JTBD Step by Step Guide & Case Study

Investigate beyond the superficial layer of feedback 🔎

It’s Tuesday! Today you get a step-by-step guide to Jobs to be Done (JTBD) for your design process. ⚡️

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Why JTBD?

Build companies and design products with intention. 🎯

Yesterday I spoke with a Founder who got rejected from Y Combinator because they did not do enough research and validation leading up to their application. 💡 Conversely, the focus on gathering more and more data about customers is also wrong. 🛑 What companies really need is to understand the customers’ motivation—what does the customer hope to accomplish?

Trust me, you may think you know, but you likely have no idea. Incorporating JTBD in your development process will ultimately help you find that magic missing piece that makes the irrational rational.✨ It’s similar to Don Norman’s message in Emotional Design. When you dig deep enough, there is a reason for why people behave the way they do. We also talk about that on Don’s podcast episode if you’d like to listen.

As Bob Moesta (JTBD practitioner) says, “Connect the supply with the demand side. It starts with demand. Struggling moments exist before there is a product.”¹

Step by Step Guide

Note: If there’s one thing that’s clear from my research, it’s that there is no one “right” way to do this. Please take my method and shape it to fit your needs and constraints.

Before we get into the guide, we need to get into the right mindset. 🧠 Forget who you are. Forget your company. Go in with an open mind. The goal is to understand the job executor. Vetting your proposed solution is not the goal here. Okay, with that said, let’s get started. 🚦

1. Define your market (job executor + job(s))

Defining a market around the job-to-be-done provides a stable, long-term focal point around which companies can create value.² It’s helpful to clearly define the audience because your end-user may not actually be your customer.

• Communicate the JTBD framework to stakeholders.

• Determine who is trying to get the job done.

• Understand if any other players are involved.

• Determine what the job(s) are.

Company Examples:
Zoom — connect remote workers
Wise — help individuals transfer money quickly globally
Lyft — help passengers get from point a to b

2. UX Research

The goal of UX research is to understand the jobs a customer must accomplish, motivations, unmet needs, pain points, success rates, timeline, etc. In the previous article, I mentioned that customers do not always give you accurate data in a customer interview, which is why it can be a good idea to 1. ask the same question several times in different ways and 2. combine qualitative data with quantitative data.

• Get a diverse group of participants that fit the criteria of your job executor.

• Craft your customer interview questions using the 3 dimensions.

• Create a guide of questions while leaving padding to explore answers deeper.

• Focus on the progress the user is trying to make.

• Understand the goals, timeline, context, obstacles, and constraints.

(e.g. What does a customer want to achieve and under what circumstance? Are there any overlooked or unmet needs that customers have in relation to the desired outcome?  What are the functional aspects of what they need done? How do they want to feel and be perceived by others?)

Bob Moesta shares a technique called “Switch Interviews.” This involves talking to users who recently switched to or from your product and get to know the full timeline of their decision making process. You may even find it relevant to understand who the decision makers are versus the end-user.

3. Synthesize your research