It asks, “What progress is this person trying to make in a specific moment of their life?”
How the JTBD Framework Works in Practice
JTBD typically involves qualitative interviews or field research to uncover the underlying motivations behind customer decisions. Analysts or moderators listen for “job stories” – narratives that help explain customer behavior. For example, instead of asking, “What features do you like in this app?”, JTBD might explore, “Tell me about the last time you needed help organizing your schedule. What did you do?”
From these conversations, researchers identify patterns in behavior that inform solution design. At SIVO Insights, we often use customer research and market research techniques – like in-depth interviews or journey mapping – to help organizations answer these exact questions.
JTBD can align teams, guide product development, and inform targeted marketing efforts, all by putting the customer’s true needs at the center.
Fictional Example for Clarity
Imagine a grocery chain wants to roll out a new prepared meal service. Instead of targeting “working parents aged 35-50,” the team applies JTBD and discovers the true job is “help me get a healthy dinner on the table fast after a long day.” This insight leads to different packaging, messaging, and even in-store placement – all centered on the job, not just the buyer persona.
Why Businesses Use the JTBD Framework to Understand Their Customers
Understanding customer behavior is one of the most persistent challenges in business. Why do people choose your product – and why might they switch? The Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework offers a practical way to answer these questions by going beyond basic preferences to uncover customer motivations, situations, and desired outcomes. That’s why many organizations are now turning to JTBD as a core tool for customer-centric growth.
Benefits of the JTBD Methodology for Business
By adopting a JTBD lens, companies can shift their thinking from pushing products to solving real problems. This helps ensure products and services are not only relevant, but meaningful to the people they’re meant to serve. Here’s how this framework delivers value:
- Highlights unmet customer needs: By focusing on the job, JTBD uncovers gaps in the current market landscape – beyond what traditional surveys might reveal.
- Inspires product innovation: Teams can design or improve offerings that help customers complete their jobs more easily, affordably, or delightfully, driving product innovation.
- Supports customer-centricity: JTBD aligns the entire organization around the customer’s perspective, a key pillar in long-term business growth.
- Identifies new growth areas: Reframing customer behavior through JTBD helps spot new opportunities, whether for a new feature, service, or entirely new product category.
Why JTBD Resonates Across Teams
Executives appreciate JTBD because it clarifies strategic direction. Product teams value it for defining functionality rooted in real needs. Marketers use it to shape messages that connect emotionally and practically. And researchers rely on it for uncovering actionable consumer insights.
At SIVO Insights, we’ve seen how JTBD helps cross-functional teams speak the same language – the language of the customer. Whether for digital platforms, physical products, or service design, JTBD brings coherence to stakeholder conversations by focusing on progress, not personas.
Fictional Case Example
Consider a fictional tech startup developing a budgeting app. Initial efforts focus on offering premium tools. But once they explore the real “job” users are hiring their app to do – reduce financial anxiety and regain control over spending – the team redesigns their UX to focus on simplicity and encouragement, not just tools. This JTBD-driven pivot improves engagement and loyalty without increasing the product’s complexity.
Getting Started as a Business Leader
You don’t need to be a professional researcher to apply elements of JTBD thinking. Begin by asking, “What is my customer trying to get done in their life, and why do they struggle?” Listen, observe, and stay curious about real experiences. If you’re partnering with market research experts like SIVO Insights, the JTBD framework often plays a central role in unlocking clear, actionable insights that guide product, marketing, and innovation strategy.
The takeaway? Businesses that invest in understanding customer needs through JTBD are better positioned to deliver meaningful solutions, strengthen brand loyalty, and achieve sustainable business growth. It’s more than a method – it’s a mindset shift toward true customer centricity.
How JTBD Drives Customer-Centric Innovation and Growth
Putting Customer Needs at the Center of Innovation
At its core, the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework is about understanding what your customers are really trying to achieve – their desired outcomes, not just the products they buy. When companies shift their focus from products to people, they form a clearer picture of what drives purchasing decisions and brand loyalty. This leads directly to more customer-centric innovation and business growth.
Instead of asking “What features should we add?” JTBD asks “What is the customer trying to do, and how can we help them do it better?” This mindset leads to solutions that solve real problems, not just surface-level wants.
JTBD Supports Smarter Product Development
By understanding the customer’s underlying goals, businesses can design offerings that fit naturally into their lives. This leads to:
- Products with greater relevance and impact
- Reduced risk of misaligned features or wasted investment
- More efficient innovation cycles with fewer dead ends
For example, if a customer hires a meal delivery service to “eat healthy without spending hours cooking,” the focus of innovation shifts from just recipe variety to time-saving health solutions. That broader view uncovers more whitespace for innovation and differentiation.
Improving Marketing and Positioning With JTBD
JTBD also helps teams communicate in language that resonates with customers, because it’s rooted in their real-world motivations. Instead of framing ads around what a product is, brands can speak to what the product helps people accomplish. That subtle reframing can result in clearer, more compelling messaging—and improved performance across campaigns.
