JTBD essay

Jobs to be Done (JTBD) Framework Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Jobs to be Done (JTBD) Framework Understanding consumer behavior is one of the most important prospects for any business entity that intends to prosper. In every business segment, brands or products/services that befit the needs of more consumers become the market leaders. As such, businesses must take time to study consumer behavior in terms of why, how, or even when specific individuals purchase various products or services. Importantly, it is notable that people vary in perceptions and intentions. As such, it is impossible to align a particular product to specific behaviors. However, efforts have been put into exploring the drivers of consumer behavior with an emphasis on having a precise understanding of buying behaviors. One of the models that have been vital to the effect is the Jobs to be Done (JTBD). The popularity of JTBD is marked by the precise approach by which it explores consumer behavior. In this analysis, emphasis is put on assessing JTBD in terms of what it is and where it comes from before tailoring its application to various products. The analysis should be vital in understanding consumer behaviors and how brands can structure their products to match specific consumer needs. An Overview of the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) Framework The Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is among the most popular models used by brands or product developers to understand consumer behavior. JTBD originated from the academic works of Clayton Christensen and his colleagues from the Harvard Business School. This framework is structured around the motivation to understand why consumers “hire” products or services (Kalbach, 2020). As per the proponents of JTBD, consumers hire products or services with the objective of accomplishing specific jobs. A job is a task or a goal that a consumer intends to accomplish. For example, the job is to drill a hole if a consumer buys a drill. The jobs are encompassed in the consumer needs through the functional, social, and emotional dimensions (Ulwick, 2016). The functional dimension focuses on the practical prospects surrounding getting the job done such as drilling the hole. The social dimension focuses on the impacts of the product/service on the buyer’s social aspects like interactions with others, social relationships, or social status. Finally, the emotional dimension of JTBD focuses on the emotional outcomes or feelings associated with getting the job done. The emotions can be wide-ranging including the feeling of contentment, happiness, satisfaction, or competence, among others. All three dimensions play a role in defining purchase decisions. Besides the job, JTBD also has job mapping and market segmentation as its other key components. Brands execute job mapping to understand the processes and steps that consumers undergo to complete a job. Prospects such as fitting drill bits and handling the drill fall within the component of job mapping (Kalbach, 2020). Brands complete job mapping to understand the needs and pain points of customers as they use their products. For market segmentation, the JTBD framework intends to understand customers differently from the conventional approaches. That is, the framework employs the jobs that products or services accomplish to segment customers instead of the conventional demographic, geographic, or psychographic segmentation (Ulwick, 2016). If the products are segmented based on the jobs that they accomplish, it eases the manufacturers’ ability to tailor the product specifications toward the needs of the consumers. As such, brands employing this model can change the slopes of their handles, for instance, if that is what fits their customers instead of focusing on what buyers from a particular region could prefer. The final components of JTBD include hiring and firing as well as innovation and product development. In the components of hiring and firing, the proponents of JTBD propose that consumers hire products with the objective of accomplishing specific jobs. If the hired products accomplish the tasks as per the consumer expectations, they are likely to be re-hired (Kalbach, 2020). However, a customer may fire a product that does not accomplish the job as per his/her expectation. Also, the emergence of a competing product with the ability to accomplish the job better or at par with better segmentation can motivate buyers to fire a product. Ultimately, JTBD emphasizes innovation and product development. In its three dimensions, product developers always seek areas to improve so that their products can complete the jobs as per the consumer needs. As such, JTBD provides a framework for in...