Jobs to be done canvas - Matt Lerner

author:: Bob Moesta
source:: JTBD INSIGHTS CANVAS FOR MARKETERS | SYSTM
link:: Know Your Customers’ “Jobs to Be Done”
link:: What is the Jobs to be Done framework?

Process

Prep

  1. Identify customers who have invested time, effort and money into the problem you're offering to solve. (ie. they paid for your product already, or have used competitor solutions)
  2. Acquire a conversation with them - offer incentives to speak to you.
  3. Prepare your list of questions (with background knowledge, are they B2B? B2C? etc.)
  4. Tag team on call to ask & make notes/record
  5. Follow up with transcript and summary findings & communicate with team.
  6. Reward the interviewee with promised incentives (do not forget this step!)

On the call

  1. have questions ready.
  2. ask how much time they have
    1. "we try to keep these to 30 mins, do you have a hard stop?"
  3. ask permission to record
    1. "we record these so we can dig into your answers and not worry about forgetting anything, its 100% private, never shared, is that okay with you?"
  4. one person makes notes, one person asks questions
    1. make sure both team members are briefed and have the authority to interrupt to dig into interesting points.

Follow up

  1. clean up notes taken and summarise key findings
  2. transcript analysis by ai
  3. communicate with the team on findings
  4. Give the interviewee their reward! (do not forget!)

Customer conversation cards

![[Customer Conversation Cards-3.pdf]]

Jobs to be done canvas cards (free version)

![[JTBD Insights Canvas 1.pdf#page=2]]

Questions from Growth Levers book

1. Beginning of the Journey

These questions bring them back to the specific moment when they realised and decided to take action.

Possible Questions What to Listen For
Describe when you first thought of buying something like this? What was the struggle, what was wrong that motivated them to make a change?
Describe the situation to me? Where were you, who were you with, what were you wearing, etc. (Help them visualize the exact moment) How exactly did they describe the struggle?
What were you trying to do? What was happening at that moment to push this struggle to the front of their mind? Was anyone else involved or affected by this situation? Were they considering anyone else's opinions? If you notice an emotional reaction, positive or negative, point it out and ask them to elaborate.

2. Research and Mental Trade-offs

When they get to the part of the story when they’re researching solutions, these questions can uncover what they thought they were looking for, what options they considered, and how they evaluated each one.

Possible Questions What to Listen For
What options did you consider at first? Remember, lists of products or features are not helpful to us. We need to understand the need behind the feature.
What did you Google? Who did you speak to? Where did you look? Listen for alternative solutions. What categories of products or services did they consider? Which options were most or least appealing, and why?
What did you try first? (Run through each thing they tried, each alternative solution.) How exactly did they describe the desired outcome?

Try to move beyond just functional outcomes, they probably mask deeper social and emotional motivations, which are often more powerful.
For each product or feature they mentioned, ask:

“What does it allow you to do/achieve?”
“Why was that important to you?”
If this is a B2B purchase, also ask:

“Tell me why this is the right solution for you and your team?”

3. Purchase event

When they get to the part of the story where they actually bought your product, use these questions to understand what finally pushed them across the line, and more importantly, if it took a while, why they couldn’t buy sooner.

Possible Questions What to Listen For
What made you buy this at that moment? What was going on around you at the time? Listen for the specific event or change that triggered the purchase. Did the problem suddenly become more serious? Or did a goal become more important? Why?
How long had you been thinking about this purchase? Why had they not made the purchase earlier? Was there something that made it hard? Did they have questions or worries?
What were you using to achieve this goal before you found our solution? Listen for alternative solutions or compensating behaviors that allowed them to postpone the purchase. Again, what changed?
Describe the buying process to me; help me understand each step. Again, listen for emotions, particularly anxieties. If part of the story makes them uncomfortable, ask them to elaborate.

4. B2B-specific questions

In B2B situations, start by interviewing the “champion” who pushed the organization to buy your offering rather than the approver, budget manager, or other stakeholders. And use these questions to understand the broader organisational context, stakeholders, political forces, approvals, etc.

Possible Questions What to Listen For
How is this project viewed inside the organization? Find out if your prospect undertook this project to gain wider recognition, or for any other social or emotional reason.
How did this project affect your business? Listen for the outcomes that were expected from this project.
Who cared about the outcomes of this project? What other stakeholders are involved in the decision-making? This will tell us who inside the business owns the project and its results.
What did success look like? What does success look like from the business with a client's perspective? Listen for emotional outcomes.
What did you need from your supplier? Functional outcomes such as price or convenience often mask deeper needs. If the interviewee mentions those, use these questions to probe for deeper social or emotional needs or outcomes.
How else could you have achieved the same outcome? Listen for alternative solutions.
Look beyond your direct competitors. Often in B2B, you’re competing with internal resources or workarounds, full-time hires, agencies, or contractors.