When it comes to understanding your customers, jobs-to-be-done is one of the most effective frameworks you can use. Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) is a methodology that helps you understand what your customers are trying to achieve with their purchases. By understanding the job that they’re trying to get done, you can better understand their needs and create products and services that meet those needs.
What is Jobs-to-Be-Done?
JTBD is based on the idea that customers don’t buy products or services, they buy outcomes. When a customer buys a product or service, they’re really buying a solution to a problem they’re experiencing. By understanding the job that the customer is trying to get done, you can create a solution that meets their needs.
JTBD was developed by Clayton Christensen, who wrote about it in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma. Christensen defines a job as “a discreet set of activities that a person seeks to accomplish through a product or service.”
In order to understand jobs-to-be-done, you need to go beyond what the customer is saying and understand their underlying motivation. You also need to understand the context in which they’re trying to accomplish the job.
For example, if you’re selling a product to someone, you need to first understand the customer’s problem. You have to know what they are trying to achieve and how they are currently achieving it. You also need to understand their goals and what is important to them besides just getting the job done.
How to Use Jobs-to-Be-Done
There are a few steps involved in using the jobs-to-be-done framework:
Define Your Market
Your market is not just people who are buying your product and your competitors’ products. It is everyone who is trying to achieve the same outcome that your product or service solves.
For example, if you’re selling a product that helps people save money, your market is not just people who are buying budgeting products. It is also everyone who is trying to save money, including people who are using other products or services to achieve that goal.
Define the Job
In order to define the job, you need to understand what activities the customer is trying to accomplish. You also need to understand their goals and what is important to them.
Once you have a good understanding of the job, you can start thinking about how your product or service can help them achieve that goal.
Understand How Customers are Trying to Get the Job Done
Gain customer insight as to how your target customers are getting their job done. Doing so will help you figure out which outcomes are underserved.
For example, if the money-saving product that customers are normally using is difficult to use, charges too high of a fee, or lacks features that they are looking for (such as financial management, investing, or buying cryptocurrency, then you may be able to sell your product as a better solution.
Create a Solution
Now that you understand the job, the customer’s goals, and how they are trying to get the job done, it’s time to create a solution. This could mean creating a new product or modifying an existing product.
Acorns, for example, is a budgeting app that helps people save money. However, their solution is not just the app. It also includes financial advice and investment opportunities. By rounding up customers’ purchases to the nearest dollar and investing the difference, Acorns makes saving money and investing easy and convenient.
Testing and Iterating
Once you have a solution, it’s important to test it with customers to see if it meets their needs. If it doesn’t, then you need to go back to the drawing board and make changes until it does.
Jobs-to-be-done is a powerful framework for understanding your customers and creating solutions that meet their needs. It can be used by anyone, from entrepreneurs to managers to marketers. By understanding the job that the customer is trying to get done, you can create a solution that exceeds their expectations.
