The Applied Science Blog

Every year, around 30,000 new products are launched — and most of them fail (Christensen, HBS). Why? Because too often, they’re solutions in search of a problem.

JTBD helps companies avoid that trap.
It starts with the problem — the job the customer needs done — and builds from there.

At its core, Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is about understanding the real goal a customer is trying to achieve when they use a product or service. It's not about features — it's about outcomes.

As Harvard’s Theodore Levitt famously put it:

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

 Traditional marketing often focuses on demographics or product categories. But as Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School) argued, that rarely explains why people actually make purchases. Two people might be the same age, gender, and income level — and still hire very different products to solve very different problems.

JTBD flips the script.

Rather than asking “Who is the customer?” — it asks:

👉 “What are they trying to accomplish, and why?”

When companies understand that job — the underlying motivation — they can design solutions that solve it better than anything else on the market.

Pioneered by thinkers like Clayton Christensen, Bob Moesta, and Tony Ulwick, JTBD emerged from real-world insight—including the now-famous case of a fast-food chain that redesigned milkshakes by asking what job they were really being hired to do.

📘 Credit to Anthony Ulwick’s Jobs to Be Done: Theory to Practice, which underpins much of this article’s foundation.

 Applying JTBD starts with a shift in mindset—and a few concrete steps. Here’s how to bring JTBD into your organization today:

🎯 1. Start with Customer Interviews

Instead of asking "What features do you want?", ask: "What are you trying to accomplish?" Focus on real struggles. Ask:

"What happened last time you tried to solve this?"

"Why was it frustrating?"

These open-ended interviews uncover what customers truly value. As Tony Ulwick explains, ask how users define success—not what features they wish they had.

📝 2. Define the Job (Solution-Free!)

Craft a job statement that clearly defines the outcome the customer is trying to achieve. It should include:

An action verb

An object (what’s being affected)

A context

📍 3. Map the Job & Desired Outcomes

Break the job into steps—this is your Job Map. At each step, ask:

How does the customer define success?

What frustrates them?

Each frustration is an opportunity. Prioritize unmet needs based on importance vs satisfaction.

❤️ 4. Don't Ignore Emotional & Social Jobs

Customers don’t just want functional success—they want to feel good too. Emotional jobs include:

"Feel confident using the tool"

"Not look unprofessional in front of peers"

Duolingo’s fun gamification features are a great example of designing for both functional and emotional jobs.

🤝 5. Align Teams Around the Job

JTBD is not just for product teams. Marketing, sales, support—they all benefit from knowing what job your product does. Align KPIs with customer outcomes, not just feature usage. As Intercom showed, job-specific onboarding and messaging can transform adoption.

⚡ 6. Prototype & Test for Real Jobs

JTBD works well with agile methods like design sprints. Use outcome-focused prototypes to test if your solution actually helps users get the job done—fast. Prioritize MVP features that target high-value outcomes.

🧪 7. Start Small & Scale Fast

You don’t need a massive rollout. Start with one product line or customer segment. Pilot, test, refine. 

🔁 Stay Curious

Jobs evolve. Keep asking.

In healthcare, JTBD shifts innovation from product features to patient outcomes.

Simona Skerjanec, a neuroscience leader at Roche, noted that JTBD:

“Brings clarity to the complex healthcare delivery process and reveals hidden opportunities to positively impact the patient’s pathway to health.” source

Think of it this way:

A patient with diabetes doesn’t just need insulin—they want to live a normal life.

Someone with chronic pain wants to manage it enough to work and function.

A person with high blood pressure needs more than a cuff—they need tools to manage it proactively.
 

Take Cordis Corporation, a well-known medical device company specializing in cardiovascular tools. Cordis was losing ground in the angioplasty balloon market. Their market share had dropped to just 1%, and competitors were outpacing them with newer, faster products.

Instead of trying to make a better balloon, Cordis asked a more fundamental question:
👉 What job are interventional cardiologists trying to get done?

The answer wasn’t “use a balloon.” It was:
🩺 “Restore blood flow to an artery with as few complications as possible.” 

This shift in thinking revealed dozens of unmet needs. The result?

✅ They launched 19 new products addressing these exact jobs—from advanced coatings to redesigned catheters.
✅ Every product became a #1 or #2 leader in its segment.
✅ Market share jumped from 1% to over 20%.  source