Jobs-To-Be-Accomplished: Uncover Your Clients’ Hidden Wants In 4 Steps | by Sara Landi Tortoli | Dec, 2023

The JTBD framework is an strategy that shifts the main target from merchandise to the shopper’s wants. It facilities round understanding the ‘job’ or process {that a} buyer wants to perform utilizing a services or products. In essence, the shopper ‘hires’ the services or products to finish this job.

The JTBD framework’s benefit lies in its capacity to focus on addressing issues quite than specializing in any particular options.

For instance this idea, listed here are two easy examples:

1. Experience-Sharing Companies (e.g., Uber or Lyft):

• Conventional View: A buyer makes use of a ride-sharing app to guide a automotive.
• JTBD View: The shopper’s job is to succeed in a vacation spot shortly and comfortably, avoiding the hassles of driving or parking. The ride-sharing service is employed not only for transport however for comfort and effectivity.

2. Espresso Outlets (e.g., Starbucks):

• Conventional View: Clients go to espresso retailers to buy espresso.
• JTBD View: Whereas shopping for espresso is one facet, prospects additionally ‘rent’ the espresso store as a spot to satisfy buddies, work, or calm down. The job extends to looking for a nice expertise and surroundings.

In every instance, JTBD shifts the main target from the product itself (automotive rides, espresso) to what the shopper is de facto looking for to attain with these services or products of their each day life.

To completely grasp JTBD, we have to outline three key ideas:

Market = Tony Ulwick redefines a market not as a vertical, geography, or know-how however as a bunch of individuals and the job they’re making an attempt to get finished. It’s about discerning what prospects really search to perform with a services or products.

Jobs = In JTBD, a ‘job’ is a process or purpose a buyer goals to attain in a selected state of affairs through the use of a services or products. It’s action-oriented, encompassing useful, emotional, and social dimensions.

Jobs are sometimes phrased as action-oriented duties. They need to begin with a verb and clearly describe what the shopper is making an attempt to perform. For instance:

• “Preserve private well being and health.”
• “Plan and revel in a trip.”
• “Improve skilled abilities.”

Outcomes = These are the specified end-states or targets prospects goal for when hiring a services or products for a job. Outcomes are particular, measurable, and outline what success seems like for the shopper.

Phrasing outcomes ought to embrace metrics or requirements utilized by prospects to judge success. For instance:

• “Decrease the time required to plan a trip itinerary.”
• “Maximize the reliability of sustaining an everyday train routine.”
• “Guarantee the most recent trade information is integrated into talent enhancement.”

Start by exploring potential markets based mostly on preliminary insights or hypotheses about buyer wants. This could contain exploratory analysis, resembling interviews with potential customers, market evaluation, and learning present knowledge.

From this exploratory analysis, determine a variety of jobs that potential prospects is likely to be making an attempt to get finished. These jobs don’t should be detailed at this stage however ought to give a broad sense of the duties or targets your potential prospects try to attain.

Primarily based on these recognized jobs, slim all the way down to a particular market that appears most viable or underserved. That is the place you outline your market when it comes to a particular group of individuals and the core useful job they’re making an attempt to get finished.

💡 For instance, think about that you’re a product supervisor at Airbnb. By trying on the knowledge and market developments, you discover {that a} sizable a part of your person base is reserving stays for longer intervals of time (e.g. 1 month or longer) and are touring solo. You determine due to this fact to discover this potential market.

So as an alternative of claiming “we’re focusing on the journey trade” (a vertical), say “we’re focusing on solo vacationers trying to join with native cultures” (a bunch of individuals and their emotional job) or “we’re focusing on solo vacationers on the lookout for long run non permanent lodging” (a useful job).

The second step in making use of the JTBD framework is to acquire all the roles prospects try to get finished when interacting along with your product and the outcomes they need to obtain for every job. The top end result needs to be two intensive lists, one for jobs and one for outcomes, phrased as we’ve got seen within the examples above.

One of the simplest ways to gather jobs and outcomes at this stage is thru qualitative person interviews, to grasp what your customers’ targets are and what they’re making an attempt to perform.

However quite than spending numerous hours in person interviews, here’s a hack Tony Ulwick suggests to hurry issues up and make the method extra environment friendly:

Take the highest 2–3 specialists in your market and set up an interview with them on the identical time, both just about or in individual. Divide the session into 2 slots (both the identical day or totally different days) — one for jobs and one for outcomes. For every session, attempt to get the specialists to agree on:

• An inventory of the roles they’re making an attempt to get finished
• The best way to formulate the job statements
• An inventory of outcomes they need to obtain for every job
• The best way to formulate the end result statements

💡 Right here is how I might apply the framework following our instance of a product supervisor at Airbnb exploring the market of solo vacationers/digital nomads on the lookout for lodging:

1. Establish prime contributors in digital nomad on-line teams and communities (e.g. Fb, Reddit, NomadList)
2. Invite 3 of them for two rounds of interviews on separate days, with all of them collectively
3. Within the first spherical, deal with capturing jobs they attempt to get finished when reserving lodging. Ask questions like:

“Are you able to stroll me by means of discovering lodging as a digital nomad?”

