JTBD Hypothesis Canvas: Your Blueprint for Guided Discovery
Do your teams jump to solutions before fully understanding the problem? You’re not alone. It’s one of the most common mistakes we see. The result? Misalignment, do-overs, and wasted time.
Enter Jobs to be Done (JTBD). The framework pinpoints the right customer problem to solve before you begin exploring solutions.
A strength of JTBD is its structured categories. The who, what, how, why, and when/where are analyzed separately, each with specific rules of formulation for consistency. Language matters with JTBD.
Once sorted, you can spot patterns, find opportunities for growth, and design more valuable experiences. The JTBD Hypothesis Canvas helps you explore these primary categories up front.
A JTBD analysis has three main phases:
- Frame: Scope your JTBD landscape as a hypothesis to be investigated
- Discover: Conduct research to uncover customer jobs and analyze them
- Spin: Activate the insights by integrating them into your workflows
The JTBD Hypothesis Canvas is designed for use in the Frame phase. The primary aim is to determine your scope of inquiry and unit of analysis.
Think of the canvas as a collaboration tool to get clarity and agreement before you dive in.
The canvas is not meant for data collection or detailed analysis. Use a spreadsheet or digital whiteboard for that. The canvas also doesn’t replace research, i.e., you can’t brainstorm your way into the answer.
What’s New
This is the third iteration of the JTBD canvas developed by The JTBD Toolkit. Based on continued learning, we’ve made a few updates:
- The addition of a triangle to better reflect the jobs hierarchy: in relation to the focus job, aspirations are higher-level goals, while job steps are lower-level goals.
- Clearer emphasis on the canvas as a tool to help frame your focus job as a hypothesis to validated with research. That’s why it’s now called the JTBD Hypothesis Canvas.
- Relabeling of key elements to improve clarity and comprehension
- Focus Job (formerly Target Job)
- Success Criteria (formerly Outcomes)
- Circumstances (formerly Job Differentiators)
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STEP 1: Scope
Use the top part of the canvas to define a job performer and a focus job. This determines who to talk to and what to talk to them about.
You don’t need to decide these in isolation. Speak with a few customers in your field about their goals and aspirations, consult colleagues who have domain expertise, and use the canvas to guide the conversations.
While you can fill the canvas in any order, we recommend these steps:
0. PLAYING FIELD: What area or domain are you in?
(a.k.a. domain, area of interest, industry, field)
Write your field at the top to set the context. Avoid defaulting to a broad industry label like “real estate” or “healthcare.” Instead, use plain language that describes the value you create. Try filling in the blank: “We’re in the business of __________.”
For example, if you’re working on an online real estate platform, don’t just say “real estate.” A better frame for your playing field might be “buying and selling homes.” This language anchors the conversation in customer value, not just your industry category or your org chart.
1. JOB PERFORMER: Who are you creating value for?
(a.k.a. job executor, customer, end user)
Start by listing all possible actors in your playing field. Do this as a team. There are usually more stakeholders than you think — often a dozen or more.
For example, in the field of buying and selling homes, your list might include: buyers, sellers, agents, lawyers, loan officers, home inspectors, movers, contractors, neighbors, family, and more.
Next, prioritize. Who is most relevant to your organization right now? Choose one job performer to focus on. Avoid defaulting to the buyers of your solution. JTBD encourages you to go downstream where value is experienced, not just purchased.
Stick to one job performer per canvas. If you want to explore others, use separate canvases.
The job performer always pairs with the focus job. For instance, a commuter is the job performer for the target job commute to work. Or, a conference attendee is the job performer for the job attend a conference. Keep it simple and straightforward.
2. FOCUS JOB: Where do you want to create value?
(a.k.a target job, main job, core job)
The focus job is your anchor. It’s the core unit analysis for all subsequent research. Once defined, everything else on the canvas relates back to the focus job.
The focus job is a functional job that has a beginning, middle, and end. It’s the thing the job performer is trying to accomplish.
How to phrase it:
- Always begin with an action verb in the first person.
- Do not refer to technology, solutions, or methods at all.
- Do not use ANDs or ORs or /s. Keep it singular and focused.
A focus job can be broad or narrow. You could help someone make a hole in a wall — a perfectly reasonable innovation target. But you might want to move up to hang a shelf or even renovate a home. All are valid. It depends on your strategic intent.
The goal is to find the overlap between what matters to the job performer and what matters to you as a provider. To do this, list the job performer’s top-level goals. Then decide together which one makes the most sense to focus on.
Place the proposed focus job at the center of the canvas. Discuss and iterate. Try different phrasings.
Keep in mind that not every job is worth your time and resources. Now is a good moment to step back and assess:
- Will this job still be relevant in the future?
- Is it tied to a persistent struggle or growing need?
- Does solving it unlock meaningful value for the customer
The focus job should also be relevant to your business. Ask:
- What’s most relevant right now? Choose a job that aligns with your strategic direction or growth opportunity.
- What can you realistically impact? If the focus job is too broad, you may not be able to move the needle. Keep it practical and within reach for your team.
3. RELATED JOBS: What else is the job performer trying to get done within your field?
(a.k.a. adjacent jobs)
Related jobs are separate functional goals the job performer has, each with its own beginning, middle, and end. Formulate these at a similar level of granularity to your focus job so you can compare them meaningfully.
For most job performers in a given field, you’ll find 3–6 primary related jobs.
After selecting your focus job, move other goals onto the canvas. Use the triangle on the canvas to sort jobs by level:
- Jobs at the same level as the focus job → Related Jobs
- Higher-level goals → Aspirations
- Smaller sub-jobs → Job Steps
Related jobs show what you’re not focusing on right now. The canvas is singular in focus, helping you to align around one primary job at a time. This doesn’t mean other jobs don’t matter: they can be explored separately later.
