WORKING PAPER

Jobs to be Done in Banking and Financial Services

Learn how Jobs to be Done helps financial services companies understand what customers are really trying to accomplish when they save, borrow, insure, invest, or manage risk

Uncover the deeper motivations and anxieties that influence financial decisions across different life and business contexts

Segment customers by their Jobs, needs, and moments of change to design more targeted financial solutions

Build products and experiences that create trust, reduce friction, and help customers make progress toward important results

OVERVIEW

How is Jobs to be Done different from other research methods?

Traditional market research frameworks often fall short when it comes to revealing the underlying motivations that drive financial decisions. But JTBD is different. Done right, what makes JTBD unique is that it does not rely on customers articulating their needs precisely, measuring them in isolation, or framing everything solely around functional Jobs. Instead, effective deployment of JTBD offers a rigorous approach for understanding customer behavior, defining opportunities, identifying barriers to adoption for new financial products and services, and evaluating the full competitive landscape.

Key differentiators:

Jobs to be Done focuses on the underlying need: It delves into the underlying motivations that truly shape your customer behavior.
Jobs to be Done provides a clearer understanding: It focuses on specific purchase and usage events, allowing companies to grasp the nuance in how their products fit into their customer's lives.
Jobs to be Done uncovers unmet needs: It helps identify unmet and latent needs that customers may struggle to express when asked directly

Step 1: Identify the goals customers aim to achieve when using your solution

Step 2: Assess how customers are engaging with existing solutions and identify any pain points they experience

Step 3: Determine how customers define a product's success and what obstacles prevent it from fulfilling their criteria

Step 4: Assess the competitive landscape and your unique opportunities to craete value for the customer

Step 1: Identify the goals customers aim to achieve when using your solution

Jobs to be Done begins by uncovering the full range of functional and emotional Jobs customers are trying to get done, then analyzing the factors that shape how they make decisions. These factors, called Job Drivers, explain why certain Jobs matter more for some customers than others. They are made up of Attitudes such as personality traits, Backgrounds such as longer-term contexts, and Circumstances such as short-term occasions or use cases.

Together, Jobs and Job Drivers reveal customer segments: groups of people likely to buy and behave in similar ways. Within those segments, some Jobs are more important than others. These higher-level North Star Jobs can be broken down into more specific sub-Jobs, creating a clear hierarchy that shows how customer needs connect and how companies can prioritize opportunities.

North Star Job: Ensure My Family has enough savings for emergencies

Sub-Jobs:

Avoid big financial problems and worries due to car trouble
Have opt-ins in case of medical emergency
Build a savings habit that my family can rely on during emergencies

Step 1: Identify the goals customers aim to achieve when using your solution

Step 2: Assess how customers are engaging with existing solutions and identify any pain points they experience

Step 3: Determine how customers define a product's success and what obstacles prevent it from fulfilling their criteria

Step 4: Assess the competitive landscape and your unique opportunities to craete value for the customer

Step 1: Identify the goals customers aim to achieve when using your solution

North Star Job: Ensure My Family has enough savings for emergencies

Sub-Jobs:

Avoid big financial problems and worries due to car trouble
Have opt-ins in case of medical emergency
Build a savings habit that my family can rely on during emergencies

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Our firm can help your organization uncover your customers' Jobs to be Done and turn that into a strategy. Explore our Jobs to be Done Research service page for more examples, FAQs, and insights into how JTBD drives growth for Financial Services

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WORKING PAPER

Jobs to be Done in Banking and Financial Services

By Steve Wunker

Learn how Jobs to be Done helps financial services companies understand what customers are really trying to accomplish when they save, borrow, insure, invest, or manage risk

Uncover the deeper motivations and anxieties that influence financial decisions across different life and business contexts

Segment customers by their Jobs, needs, and moments of change to design more targeted financial solutions

Build products and experiences that create trust, reduce friction, and help customers make progress toward important results

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