“What components do you think about when selecting the place to remain?”

4. Flip job findings into job statements (see desk under)

5. Within the second spherical with the identical specialists, deal with outcomes wished for every job. Ask questions like:

“Let’s talk about discovering budget-friendly locations with good connectivity. What does success appear to be right here?”

“How have you learnt if an lodging meets your wants?”

“What components decide a profitable keep?”

6. Flip consequence findings into consequence statements (see desk under)

7. Interview extra individuals to verify findings or get further insights if wanted.

By the tip, I ought to have correctly said jobs and outcomes lists like:

Facet be aware 1: Throughout this course of, it’s possible you’ll uncover that your product addresses solely a part of the job. That is frequent and highlights potential market alternatives.

Facet be aware 2: I can present extra specifics on person interviews for JTBD if useful. Go away me a remark. You may additionally need to test this article that illustrates how I construction person interviews.

After compiling your jobs and outcomes statements, the subsequent step is to determine your prospects’ unmet wants. The target right here is to find out which jobs are of the utmost significance to most of your viewers.

To perform this, design a survey that lists every job together with its related outcomes, asking contributors to price them for significance and satisfaction. Right here’s a recommended format:

a. When trying to [job], how essential is it so that you can [outcome statement]?

• Choices vary from ‘Not necessary in any respect’ to ‘Extraordinarily necessary.’

b. How glad are you along with your capacity to [outcome]?

• Choices vary from ‘Not glad in any respect’ to ‘Extraordinarily glad.’

Instance:

💡 Job: Discover lodging appropriate for long-term stays.

Query a: When looking for lodging appropriate for long-term stays, how necessary is it to you that you decrease the time required to determine lodging providing long-term keep reductions for prolonged travels?

• Not necessary in any respect
• Not necessary
• Considerably necessary
• Essential
• Essential
• Extraordinarily necessary

Query b: How glad are you along with your capacity to decrease the time required to determine lodging providing long-term keep reductions for prolonged travels?

• Not glad in any respect
• Not glad
• Considerably glad
• Glad
• Very glad
• Extraordinarily glad

Survey Pattern Dimension and Circumstances:

• B2B: 120–180 purchasers
• B2C: Round 600 for a single product; 1200 for a portfolio
• Survey Length: Roughly 20 minutes, with participant compensation advisable.

Upon receiving the survey outcomes, deal with prioritizing the unmet wants. Search for wants rated as very or extraordinarily necessary however not very or extraordinarily glad.

💡 Utilizing our Airbnb instance, let’s visualize the survey outcomes on a graph. Every level represents a job, plotted based on its significance and satisfaction rankings. The pink dashed strains at 75% assist categorize jobs based mostly on their ranges of significance and satisfaction.

Subsequent, calculate the Alternative Rating for every job utilizing the method:

Alternative Rating = Significance+(Significance−Satisfaction)

In our instance from the graph, the next jobs stand out:

• Lengthy-term Keep Reductions (significance 70% satisfaction 40%)
• Dependable Web Connection: (significance 85% satisfaction 50%)
• Social Interplay Alternatives: (significance 65% satisfaction 45%)
• Reasonably priced Consolation (significance 55% satisfaction 40%)

After we calculate the chance rating, listed here are our prime priorities:

1. Dependable Web Connection (Alternative Rating: 120)
2. Lengthy-term Keep Reductions (Alternative Rating: 100)
3. Social Interplay Alternatives (Alternative Rating: 85)
4. Reasonably priced Consolation (Alternative Rating: 70)

Together with your priorities established, it’s time to shift from drawback identification to resolution creation. Concentrate on creating options for the top-priority jobs beginning with “Dependable Web Connection,” then shifting to “Lengthy-term Keep Reductions” and so forth. The result assertion of every job might be your measure of success or noth star metric.

For jobs with extra complicated wants, like ‘Social Interplay Alternatives,’ examine in larger element to grasp the particular nuances and contexts by which they’re carried out.

• Entry to the JTBD customized GPT + the JTBD checklist (Notion Template): a information that can assist you step-by-step in making use of JTBD particularly to your wants (requires a subscription to ChatGPT Plus)
• Watch my interview with Tony for sensible functions of JTBD (together with his expertise making use of the framework at Twitter)
• Discover Tony Ulwick’s JTBD guide for an in-depth deep dive

👉 Want customized help on your group? E book a discovery name to work with me.