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Struggling to explain why your product is the best choice? A strong value proposition is the key to...
Discover how the Job to be Done theory can highlight opportunities for innovation, value creation and growth, both in existing and new markets.
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is a lens that reveals the circumstances—or forces—that drive people and organizations toward and away from decisions.
In this guide, we’ll explore a case study that explains the JTBD theory, plus how it can uncover growth opportunities..
Table of Contents
- What is the Job to be Done theory?
- Things to Consider When Finding Product-Market Fit
- Case Study: How Job to be Done Helped a Developer Sell His Granny Flats
- Using Jobs to be Done to Innovate
What is the Job to be Done (JTBD) Theory?
While conventional marketing focuses on market demographics or product attributes, Jobs to Be Done Theory (JTBD or Jobs Theory) goes beyond superficial categories to expose the functional, social, and emotional dimensions that explain why people make the choices they do.
In the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) theory, a "job" is the fundamental problem a customer needs to solve in a given situation. For example, when someone buys a drill, they aren't just purchasing a tool—they're hiring the drill to make a hole. By understanding the job, businesses can innovate more effectively, creating solutions that align with the true needs and motivations of their customers.
Everyone has Jobs to Be Done in their lives—the progress they’re trying to make as they strive toward a goal or aspiration within particular circumstances. An effective marketing strategy uncovers the job and the necessary value proposition that'll cause customer's to buy.
Things to Consider When Finding Product-Market Fit
Integrating a product seamlessly into someone's life creates value by minimizing the friction and effort required to purchase and use it. When the product presents itself at the right time and can easily be pulled in to solve a problem, it has value. If a better product isn't available, it provides no value. When a product integrates naturally into a customer's life, such as an app that works on your iPhone and is purchased from the Apple Store, it enhances convenience and efficiency, making it more likely to be adopted and retained.
Friction can also arise when a product fails to provide value instantly. Furthermore, even if it manages to show early value, if it doesn't do so continuously, the product will likely be forgotten quickly, particularly if the consumer is paying for the goods, given that so much is offered for "free" or in exchange for customer data.
These are just some of the many value proposition considerations that JTBD theory highlights, an area which I intend to cover in my blog while providing some strategies to create sticky products.
Case Study: How Job to be Done Helped a Developer Sell His Granny Flats
Recently, changes to building regulations have made it easier to construct small dwellings like granny flats, often without the need for a building permit. I recently worked with a builder who completed a fantastic granny flat development, offering a variety of layouts to suit different preferences. However, the market didn’t seem to agree—there were barely any takers.
The builder went back to the drawing board on a number of occasions to make a few adjustments or extra fancy features, but sales still remained stagnant.
It wasn’t until we jumped in the car and visited some recently occupied granny flats that we noticed a common trend: the kitchen table was almost always an old one, brought over from the previous home. After speaking with some seniors, we found out that the kitchen table held tremendous sentimental value—it was where the family would gather to eat. This insight made it clear why the upgrades weren’t impacting sales—the improvements were irrelevant. The real issue was the layout of the meals area and the emotional obstacles that came with downsizing and letting go of cherished possessions.
It turned out the builder wasn’t just in the construction business—they were in the business of helping people transition through a major life change.
This insight led the builder to create new valuable experiences that helped people overcome these emotional hurdles, like offering two years of storage at a nearby warehouse with every purchase. With the product optimized to support life transitions, the granny flats were snapped up in no time.
Using Jobs to be Done to Innovate
What’s truly eye-opening is how we see JTBD theory applied in other areas of this case study. Take the sudden changes in regulations that allowed for the construction of small dwellings, leading to smaller meal rooms. This created a new JTBD for the builder, which he addressed by purchasing significant storage space.
From the perspective of a competing storage business, using the JTBD framework could have led to this insight early on and revealed substantial sales opportunities.
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is all about uncovering what really drives someone to make a purchase. It's not just about the product itself—it's about the circumstances that push people away from certain products and pull them toward others.