4. ASPIRATIONS: Who does the job performer aspire to become by doing the job?
Aspirations are what we call “be” goals. These aren’t functional tasks; they’re identity-level outcomes the job performer is pursuing by doing the job.
List potential aspirations that relate to your focus job. Select 2–3 that feel most relevant to the job performer and most aligned with your strategy. You can also gather these through a few exploratory conversations.
When the team is done exploring the top of the canvas, you’ll have a clear target for investigation. Here’s an example of potential top-down elements for the scenario of “buying and selling homes.”
Job performer: Home buyer
Focus job: Shop for a new home
Related jobs: Finance a home, Move homes, Sell old home, Renovate a home
Aspirations: Find a dream home for my family, Become part of a thriving neighborhood
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STEP 2: Hypothesize
The lower half of the canvas is for bottom-up elements, or the insights you gather through research over time. This is where deep listening begins. Your goal is to sort what you hear into categories and formulate the insights clearly.
However, before launching full interviews, use your current knowledge to make initial assumptions for each element. These early hypotheses can come from your own experience, teammates, or quick chats with a few job performers.
Creating a hypothesis about the four key elements in the lower half of the canvas will help guide your interviews. Exploring them ahead of the research also brings clarity and alignment to your team.
5. JOB STEPS: How does the job performer get the job done?
The job steps describe the process of getting a job done. They form a chronological sequence reflected in a job map.
There are three inputs in creating a hypothesis job map:
- Rely on the universal job map structure. Most jobs follow a familiar pattern: Plan → Prepare → Execute → Monitor → Modify → Conclude. These aren’t step labels, but they can help you brainstorm.
- Talk to colleagues and experts. People who have done the job (or supported it) often have valuable insight. Work with them to outline what likely happens and in what order. You can also discuss the process of getting the job done with a few customers.
- Use generative AI tools. With a well-written prompt, AI can help draft a hypothesis job map. Just make sure to explain what a job map is and how steps should be phrased.
Triangulating between these sources of information typically yields a decent hypothesis job map.
How to phrase job steps:
- Start with an action verb, in the first person
- Avoid any mention of tools, technology, or methods
- No ANDs, ORs or /s — keep each step focused
- Make steps concise but meaningful
EXAMPLE JOB STEPS
“Shop for a new home”
- Determine target location
- Determine selection criteria
- Understand affordability
- Identify candidate homes
- Evaluate candidate homes
- Etc.
6. SUCCESS CRITERIA: How does the job performer measure success in getting the job done?
(a.k.a outcomes, job metrics, needs)
If the focus job and job steps describe the process, the success criteria describe how well the job is done. Distinguishing between the two — job steps and success criteria — is a key aspect of the JTBD framework.
Success criteria reflect what the person is trying to improve, avoid, or optimize as they perform the job. For any focus job, it’s normal to uncover 50–100 criteria. These are the job performer’s measures of success, not yours.
Like job steps, you can start by hypothesizing a few success criteria under each step. Use what you know, talk to others, or generate ideas with AI tools using a clear prompt.
One of the most effective formats for phrasing success statements follows a consistent pattern:
- A directional verb indicating a specific friction point to be removed (e.g., minimize, reduce)
- A unit of measure (often time, effort, or likelihood)
- A qualifier that makes the statement specific to the job
This format makes each success statement testable, comparable, and easy to prioritize later.
EXAMPLE SUCCESS CRITERIA
“Shop for a new home”
- Minimize the time it takes to identify a potential new home
- Minimize the number of compromises made when deciding on a new home
- Minimize the distance to place of employment
- Minimize the chance of noise disturbances at new home
- Etc.
7. EMOTIONS: How does the job performer feel while doing the job?
Jobs aren’t purely functional. There’s an emotional side too. Job performers experience a range of feelings as they try to get a job done. These emotions often drive decision-making as much as success criteria.
Use the canvas to explore potential emotional aspects before research. You may uncover several dozen over time.
Emotional aspects begin with “feel” or “avoid feeling.”
EXAMPLE EMOTIONS
“Shop for a new home”
- Feel in control of home shopping process
- Feel confident about selecting candidate homes to consider
- Avoid feeling uncertain about new home selection
- Etc.
8. CIRCUMSTANCES: What are the contexts and factors that make a difference in how the job gets done?
At first, JTBD looks for patterns common to all job performers. But in reality, people get the job done in different ways depending on their context. Circumstances explain those variations. These often include time, place, or manner, but can be anything that changes how the job is approached.
Think about it this way: If you find yourself saying, “It depends on their situation,” capture that aspect in this bucket.
Begin each circumstantial factor with “whether.”
EXAMPLE CIRCUMSTANCES
“Shop for a new home”
- Whether shopping alone or with a family
- Whether shopping locally or afar (e.g., cross-country, internationally)
- Whether shopping in a buyer’s market vs. a seller’s market
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Align Before You Explore
The JTBD Hypothesis Canvas is a tool for structured thinking and shared understanding. It helps teams align around the right customer problem before diving into research or jumping to solutions.
Use the canvas to make your assumptions explicit. Talk through them as a team. Even if you revise everything later, the process creates clarity and momentum from the start.
Think of the canvas as a conversation starter. It frames your investigation and surfaces the unknowns you need to explore.
The canvas does not represent a full JTBD analysis. At this stage, you’ll have a robust hypothesis to validate in the Discover phase.
For more on how to conduct a complete JTBD project, see our self-paced online learning course or look out for one of our live training cohorts.
