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January 30, 2024
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January 30, 2024
Jobs to be Done (JTBD) has become a popular framework in our industry. There is rarely a week that goes by where I don't get a JTBD-related question in my membership community. In fact, we’ve dedicated more than one Q&A session to it.
As popular as it is, JTBD can be a nightmare for user researchers. There are so many perceptions and opinions on how we should conduct JTBD, which can make it challenging to manage expectations. Additionally, a stakeholder who heard about JTBD from someone else usually recommends the approach rather than choosing it based on the research goals.
The first time I conducted a JTBD study, it was a complete mess—and also for the second and third times. I had spent hours upon hours reading books and articles on the topic. I put those books down, usually more confused than I was before.
My stakeholders wanted to conduct a JTBD study because it was something everyone else had done. I'm almost positive that someone somewhere once said that JTBD helped “guarantee success” or “made for actionable insights”, and ever since then, everyone has wanted to conduct a JTBD study.
JTBD isn't inherently special. In fact, it's not even a methodology. Instead, it's a framework that we can use to understand customers better. However, it is a difficult framework because of all the scattered opinions surrounding it—making it a tough study.
I dislike JTBD because people view it as "the thing that will give us all the answers" or as the key that unlocks all the insights. On the contrary, JTBD is an approach we layer on top of 1x1 interviews. It is a style of question-asking that gets us specific information about our customers.
But you can also accomplish the same with general 1x1 interviews. You can focus on unmet needs, goals, and pain points while being completely product-agnostic in a 1x1 interview without JTBD. You don't need a unique approach, nor do you need to try and figure out how to create job statements or what those mean.
However, sometimes JTBD can be a helpful approach. And sometimes, we want to learn different tools to expand our research toolkit. The most crucial part is that your goals align with your chosen approach and that you feel comfortable tackling said approach with your team.
Usually, we think of JTBD as finding jobs and unmet needs, but JTBD shines in another place we often overlook: Switching.
Nikki Anderson-Stanier
Founder, UX Academy
Now, if a stakeholder recommends using JTBD in a study, I put on my research hat and ask them why.
Understanding how to conduct a JTBD study properly and making it actionable can take quite a lot of time. These studies require a good deal of prep work, especially if everyone is new to the approach. Much of that can be trying to break down misconceptions or how jobs are "supposed to work."
So, when stakeholders come to me wanting to conduct JTBD, I always try to understand what they’re trying to look for. If it is for pain points and unmet needs, I typically recommend generative 1x1 interviews focusing on uncovering this information. If it is about understanding processes, I recommend a journey mapping or mental model interview.
However, when a stakeholder starts talking about understanding competitors and why users stay with or switch to specific products, my JTBD radar goes off.
Usually, we think of JTBD as finding jobs and unmet needs, but JTBD shines in another place we often overlook: Switching.
Answering the questions, "Why do people stay with certain products?" or, "Why do people suddenly give up a product they've been using for years to try a new one?" is helpful for an organization, and not one we often think to ask.
JTBD is an excellent mechanism for understanding and beginning to answer these critical questions—and also has fantastic lesser-known deliverables to help visualize the information.
The four forces diagram is an artifact that helps us visualize why customers are switching from a current way of doing something to a new way. The "current way" and the "new way" represent a solution, such as a product or service.
The four forces create the diagram and help us understand why people might stay with or switch to a product:
This diagram helps us identify what pushes people away from an existing solution and what pulls people towards a solution. In addition, this diagram shows us where we could enter the market with innovative ideas to help draw people toward our platform.
For example, I worked at a travel company with a ticket booking system. We aggregated different ways to get from your current location to your destination by plane, train, bus, and car.
We had many competitors more popular than us in the ticket booking space, so I wanted to explore what made people stay with their current booking platform and what made people consider switching to ours.
If understanding how people are currently struggling with their given solutions could be helpful for you, I recommend using the four forces diagram.
Whenever I go into interviews where the four forces diagram is an outcome, I frame questions around each of the forces:
Using these questions as a jumping-off point. You can gather the information necessary to populate a four-forces diagram. Using this information, you can understand where people's hurdles and anxieties come into play.
When you directly speak to those pain points through marketing material or product changes, you increase the likelihood of people using or switching to your product.
The second JTBD outcome that I love using is the switch timeline. Like the four forces, the switch timeline helps you answer why customers hire a given product by reverse engineering why people switch.
The switch timeline recreates a customer's journey when purchasing a product or using a service.
The switch timeline includes the following:
The switch timeline gives us a clear picture of the decision-making process, which can help us identify the milestone events and triggers that impacted the journey of switching from an old solution to a new one.
We can use this to help support users through making decisions through marketing, sales, or highlighting and improving particularly needed features.
The wonderful part of a switch timeline is that we can use it directly as an interview guide. I draw the switch timeline for each interview to fill out and take quick notes. This drawing also reminds me of the stages I have to go through to complete the entire timeline.
We focus on creating a documentary-like scene within switch interviews, which means we go into detail about what that person felt and thought during each step rather than just focusing on the action.
Here are the questions I use to structure my switch interviews:
As you do the interview, you'll notice that certain moments on the timeline will fit what they're describing. I don't fill in the timeline properly during the interview, but I use it to make notes and track what parts of the process we've discussed. If you’re missing information in a specific area, continue to probe.
Again, once filled out, this wonderful timeline will give you a deep understanding of the step-by-step process your customers go through when making a purchase decision and can highlight places for innovation or improvement for your teams.
Overall, Jobs to be Done is a fantastic mechanism to deeply understand your customers' process when making purchase decisions and switching from one product to another.
This information can impact your entire organization, from marketing and sales materials to product improvements or feature innovations that will help your customers choose your product.
Nikki Anderson-Stanier is the founder of User Research Academy and a qualitative researcher with 9 years in the field. She loves solving human problems and petting all the dogs.
To get even more UXR nuggets, check out her user research membership, follow her on LinkedIn, or subscribe to her Substack.
