One of the most common questions when kicking off a Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) project is: Who should lead this? While there’s no single answer that fits every organization, ownership often depends on the business goals driving the research. That said, successful JTBD projects usually begin under the leadership of one of three key functions: the consumer insights team, the innovation or product development team, or the marketing department.

Common JTBD Project Owners

1. Insights or Research Teams
These teams are often in the best position to lead JTBD projects because they’re trained to uncover deep human motivations through qualitative research. If your organization has an experienced insights lead or team, they can lead the study design, interview process, and synthesis of patterns that guide strategic decisions.

2. Innovation or Product Development Teams
When the goal is to fuel product innovation or refine roadmap planning, product managers or innovation leaders frequently take the lead. They’re often closest to the development process and can apply JTBD thinking directly into new solutions or feature sets.

3. Marketing Teams
If the key business question is around messaging, segmentation, positioning, or brand alignment, ownership may lie with marketing. JTBD can reveal valuable customer language and emotional cues that improve how products are framed and marketed – so marketers may lead when the outcome is communication-focused.

In some cases, organizations use a cross-functional approach, where insights lead the methodology, and product or marketing teams help interpret results and apply them to specific strategies. Regardless of who leads, success comes from clear roles, shared objectives, and regular collaboration.

How to Decide Who Leads

• Consider your ultimate goal: Innovation = Product, Messaging = Marketing, Exploration = Insights
• Identify who has capacity and skills: Who can design, moderate, and synthesize qualitative research?
• Ensure leadership buy-in: Whoever owns the project needs executive support to implement findings
• Don’t forget business integration: Choose a lead who can translate research into action across functions

If multiple departments are deeply invested in the outcome, consider co-ownership with a lead facilitator to keep the project on track. Many brands also partner with external market research firms like SIVO Insights to guide JTBD initiatives from start to finish.

Now that you’ve identified who should lead your Jobs to Be Done project, the next step is understanding the full team structure required to bring JTBD research to life. Clear roles and responsibilities help ensure the research runs smoothly, insights are actionable, and findings lead to real results.

Core Roles in a JTBD Project

1. Project Owner / Sponsor
This person sets the vision, secures stakeholder alignment, and champions the research internally. Whether this is an insights lead, marketing director, or product exec, the sponsor ensures the project links to business goals and has visibility across the organization.

2. JTBD Research Lead
Often a market research professional or internal insights expert, this person designs the approach and guides the execution. They’ll work on tasks such as developing the interview guide, conducting qualitative research (like in-depth Jobs to Be Done interviews), and synthesizing findings. JTBD projects require nuance – so this lead needs to be skilled at interpreting underlying motivations, not just surface behaviors.

3. Cross-Functional Stakeholders
These include representatives from product development, marketing, sales, and customer success – depending on the business question. Their input ensures that what’s learned in JTBD interviews maps back to real organizational challenges.

4. Interview Participants / Recruiters
Your research is only as good as the voices you're hearing. Whether handled internally or by a partner like SIVO, it's important to select interview participants that represent key customer segments. A recruiter ensures a high-quality spread of voices and needs.

Optional but Helpful Supporting Roles

• Note-Takers or Analysts: During interviews, having a dedicated person to capture key themes minimizes rework during analysis.
• Facilitators or Moderators: Especially for first-time JTBD research, using a trained moderator helps explore deeper motivations with confidence and consistency.
• Designers or Product Strategists: These team members help visualize needs and turn insights into concepts or roadmaps.

Why Clear Roles Matter

Confusion about roles can slow down a JTBD initiative. When everyone knows what they’re responsible for – and how their role feeds into a bigger picture – the project advances with clarity and purpose. For example, the marketing team can focus on potential messaging shifts, while product managers look for new opportunity areas – all based on the same customer insights framework.

Whether you're leading a Jobs to Be Done initiative for the first time or expanding your customer insights toolkit, assembling the right team with the right responsibilities is a key piece of success. JTBD research is rich in potential – but it needs the right structure to truly drive innovation.

Selecting the right person to lead a Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) project is essential for its success. This individual will guide the effort from planning through execution, ensuring the team uncovers valuable customer insights that drive innovation. But how do you determine who should lead this type of research within your organization?

Start with the Purpose Behind the Project

The first step is to define the business objective of your JTBD research. Are you exploring unmet customer needs? Testing product development opportunities? Or aligning cross-functional teams around innovation? The specific intent will often point to the best-suited department or individual.

For example:

• If the focus is on new product development, the product or innovation team often takes the lead.
• If the goal is customer segmentation or journey mapping, an insights lead or marketing strategist may take ownership.
• In cross-functional initiatives, a neutral team member from the full-service market research group can act as a unifying project owner.

