“Jobs to Be Done” (JTBD) is a framework that helps organizations better understand what drives their customers’ purchasing decisions and how they use their products or services. Developed into a popular concept by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, JTBD centers on the notion that customers effectively ’employ’ products and services to accomplish particular tasks or jobs. This perspective helps businesses identify the real needs behind customer behaviors.
Main Benefits of The Jobs to Be Done Method
JTBD guides companies to adopt a more customer-centered approach to their strategic and product development initiatives, enabling better market fit and more innovative solutions.
The Jobs to Be Done Method helps you:
- to create or improve products that do the job better, thus meeting customer needs more effectively,
- to better position products and craft more compelling messages,
- to segment customers based on needs and jobs rather than just demographic or psychographic data,
- to gain a competitive advantage.
Explanation of The Jobs to Be Done Method
JTBD is an approach that shifts the focus from the product itself to the customer, emphasizing the understanding of both practical and emotional needs customers seek to fulfill, rather than relying on demographic categorizations. Every purchase decision a customer makes is seen as an attempt to solve a specific problem or fulfill a need.
The following are the key steps that businesses can follow to effectively utilize this framework:
- Identify and Categorize Customer Jobs
People buy products and services to get a job done. It is essential to start by gathering detailed insights into the jobs that customers need to accomplish when they turn to the product.
These jobs could be the core functional job, related jobs, or emotional and social jobs.
The core functional job: Refers to the primary task or problem that a customer needs to solve when they “hire” a product or service. This concept is at the heart of the JTBD framework, emphasizing that customers choose products based not on features or attributes alone, but on the product’s ability to accomplish a specific job effectively.
Related jobs: They are ancillary tasks that customers need to complete in connection with the core functional job. While these jobs might not be the primary reason a customer decides to buy a product or service, they play a supportive role in enhancing the customer’s overall experience and satisfaction.
Emotional and social jobs: They are critical components that address the psychological and societal aspects of why customers select certain products or services. These jobs often go beyond the basic functional tasks a product performs, touching on how the product makes customers feel or how it affects their status within a community or social group.
- Prioritize Jobs
Evaluate the importance and satisfaction of each identified job. This helps determine which jobs represent the greatest opportunity for improvement or innovation.
- Generate Solutions
Consider ways to improve your offer so it outperforms any alternatives the customer might consider for these jobs. This could involve product improvements, new features, or entirely new products.
- Implement and Monitor
Implement the solutions, continuously gather customer feedback, and refine the product as necessary.
By applying these steps within The Jobs to Be Done framework, businesses can achieve a deeper understanding of their customers’ true needs and expectations. This process enables them to develop products and services that are not only more aligned with what customers actually want, but also deliver enhanced value.
How to Apply The Jobs to Be Done Method
To apply The Jobs to Be Done Method to your business, FITMINDS is providing an adoption of the model that fits your company and your company’s needs. By using The Jobs to Be Done Method, organizations can stay ahead of changing market dynamics and maintain a competitive edge.
Contact us to get more information or discover your probable personalized roadmap for The Jobs to Be Done Method.
Additional Tips and Readings
- You can learn more about customer satisfaction with the Kano Model
- To learn more about customer behavior, you can read The Champ Framework
- You can learn more about customer experience and engagement with The AARRR Pirate Metrics.
- You can learn more about customer decisions with the Loyalty Ladder
Contact us to deeply understand customer needs via The Jobs to Be Done Method.
