What do you mean by the Jobs-to-be-done framework? JTBD basically follows the ideology that the customers don’t buy a product, in fact, they buy a service to get their job done. We can say that it means you have to understand the customer’s requirement with the job and his/her thought system that triggered the buyer to buy the service or the product. The conversion optimization team tries to disclose the achievements that the customer is trying to obtain with the help of this framework. The achievement can be in either psychological or physical form. The hidden meaning behind this whole concept is to comprehend the product or service the company is providing through the eyes of the buyers. When you frame the Job to be done in an interview you should focus on the customer rather than the product/service.
The JTBD framework takes a step ahead to analyze the buyer’s real triggering feeling for making a purchase. If you want to understand it through an example then you can say it’s a drill (the customer) but if you dig a little deeper into the customer’s thinking then you will see that the buyer needs a well-drilled hole in reality. If you notice a job to be done by Clayton Christensen after using it for years then you will realize that it is only an impulse asset. People usually plan before purchasing anything they don’t buy impulsively. They observe the journey for the purchase like any customer would do.
One thing that you should keep in mind about JTBD theory is that a single service/product has multifaceted duties. When you buy a product then its job is multifaceted rather than only one. Every product has to have three main dimensions of the job. The first and obvious reason is the functional one and two more dimensions are often ignored. The other two dimensions are emotional and social.
Let’s start with a brief about all three dimensions-
- Functional Job– This is the job where both the social and emotional jobs are explained. Without knowing what is the core function of the product you can’t even determine the emotional and social dimensions.
- Social Job- This is how the customers want other people to anticipate us after buying or utilizing the service or the product.
- Emotional Job– As the name suggests it’s the feeling that the customers want to possess or avoid after utilizing or purchasing the service or products.
When you unlock all three aspects of the job dimensions from the viewpoint of the customers then you will be able to understand in a much better manner. You can analyze the real worth of your product that it is bringing to the customers. In brief, This theory of JTBD aids us in giving a better insight into the real motivation that customers possess to get the job done.
This JTBD framework helps to take a step in innovating with e-Commerce enterprises by aiding the customer in recognizing the jobs that are inadequately performed in the lives of the customer. It then comes with the products and experiences that are required to cover that gap.
Other than opening up the doors for creation, the Job-to-be-done theory also explains to you multiple markets that you might not be aware of earlier. This will be something that you will experience for the first time. For example, a well-settled company with a business of distributing furniture. They believed that they used to sell their products to the customers directly or the individuals.
However, after one JTBD company hosted an interview of the same, they discovered something new a huge section of their buyers is in reality the real estate dealers that aid the people to shift to new houses. After that, the CRO strategist of the company then recommended an enterprise in this market. After choosing this real estate market the client of the company earned a profit of several million in sales. This can be said as a perfect example of depicting the power of the JTBD theory.
How can you use Job-to-be-done for boosting your e-commerce conversions?
How to know when your business has multiple products, and which one to focus on? Whom to interview? What should be your targeted customer? Do you choose your interviewee by selecting those who have bought that product or randomly selecting anyone?
These are some basic questions that are asked frequently. However, in this article, you will answer this.
Though this is actually challenging to know whom to question and how to select the perfect product for the Job-to-be-done framework.
There is a way to focus on this theory and implement it. Here is the advice for you, if your website has numerous products then you can go for the brand instead of selecting a product. You can enquire why your customers relied on your brand, not anyone else’s. This will help you to know the requirements of the customers and the present competitive field of business. Your competition can be any not restricted to e-commerce.
Furthermore, as the merrier the same goes here, the more information gathered can be implemented to create better chances on the site. You can also get to know more about the likes and dislike factors that made the people buy your product.
If you have an e-commerce enterprise, you might have a massive array of customers that are interested in buying your products.
You should also keep in mind that not everyone(customer) is ideal for this theory interview. You just can’t imagine your buyers who just started using your products to give reviews on them. Your ideal candidates should be the ones who are using your products for quite some time. This can vary from product to product; it can range from two months to more than that.
It’s also crucial to assure that the purchasers you would interview are the ones who are going to tell your push and pull about the products. They are the ones who can tell the best about your products. Furthermore, you have to enquire about who exactly is your target. Also are going to shift to a completely new market? Are you targeting high-paying purchasers?
After you get answers to this then you will have to get in touch with your customers. There should be more than 10 customers. Following your decision to interview someone, you can reach out to them by saying:
After figuring out what are going to be your questions you can reach them out by the following lines.
Hello, we are looking to get a clear vision of how your customers like our product. How did we compare to our competitors? We just wish to ask a few questions regarding the same. In reality, you will notice not everyone is going to answer your queries. They might have too much on their plate to talk or they might not be interested. You can ask them to answer your question by telling them that you will get a gift card or something beneficial from it.
While interviewing the interviewee just focus on the key points of why the customers were interested in your products and what is a no for your products.
Summing Up
JTBD can be said similar to any other interview done with customers to review any company’s products. They are tactical. You should keep a note that while interviewing you should record and transcribe the interviews. Don’t be dependent on writing notes as you might miss crucial information while writing in hurry. It is advisable to have team interviews and divide your chances to ask questions.
Author’s Bio:
Kriti Saraiya is a blogger and journalism student and writes on technology and health related topics. She has good experience across technology, consulting and marketing. She has written for Thrv – Job to be done.