JTBD Research
Led cross-functional team in jobs-to-be-done research at Typeform.
In 2017, we wanted to understand customer motivations better to improve marketing, product, and growth at every level. JTBD was a game-changer for the business.
Company
Typeform
Year
2017
Category
Strategy
Customer Research
Messaging & Story
Why it's special
Discovered 6 Functional JTBD
Multiple Emotional & Social JTBD (yes they're relevant)
Changed how Typeform markets, educates, and uses the product
The Research
After 15-20 interviews with superusers and churners. Interviews asked about the problem they needed solving, the first point in time they realized it was a problem, how they looked for a solution, and any important consideration sets they filtered through. I began to give the results some structure.
The emotional and social JTBD contained all the action. Who needs just another form or survey tool, when people can have something that’s well-designed, has amazing UX, and represents “me” or “my brand”?
The Functional JTBD tends to be the thing people focus on the most, because it’s the core part of the solution. But differentiation happens at the emotional or social level, and that’s important to keep in mind. Typeform essentially has 7 core Functional JTBD, even if they’re not all listed here. Because it’s such a versatile tool, people used it across a variety of solutions you wouldn’t normally ascribe to a “survey” tool.
Another way to look at Functional JTBD: each “job” is essentially a market, with its own set of users. Now, which market do you prioritize? And which users within that market do you prioritize?
Translates to...
Normally, people don’t think about “jobs” in the sense that marketers do: uncovering their deep motivations. Again, functional is obvious, and maybe that’s all you got. But the magic is in the emotional and social (think status) JTBD side of things. There’s a lot of undiscovered country here for product managers. But even if you only focus on function, there’s still a lot you can do to improve any given product.
This won’t make sense to the majority of people reading this, but this screen demonstrates how JTBD impacts both marketing and product. There’s a lot to unpack here, but the end result is the same: help people make progress in their actual day-to-day work, their professional lives, and their emotional well-being.
I just watched @paulcampillo give a presentation that I wish I could share with everyone here. Goosebumps all the way through, and a masterclass on the importance of brand in achieving product market fit.
—P.N. Product @Canva
