Principles of JTBD

In the broadest sense of the term, JTBD is a theory that predicts human behavior. The approach holds that individuals are motivated to make progress toward an objective. If an organization knows in advance what underlying needs drive behavior, it has a better chance of creating successful solutions. Regardless of the technique or interpretation of JTBD, there are common principles many people in the field agree upon.

1. People “hire” products and services to get their job done, not to interact with your offering or brand

JTBD doesn’t look at how people fit into a given offering, rather how a solution fits into their world. Mapping the process of a target job is not like creating a customer journey map or service blueprint. Instead, a job map looks at the context of achieving a goal independent of a provider’s solution.

The difference is one of perspective. Customer journey mapping focuses on the relationship between a customer and a provider: when do customers first hear about the brand? How did they decide to select the services? What keeps them loyal? Job maps, on the other hand, expose the relationship that the individual has with the job they are trying to get done.

2. Jobs are stable over time, even as technology changes.

The jobs people are trying to get done are solution agnostic. They don’t change with technological advancements. For this reason, any reference to products, services, solutions, methods or techniques is carefully avoided in JTBD vernacular. Consequently, JTBD work enjoys longevity and proves to be foundational research.

3. People seek services that enable them to get more and more of their job done.

Think of JTBD as an engine of upfront inquiry, detached from implementation. It’s about understanding the broader landscape of human activity independent of a solution.

4. Making job the unit of analysis makes innovation more predictable

In a time when businesses are encouraged to “fail fast” and “break things,” JTBD offers a more structured way to find solutions that resonate with customers upfront.

Simply analyzing a job map for strategic opportunities may provide sufficient insight for some companies, such as a start-up. In other cases, an organizations may need to know which needs to specifically address. Here, JTBD offers powerful insight.

5. JTBD isn’t confined to one discipline, it’s a way of seeing that is applicable to an entire organization

JTBD gives a consistent, systematic approach to understanding what motivates people. As a result, it has broad applicability inside of an organization, beyond design and development. Consider some of the ways different teams can leverage JTBD:

• Sales can leverage JTBD thinking in discovery calls to probe customer needs.
• Marketing specialists can create more effective campaigns with JTBD by shifting language from features to addressing underserved needs.
• Designers can use JTBD to guide product development by grounding features in user objectives.
• Customer success managers can use JTBD to understand why customers might cancel a subscription.
• Support agents are able to provide better service by first understanding the customer’s job to be done.

What’s more, JTBD is compatible with modern methods like design thinking, Agile, and Lean. For instance, a prioritized need can feed into design thinking exercises as “how might we…?” statements. Or, user stories in Agile can be generated and organized based on customer jobs. Lean experiments can be framed around hypotheses statements that are grounded in JTBD research, as well. See our guide for more on integrating JTBD into other fields.