Job To Be Done Theory: An Ultimate Guide

The Jobs-to-be-Done Theory is an innovation theory based on the economic tenet that people purchase goods and services to assist them in carrying out tasks, achieving goals and objectives, resolving issues before they arise, avoiding issues altogether, and advancing in life.

Because JTBD does not rely on chance and prevents wasting time and resources on ineffective or irrelevant alternatives, it clearly outperforms other strategies in its focus on understanding the customer’s unmet needs.

To put it simply, the theory of jobs to be done holds that “customers want to make progress in their lives and they hire products to help them get that job done.”

JTBD four Fundamentals

Given the complexity of the concept of “Jobs-to-be-Done,” it is helpful to understand the underlying principles of JTBD theory that guide how the JTBD framework functions.

People make purchases of goods and services to do “jobs.”

Everybody is working toward achieving their goals and resolving their issues. These are the tasks that the customer is required to complete, according to the jobs-to-be-done theory.

The term “outcomes” is frequently used in the world of product management to describe these. You’re attracted to this job because you’re a product manager. Because they look to “hire” a product or service to complete their tasks, customers want a product manager.

The job outlines the objective that the client is attempting to accomplish, not the process that they intend to use to do so.

Emotional and social components are also present in functional positions.

If jobs are defined as objectives that people want to accomplish, they may initially appear to be purely functional. But in addition to these social and emotional aspects, job-to-be-done also takes into account the motivations behind individuals’ efforts to complete a particular task.

When you explore these emotional and social factors, you’ll learn the language that customers use to describe their unmet needs. If you can articulate your value proposition in terms that your target market will understand, your go-to-market message will be stronger.

The consistency of a job over time

What someone attempts to accomplish over time is typically consistent. They change how they approach finishing that task as they gain knowledge of novel and distinctive products.

Finding out the tasks that customers are attempting to complete is a good way to describe value because the jobs remain constant over time. You can then use this description to decide what to include in your product.

It also provides a vocabulary you can use to explain to customers how your product makes their jobs easier when marketing it.

Analyzing is the Job

With the JTBD framework, the discovery process is focused on what your customers want to accomplish in a particular situation—the job—rather than your product or your customers’ characteristics.

Utilizing your understanding of their jobs, define the needs of your customers before creating the metrics you’ll use to gauge your performance.

When you focus on customer jobs, the problem overtakes the solution as your primary interest. By doing this, you raise the possibility that the needs of the customer will be considered in the design of your product rather than being satisfied with functionality that offers little added value.

How to use JTBD?

Create an outcome statement that summarises the underlying factors, circumstances, and settings of the problems your user is encountering.

Next, specify who your target market is. In order to conduct the appropriate interviews, identify the characteristics that will distinguish the population you will serve. Personas, in addition to a JTBD strategy, are useful in this circumstance.

Third, find out what your potential customers like to do. Find out what methods they currently employ to address a specific problem and what challenges they face when providing customer service.

To perform their duties, you must be aware of the products they currently “hire” or “fire,” as well as the factors that led to those selections.

In order to better understand the attitudes and decisions your customers are making in relation to your product,

use surveys and interviews.
You should be aware of their goals and motivations.
What prevents them from carrying out their duties as they do them now?

Why Job To Be Done is an essential element

The Jobs to Be Done principle can be used in a variety of circumstances and will benefit your business in several ways. Think about the following illustration of application areas:

To be customer-centric, you and your team must come to a common understanding of your customers’ needs.
By requesting various jobs, Customer Segmentation – Jobs to be Done can be used to create a new kind of segmentation.
By talking about pertinent product features, for instance, marketing-customer approaches can be strengthened.
Competitive intelligence can provide a distinctive viewpoint on the market and competitive environment.
Develop new goods and business models that are better suited to the requirements of your clients.

Conclusion

You can learn more about your client’s needs and attitudes by using the JTBD framework to analyze your prospects and customers.

First, by demonstrating how research can foster innovation, it helps you make a case for conducting research.

To enhance project outcomes, it should also be used in particular project types. Market segmentation, product development, brand development, and competitive intelligence projects all use JTBD principles.