People don't buy products.

They 'hire' them.

Here's how to use the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework to understand your audience better (and sell more):

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Users hire your product to achieve goals:

"People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill.

They want a quarter-inch hole"

Understand this and marketing becomes much easier.

Here's how to learn what your users really want:

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1) Understand who your core audience is

Know who are you really targeting.

Make this super clear.

As Denis Shatalin points out, it's much better to be specific.

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2) Understand your users motivations

You want to know want they want to achieve both:

• Emotionally

• Functionally

These insights will help you create better messaging and products.

Ask new users this question when they sign up:

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3) Learn the context that brought the user to you

Understanding context helps you empathise.

And picture specific situations your users are in.

Katelyn Bourgoin calls these trigger events.

Using them dramatically reduces your customer acquisition costs.

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4) Learn what are the main barriers to solving the problem

Understand what is stopping your users from achieving their goal.

These are pains that keep them up at night.

Brian O'Connor recommends that you get users to outline their current struggles:

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5) Understand how users are getting the job done now

You want to learn more about previous tools they were using.

Any workarounds they had.

Get to know what users are currently 'hiring' or 'firing'

Samantha Leal suggests you ask users these questions:

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6) Turn it into a Jobs To Be Done Statement

Use this template by to create your statement:

When I…… (context)

But…… (barrier)

Help me…. (goal)

So I….. (outcome)

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For @headspace a statement might look like this:

When I... feel overwhelmed at work,

but I... don’t have much time to unwind,

help me...to quickly feel relaxed and calm,

so I... can feel present with my family

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7) Prioritise

Going through this process, you will likely have lots of different jobs that you could target.

Focus on the jobs with the highest impact.

Sunita Mohanty suggests you use this framework to pick based on:

• highest market demand
• largest gap to be filled

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Now when you are creating messaging, focus on the key jobs.

When you think about what product feature to add, consider your main Jobs To Be Done.

Make helping your users achieve the jobs central your strategy.

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How to effectively leverage the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) Framework

1. Understand your core audience
2. Understand motivations
3. Learn the context that brought the user to you
4. Learn the main barriers to solving the problem
5. Understand how users are getting the job done now
6. Create a Statement
7. Prioritise

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