JTBD Enables Strategic Alignment Across Teams
When customer jobs are clearly defined, everyone from R&D to marketing to leadership can rally around those goals. This shared understanding of customer needs helps break down internal silos and supports more agile, aligned decision-making.
That’s why JTBD is more than a product strategy tool—it’s a way to embed true customer centricity across your entire business. And when customer needs serve as the north star, growth becomes more sustainable and meaningful.
JTBD in Action: Real-World Business Applications
How Businesses Use the JTBD Framework in Practice
The Jobs To Be Done framework isn’t just a theory—it’s an actionable tool that businesses use to develop better products, create stronger messaging, and uncover new growth opportunities. While every company is different, JTBD research can be adapted to nearly any industry or business challenge.
Fictional Examples to Bring JTBD to Life
A health beverage brand might discover that customers don’t just buy their drink for taste or nutrition, but to “feel energized without crashing mid-afternoon.” This insight leads to new flavor formulations, smaller portion sizes, and new packaging that better supports this job – like portable bottles for working professionals.
A financial services company may find that customers don’t just want to “open a savings account,” but rather “gain peace of mind about unexpected expenses.” Now the brand can design new savings tools, messaging that reduces financial anxiety, and customer journeys that emphasize simplicity and emotional reassurance.
Both cases show how JTBD insights move beyond demographics or product categories. They get to the core of what customers are trying to achieve in their lives – and how businesses can support those outcomes more effectively.
JTBD Across Business Functions
Various teams within an organization can benefit from the clarity of JTBD research:
- Product Teams: Identify unmet needs and prioritize features that solve core customer problems
- Marketing Teams: Craft messaging that connects emotionally with customer motivators
- Sales Teams: Position solutions more clearly based on what buyers are truly looking for
- Leadership: Discover new market opportunities and align innovation strategy with actual customer behavior
Unlike some market research tools that focus only on what people say or do, JTBD reveals the why behind the decision. That context is often where the most valuable consumer insights live.
Businesses that embed JTBD into their operating rhythm often uncover not just incremental improvements, but transformational opportunities that drive sustainable growth.
Getting Started with Jobs To Be Done Research at Your Company
Simple Steps to Integrate JTBD into Your Business
Getting started with the Jobs To Be Done framework doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your business processes. In fact, many organizations begin by incorporating JTBD into existing customer research efforts, product planning, or growth strategy discussions.
Step 1: Identify the Problem You’re Trying to Solve
Start by thinking about where there’s uncertainty in your business. Are customers not adopting a new product as expected? Is messaging falling flat? Is your innovation pipeline missing the mark? These questions can help spotlight areas where understanding customer motivations could bring clarity.
Step 2: Talk to Your Customers About Their Goals
JTBD research typically involves qualitative interviews or surveys that explore more than product usage. Instead, you aim to understand the broader context of how, when, and why customers “hire” a product or service to get a job done. It’s less about feature feedback and more about emotional and practical outcomes.
Useful JTBD questions might include:
- What triggered you to look for a solution?
- What were you hoping to accomplish?
- What made this product or service the right choice?
- What obstacles did you consider before using it?
These conversations surface the real needs and decision drivers – an essential starting point for customer-centric product development and innovation strategy.
Step 3: Translate Insights into Action
Once you begin to see patterns in customer jobs, your team can align around new opportunities. Perhaps there’s a group of users trying to accomplish something your product wasn’t initially designed for. Or you discover a new messaging angle that better reflects how customers think about your solution.
At this stage, pairing customer insights with skilled research partners can help bridge intuition with deeper data. With the right support, insights can become prototypes, marketing campaigns, or product pivots that lead to measurable business growth.
Working With a JTBD-Focused Research Partner
Partnering with a strategic research firm can help ensure your JTBD efforts are grounded in proven methodology and tailored to your business goals. At SIVO Insights, we help teams design studies that uncover powerful customer insights and provide clear, actionable direction—making the complex simple so you can move forward with confidence.
Summary
Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a practical, people-centered framework that helps businesses understand what their customers are really trying to achieve. By focusing on desired outcomes instead of just products or demographics, JTBD provides a fresh approach to customer research, product innovation, and marketing strategy.
Throughout this post, we’ve explored how the JTBD framework works, why it drives better results, and how companies are putting it into action to accelerate growth. Whether you’re launching a new product, expanding into new markets, or simply trying to understand your audience on a deeper level, JTBD helps prioritize what matters most: true customer needs and motivations.
When you center innovation around the people you serve, you don’t just build better solutions—you build stronger, longer-lasting businesses.
Summary
Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a practical, people-centered framework that helps businesses understand what their customers are really trying to achieve. By focusing on desired outcomes instead of just products or demographics, JTBD provides a fresh approach to customer research, product innovation, and marketing strategy.
Throughout this post, we’ve explored how the JTBD framework works, why it drives better results, and how companies are putting it into action to accelerate growth. Whether you’re launching a new product, expanding into new markets, or simply trying to understand your audience on a deeper level, JTBD helps prioritize what matters most: true customer needs and motivations.
When you center innovation around the people you serve, you don’t just build better solutions—you build stronger, longer-lasting businesses.