WORKING PAPER

Become a Customer-Centered Organization with Jobs to be Done

By Stephen Wunker

Here’s how organizations can use Jobs to be Done to turn customer insight into lasting competitive advantage:

Revealing the deeper motivations behind customer behavior to uncover hidden opportunities for growth.

Segmenting customers by their Jobs and contexts to design more targeted, differentiated solutions.

Building a shared language and process that connects research, strategy, and execution around customer outcomes.

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Summary

Become a Customer-Centered Organization Using Jobs to be Done distills decades of innovation experience into a practical guide for organizations that want to align every decision with real customer motivations. Drawing from New Markets Advisors’ Jobs Atlas framework, it explains how to uncover what customers are truly trying to accomplish—functionally and emotionally—and translate those insights into product, service, and business model innovation. Illustrated with cross-industry success stories, the paper demonstrates how JTBD transforms guesswork into clarity, helping teams build strategies and solutions that customers genuinely value.

WORKING PAPER

Why Do Most Innovations Fail?

Companies are constantly seeking innovations to stay ahead. But without a clear understanding of customer needs and wants, developing new products, services, and business models can be risky business. For many firms, innovation is guided either by company-centric thinking that focuses on products to sell, or by asking customers what they want. Both approaches are incomplete

Consumers often have quite different perspectives than companies. As Peter Drucker once wrote, “The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it is selling.”
Most customers are incapable of envisioning what a new product, service, or business model should be. They are usually not engineers or customer experience specialists. They know what they would like to get done, not the best way to do it
It is no wonder, then, that new offerings frequently fail. More than half of newly launched products end up falling short of company projections. The real game changers are even rarer. Only about 1 in 300 new products significantly impacts purchase behavior, the product category, or a company’s growth trajectory.

How is JTBD different from other research methods

Deploying Jobs to be Done

How is JTBD different from other research methods

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

Key differentiators

JTBD focuses on the underlying need: Unlike traditional frameworks that primarily focus on demographics and psychographics, JTBD delves into the underlying motivations that shape customer behavior
JTBD provides clearer understanding: Traditional research often relies on opinions about a product or its category, which can be incomplete or blend out the richness of detail by looking at averages. In contrast, JTBD focuses on specific purchase and usage events. Companies can grasp the nuance in how their products fit into their customers' lives, whether it is a B2C or B2B context
JTBD uncovers unmet needs: JTBD excels in identifying unmet, latent needs that customers may struggle to express when asked directly. By understanding the Jobs that customers want to accomplish, companies can pinpoint areas to excel in, differently

How is JTBD different from other research methods

Deploying Jobs to be Done

How is JTBD different from other research methods

Key differentiators

JTBD focuses on the underlying need: Unlike traditional frameworks that primarily focus on demographics and psychographics, JTBD delves into the underlying motivations that shape customer behavior
JTBD provides clearer understanding: Traditional research often relies on opinions about a product or its category, which can be incomplete or blend out the richness of detail by looking at averages. In contrast, JTBD focuses on specific purchase and usage events. Companies can grasp the nuance in how their products fit into their customers' lives, whether it is a B2C or B2B context
JTBD uncovers unmet needs: JTBD excels in identifying unmet, latent needs that customers may struggle to express when asked directly. By understanding the Jobs that customers want to accomplish, companies can pinpoint areas to excel in, differently

How is JTBD different from other research methods

Deploying Jobs to be Done

How is JTBD different from other research methods

Key differentiators

JTBD focuses on the underlying need: Unlike traditional frameworks that primarily focus on demographics and psychographics, JTBD delves into the underlying motivations that shape customer behavior
JTBD provides clearer understanding: Traditional research often relies on opinions about a product or its category, which can be incomplete or blend out the richness of detail by looking at averages. In contrast, JTBD focuses on specific purchase and usage events. Companies can grasp the nuance in how their products fit into their customers' lives, whether it is a B2C or B2B context
JTBD uncovers unmet needs: JTBD excels in identifying unmet, latent needs that customers may struggle to express when asked directly. By understanding the Jobs that customers want to accomplish, companies can pinpoint areas to excel in, differently

How is JTBD different from other research methods

Deploying Jobs to be Done

How is JTBD different from other research methods

Key differentiators

JTBD focuses on the underlying need: Unlike traditional frameworks that primarily focus on demographics and psychographics, JTBD delves into the underlying motivations that shape customer behavior
JTBD provides clearer understanding: Traditional research often relies on opinions about a product or its category, which can be incomplete or blend out the richness of detail by looking at averages. In contrast, JTBD focuses on specific purchase and usage events. Companies can grasp the nuance in how their products fit into their customers' lives, whether it is a B2C or B2B context
JTBD uncovers unmet needs: JTBD excels in identifying unmet, latent needs that customers may struggle to express when asked directly. By understanding the Jobs that customers want to accomplish, companies can pinpoint areas to excel in, differently

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About The Authors

Steve Wunker

FOUNDER & GLOBAL LEADER IN JOBS TO BE DONE

Steve pioneered JTBD alongside Clayton Christensen and has led innovation work worldwide. He authored Jobs to Be Done: A Roadmap for Customer-Centered Innovation and four other books, and his thinking appears regularly in publications such as Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and The Financial Times.

WORKING PAPER

Become a Customer-Centered Organization with Jobs to be Done

By Stephen Wunker

Revealing the deeper motivations behind customer behavior to uncover hidden opportunities for growth.

Segmenting customers by their Jobs and contexts to design more targeted, differentiated solutions.

Building a shared language and process that connects research, strategy, and execution around customer outcomes.

Download File