How to Use a JBTD (Jobs-to-Be-Done) Template for Product Development Insights
JTBD is a technique that guides you towards innovation, by providing insights on the jobs your customers really seek to accomplish in specific circumstances.
What is jobs-to-be-done
JTBD is a revolutionary approach for driving product development, which helps you to move beyond simply improving the existing solutions. JTBD is not a product, service or a solution; it rather defines the higher purpose (“the job”), for which customers buy specific products, services or solutions.
1. Sign in to Infolio or create a new account.
How to use this template?
2. Create a new project. Learn more in our quick start guide.
3. Add a space to the project via the panel on the left and select the particular template.
"The job" usually involves more than a straightforward task, but rather the experience a customer is longing to reach: e.g. a girl is not buying a lipstick, but wants to look attractive and stylish. By conducting a JTBD analysis, you can get a deeper understanding of the mental model behind customers’ purchase decisions, to define a clearer product strategy, and outperform your competition.
When to use JTBD
Jobs-to-be-done is a powerful technique that can be applied whenever you want to identify opportunities for innovation, in relation to product development, operational excellence, or customer intimacy improvement activities.
No matter if your offering is centered around services or goods, and regardless of your chosen business model, the logics behind defining opportunities for growth would remain the same. In fact, when companies understand that customers “hire” products, services or solutions to get specific jobs done, they can apply JTBD to deconstruct those “jobs” into specific steps and map the related customers’ needs, to identify the opportunities for growth on a regular basis.
How to use JTBD
The process of conducting JTBD interviews is similar to conducting regular customer interviews, and consists of a few steps. You can start from scratch with a pen and paper, or use the suggested online Infolio template, to nail down the context and sentiment related to selecting a specific solution. We suggest you take the steps outlined below, to capture all the data needed for JTBD mapping.
1. Define your area of interest
If you don’t have a ready product, brainstorm with your team and identify a competitor product that you’d like to investigate, e.g. the participants of user interviews will be those who have recently switched to this solution (e.g. within the last 6 months).
2. Set up the interviews
Firstly, recruit people based on your set criteria, using vendor services, a specific database or on-line communities. Set the time and place to meet (skype is an option too), arrange reminders sent to participants prior to the meeting.
3. Develop an interview guide
Please note that your interviews should be conversations and the guide is only needed to keep you on track and not to miss out anything important. There is a large number of various online guides that can help you prepare a condensed or a longer interview script. Feel free to use the script suggested within the Infolio template to start with.
4. Run the interviews
Make sure you’ve prepared all it takes to conduct the interviews, including a notetaker or recorder, and the script. Try to create comfort prior to the interview, mention that there are no wrong or right answers and an honest feedback is what you are looking for. Start by asking the users about the circumstances under which they bought the product, and why they selected it. To derive the jobs to be done from the answers, focus on the motivating factors of choosing the product.
Customer’s sentiment about the competitors’ offering are crucial to understand their weaknesses you can utilize in your strategy. Check out online communities and directories to have a temperature check with customer reviews.
5. Analyze and synthesize
Once the interviews have been conducted, review (or listen to) the asnwers and analyze them. Capture the sentiment, motivational factors, the purchase context and more, by filling in the respective sections in the Infolio template, share it with your team, and have it at hand whenever you need to communicate the findings, to keep stakeholders up to date.
