How to Determine Your Product's Job

Last updated Aug 15, 2023

Atlas/Maps/Demand Curve Growth MOC

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

  Method	Best for	Challenges
  Live interviews	Getting deeper insights	Costly, time-consuming
  Surveys	Collecting info more widely	Less depth and detail
  Field research	Observing real-life behavior	Hard to implement
  Existing customer data	Finding commont trends among current leads and customers	Limited to users familiar with your product
  Market analysis	Understanding whether competitors complete users’ jobs	Limited depth without insider knowledge

• 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.

• 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 problem? 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.

• Surveys have less nuance than interviews, but they’re cheaper and easier to run. You can build them using  Survey Monkey or  Typeform then find respondents through social media, online communities, or your existing customers.
• 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 final outcome you’re looking for? 
  • How important is solving this problem to you?
• Post-launch companies should use surveys to find out the value customers get from their product. Ask these three 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
• Pay attention to the 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.

• 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:
  • Set up 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.

• 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 your product is used by different types of customers, is there one industry, job title, etc. that’s more common? 
  • What customers are using 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?

• Although you can’t tap into other companies’ databases, you can use the 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).==