Key Traits of a Strong JTBD Project Lead

No matter where the lead comes from, they should possess a few core qualities:

• Customer-centric mindset – They need to advocate for customer needs, not just internal agendas.
• Collaborative approach – JTBD success depends on coordination across teams and functions.
• Critical thinking – Ability to interpret qualitative research and guide others in seeing root problems.
• Clear communicator – Helps align stakeholders, manage expectations, and translate insights into action.

Setting Up for Success

Once you’ve identified the right person, give them authority to assemble a cross-functional team and set priorities. JTBD research often draws in voices from product, marketing, operations, and customer experience, so a well-prepared lead should ensure that roles are clear from the beginning. They should also establish a structure for collaboration – especially during qualitative research stages like interviews, synthesis, and ideation.

Lastly, back the project lead with leadership support and organizational visibility. A JTBD initiative thrives when it’s more than “just another research project” – it becomes a driver of customer-centric innovation.

A Jobs to Be Done project is more than a research effort – it’s a collaborative initiative that uncovers the deeper motivations behind why customers choose (or abandon) solutions. To turn those insights into real innovation, cross-functional alignment isn’t optional – it’s essential.

JTBD Research Touches Multiple Disciplines

JTBD work naturally sits at the intersection of several departments. While insights teams may run the qualitative research or interviews, product teams apply learnings to development pipelines. Marketing uses the job statements to refine messaging or identify customer segments. Without coordination, key findings risk falling through the cracks.

For example:

• The insights lead identifies a “struggling moment” in the buyer journey...
• But if the product team wasn’t involved early, they may overlook it or dismiss its relevance...
• And marketing may continue messaging around surface-level benefits the customer no longer values.

Cross-functional alignment ensures that everyone understands the customer’s true job – and works together to deliver on it.

Benefits of a Unified Approach

When organizations bring product, marketing, sales, customer experience, and insights teams together during a JTBD project, they gain exponential value:

• Shared language – Everyone gains a deeper, richer understanding of what customers really want and why.
• Faster decisions – With unified criteria and agreement on core jobs, innovation decisions become faster and more focused.
• Reduced rework – Teams aligned upfront avoid costly pivots or missed signals downstream.
• More effective go-to-market strategies – When marketing understands the why behind purchasing behavior, campaigns resonate more deeply.

Alignment Isn’t Just About Meetings

True alignment goes beyond attending the same status updates. It includes joint participation in research synthesis, co-ownership of insights, and framing decisions around customer jobs rather than team-specific KPIs. Successful JTBD projects often use shared frameworks – like journey maps or prioritized job statements – to keep everyone rowing in the same direction.

Cross-functional alignment builds a culture where deep customer understanding becomes a common lens, rather than a siloed output. That shift unlocks not just better insights… but better innovation.

Collaboration is key to leading a successful Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) project – especially when product, marketing, and insights teams all bring unique strengths to the table. But alignment doesn’t happen on its own. Effective collaboration across these teams must be intentional, structured, and rooted in a shared focus on the customer’s job.

Clarify Roles Early

Each team has a different lens. Product focuses on functionality and usability. Marketing looks at messaging and positioning. Insights uncovers unmet needs and motivations. Outlining clear responsibilities ahead of time helps everyone stay in their lane – while contributing to the same destination.

Consider jointly defining:

• Who leads the research design and customer interviews
• Who synthesizes the data into usable job stories
• Who integrates insights into product or campaign strategies

This prevents confusion and ensures that each team knows when and how to engage during the JTBD research process.

Use Shared Tools and Language

One way to bridge the gap between product, marketing, and research is to use shared frameworks. Job maps, need state diagrams, and decision drivers provide a visual, objective view that all teams can rally around. Instead of separate interpretations, teams respond to the same insights in coordinated ways.

It also helps to build a common vocabulary. Align on what a “job” is, what counts as a need or outcome, and how different customer segments frame their struggles. This reduces friction and boosts buy-in across departments.

Keep Conversation Flowing

Ideally, JTBD projects include joint working sessions – not just hand-offs. Bringing teams into synthesis meetings or ideation workshops builds empathy and helps everyone internalize the findings. asynchronous updates are fine, but real alignment happens when people have space to share observations, ask questions, and co-create solutions.

It’s also helpful to assign one person – often the JTBD project owner – to keep communication moving between teams. They serve as the connector, making sure insights don’t get stuck in one department while others move ahead.

Build Collaboration into the Culture

Lastly, remember that JTBD research is as much about mindset as execution. Encourage teams to approach problems from the customer’s perspective, rather than viewing challenges only through a functional silo. At SIVO Insights, we’ve seen how cross-functional collaboration not only yields stronger market research roles – it also creates a culture of shared insight, curiosity, and innovation.