How to Determine Your Product's Job

The original JTBD philosophy is built upon using interviews for customer research. User interviews are important but not feasible for every company because of budget and resources. Instead, we recommend using a mix of research methods to determine your product’s job.

There are different levels of insight attained with each—so by using a balance of these methods, you’ll get richer data and a more rounded understanding of the job customers are hiring for.

Let’s explore each of these.

Interview prospects and customers

Though more time-consuming and expensive than other research methods, live interviews get more nuanced insights. You can dig deeper to find out users’ authentic concerns, how they perceive existing products, and whether these products actually complete the job they’re hired for.

Remember that the job is the centerpiece of the JTBD framework, so the goal of your interview is to uncover what exactly the customer is trying to accomplish.

In other words:

• How do customers decide to solve their problems?
• How do they decide for or against specific solutions?

Here’s a template script to help guide your interviews. We’ve organized questions into four phases:

1. Exploring: What exactly is the problem? What conditions led to this problem?
2. Considering: What did the user do to look for a solution? What criteria did they use to judge different products?
3. Deciding: How did the user decide on hiring a specific product?
4. Consuming: How did the user make their purchase?

Important note: As you interview users, focus on the how, not the why. Asking why someone behaves a certain way doesn’t lead as well to accurate answers because we tend to justify actions with new info learned later on. For less biased answers, ask how users arrived at a decision.

Survey customers

Surveys have less nuance than interviews but are cheaper and easier to run. You can build them using Tally, Airtable, Survey Monkey, or Typeform, then find respondents through social media, online communities, or your existing customers. Or you can pay for respondents through Survey Monkey.

Note: For surveys, the data quality depends on where you source responses from, how well-written the survey is, and how you incentivize participation.

Pre-launch companies that want to validate their market and better understand a problem should ask survey questions like:

• What is your relationship like with [topic/problem]?
• Are you using multiple products?
• What’s the outcome you’re looking for?
• How important is solving this problem to you?

Post-launch companies should use surveys to determine the value customers get from their product. Ask these four questions:

1. What’s the main benefit you get from our product?
2. How can we improve our product for you?
3. How would you feel if you could no longer use our product?
   • Not disappointed, somewhat disappointed, very disappointed
4. What would you use to solve the problem if you could no longer use our product?

Pay attention to the second-last question. If most people answer “not disappointed,” it’s a good sign that your product doesn’t quite get a job done or that the job isn’t that important to them. Your goal should be to have more people who would be very disappointed if they could no longer use your product—research shows that if 40% of users respond “very disappointed,” your product probably satisfies market demand.

And for the last question, if people say, "I don't know," that's a great sign you're offering unique value.

Do field research

People aren’t always aware of their motivations. Instead of getting someone’s thoughts about how they might behave, observe them in their natural environment to capture real user behavior.

Examples:

• Get users to send over screen recordings using Loom to observe how someone does a task online. Ask users to talk out loud through their thought process.
• Use a heatmap tool like Hotjar to track how users interact with your website, like what they click on or point to with their cursor.
• Find and attend industry-relevant events. Take notes on how people behave, like which booths at a conference get the most visits.
• Assemble a focus group to discuss topics relevant to your company/product. This is especially useful for B2B customers because focus groups simulate multiple stakeholders.

Review existing customer data

The data you already have about your customers can clue you into what job they’re hiring your product for—and whether your product is succeeding at it. This data includes:

• Customer behavior and usage data
• Notes from sales calls
• Customer support tickets and emails
• User reviews and feedback

Look for trends in this data, such as:

• Who your current customers are: What kinds of customers use your product more actively? If different types of customers use your product, is there one industry, job title, etc., that’s more common?
• What customers use your product for: Is it the core value prop you advertise? What features do customers use most?
• Where your product meets expectations and where it falls short: What features do users praise the most? What new features or improvements do they ask for? And what features are they most unhappy with?
• How your product makes customers feel: What emotions do satisfied customers use to describe their experience with your product? What about unsatisfied customers?

Study the current market

Although you can’t tap into other companies’ databases, you can use other research methods to study your competitors:

• Interview or survey people who use competitors’ products. Use Slack, Facebook groups, etc., to find them.
• Observe and record competitor products in action.
• Read reviews and social media posts about your competitors.

The goal here: Find out what jobs competitor products do.

Do they fully complete the job they’re hired for? Is that job the same as your product’s? Would customers fire your product to hire theirs?

Important note: Market analysis isn't about comparing your product’s features with another company’s and trying to imitate or outdo them. Doing this takes away from the user’s needs—companies end up developing product features that are nice to have but irrelevant to the job.

Looking at other products, you may realize that your perceived competitors aren’t actually competitors because they’re doing a different job. This can help clarify your own product’s job and what exactly it’s competing against.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings once described how Netflix competes with not just other video networks but also playing board games and drinking wine—any activities that help people relax (Netflix’s real job).