What is the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework?

The jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework was developed by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen and introduced in his 2003 book The Innovator’s Solution. The methodology aims to understand why customers “hire” a product or service to achieve a particular outcome. 

Christensen’s insight was that customers don’t really buy products. Instead, they hire them to make progress in particular circumstances. JTBD in product management examines the situations and motivations that drive customers to seek a solution.

Here’s our guide to JTBD, including why this framework is important and how to implement it.

What is the jobs-to-be-done framework?

JTBD refers to a customer’s perspective, explaining why and how they might choose a certain product or solution. Teams research and analyze JTBD to better understand customer needs and decisions, like their push and pull factors toward certain choices. 

Push factors are the limitations of current solutions that drive customers to seek alternatives. These might include:

• Frustration with existing tools

• Changes in circumstances that make current solutions inadequate

• New requirements that current solutions can’t meet

 Pull factors are the attractive elements that draw customers toward new solutions, such as:

• The promise of better performance

• Enhanced capabilities

• Improved experience or outcomes

The JTBD framework also introduces the concept of “hiring criteria,” which are the factors customers use to evaluate alternative solutions. These fall into four categories:

• Functional dimensions: What the solution must do

• Emotional dimensions: How it makes users feel

• Social dimensions: How it makes users look to others

• Cost dimensions: What users must give up to use it

These criteria explain why customers might choose seemingly inferior products or stick with older solutions, even when better alternatives are out there. For example, a customer might hire a simple spreadsheet over a sophisticated project management tool because it better satisfies their hiring criteria of quick setup and easy sharing with nontechnical stakeholders.

Why is jobs-to-be-done theory important?

The JTBD framework shifts how organizations approach product development and customer understanding. Instead of asking, “What features do customers want?” it prompts teams to ask, “What progress are customers trying to make?” 

JTBD’s benefits include the following:

• Deeper customer understanding: The framework uncovers customers’ underlying motivations, going beyond surface-level feature requests to identify the real problems that need solving. This deeper insight leads to more effective product strategies and development decisions.

• Enhanced innovation opportunities: By focusing on the job rather than the current solution, teams can identify new ways to solve customer problems. This perspective reveals opportunities for disruptive innovation they might miss when focusing solely on improving existing features. 

• Reduced market risk: Understanding how customers spend their time and the precise job they need to accomplish helps organizations evaluate whether a solution addresses the customer’s core needs, reducing the risk of product failure.

• Improved product-market fit: JTBD aligns product development directly with customer needs, leading to solutions that satisfy requirements and create more value. By identifying the specific workflows customers rely on, teams can design solutions that integrate into their daily processes, reducing friction and improving efficiency. 

• Strategic decision-making: Rather than simply responding to competitor features or arbitrary customer requests, JTBD provides a clear framework for prioritizing features and improvements based on how well they help customers accomplish goals.

Here’s an example: A software product manager receives feedback that users want a “dark mode” feature. Instead of immediately adding this to the roadmap, a JTBD-oriented product manager digs deeper. 

Through customer interviews, they discover the underlying job: Developers need to reduce eye strain during late-night coding. This insight might lead to a better solution that includes customizable color schemes and adjustable contrast ratios – addressing the real progress users want rather than simply implementing a requested feature. 

How to apply a jobs-to-be-done framework in product management

Product managers implement JTBD by conducting specialized customer interviews, analyzing customer switching behavior (when they choose or abandon a solution), and mapping the circumstances that push customers toward or pull them away from solutions. This customer-centric outlook helps teams develop products that genuinely solve problems.

Here’s how your team can implement JTBD:

1. Identify what customers are trying to get done

Map out the goals your customers want to achieve. Conduct targeted interviews focusing on recent purchases or product switches. Ask questions like “What were you trying to accomplish?” and “What made you look for a new solution?” This helps uncover the real progress your customers seek beyond the features they request.

2. Categorize different types of jobs

Break down the identified jobs into main jobs and related jobs. Main jobs are the primary outcomes customers want (like “complete a project on time”), whereas associated jobs are supporting tasks (like “track team progress” or “manage resources”). This breakdown focuses product development on essential needs and their key supporting features.

3. Find competitors

Research all the ways customers currently solve their problems. Look beyond direct competitors to include alternative solutions and workarounds. Understanding the full competitive landscape reveals gaps in current solutions and opportunities for innovation. 

4. Analyze possibilities and expectations

Evaluate potential solutions against customer expectations. Create a matrix of job requirements versus current solution capabilities to identify underserved needs and opportunities for product improvement. This is also a good time to outline functional requirements (what the product must do) and emotional requirements (how customers want to feel when using it).

5. Validate your findings 

Test your job statements and solutions with real customers. Present your understanding of their jobs to be done and gather feedback on accuracy and priority. This validation step aligns your product development efforts with actual customer needs and prevents wasting resources on misidentified jobs or ineffective solutions.

Jobs to be done examples

These examples demonstrate how JTBD provides unexpected insights about customer behavior:

Streaming services

Customers don’t just want to watch movies. They want entertainment for specific jobs, like helping them unwind after work or keeping children occupied during long trips. Netflix succeeds by understanding these contextual jobs. For example, it has features like personalized profiles for different family members, offline downloads for travel, and a “Play Something” feature for viewers who are too tired to make decisions.

By recognizing that a parent’s “job” might be finding age-appropriate content quickly to prevent a toddler’s meltdown or that a professional might want a 20-minute show that fits perfectly into their lunch break, Netflix has improved the customer experience.

Professional software

Many professionals looking for project management software need to demonstrate progress to stakeholders and ensure deadlines are met while managing resources effectively. Take Jira, for example. These platforms succeed because they understand that a project manager’s true job might be building trust with clients through transparent progress tracking or helping remote team members feel connected to the project’s bigger picture. 

Automated status reports and visual project timelines are solutions to emotional and social jobs, such as reducing team anxiety about deadlines or helping managers feel confident in their decisions. These tools improve time management and help users prioritize tasks, automate repetitive processes, and allocate resources effectively.

Mobile banking

Depositing a check through a mobile app is about more than the action itself. Customers are managing their finances conveniently during their busy days, avoiding trips to physical banks, and maintaining control over their money. 

Banks that excel in mobile services understand that a customer’s job might be to feel secure about their finances while traveling abroad or quickly split dinner bills with friends without awkwardness. This understanding has led banks to create features like instant card freezing and peer-to-peer payments, designed around moments in customers’ lives when financial confidence matters.

Successful project management with Tempo

JTBD insights are more valuable when your team can visualize them. Tempo’s Strategic Roadmaps solution helps you map out and execute product development efforts while ensuring effective resource allocation and timeline management. Roadmaps serve as a central source of truth, enabling teams to track progress and communicate status across the organization.

With Tempo, you can create dynamic, audience-specific roadmaps that translate JTBD insights into actionable project plans. Prioritize features based on customer jobs and business value, track progress and resource allocation, and maintain strategic alignment throughout project execution

Ready to align your projects with customer needs? Visit Tempo to learn how roadmapping tools can help you implement JTBD effectively and drive successful project outcomes.