Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) interviews are a qualitative research method used to understand why people choose, switch to, or abandon a product or service by focusing on the progress they are trying to make, not on the product itself.
If you want to run one, the core idea is to interview people who recently started, stopped, or considered using a product, then trace their decision process backward from the point of purchase or switch to the original trigger, motivations, alternatives considered, and outcomes they were trying to achieve.
- Best interview targets: recent adopters, recent churned users, and people who have not yet used your product but are trying to solve the same problem.
- What to learn: the trigger that started the search, the alternatives they considered, why they switched, what they liked or disliked, and what they would do if your product were unavailable.
- How to structure the conversation: use a semi-structured interview and stay focused on real past events rather than hypothetical scenarios.
- Common JTBD question themes: first realization of the problem, what they were trying to accomplish, what they needed to plan for, how they searched, what other solutions they used, and what caused anxiety or friction in the decision.
- Useful framing: a JTBD statement is often written as “When [circumstance], I want to [job], so I can [outcome] without [pain point].”
A practical way to conduct the interview is to start with the moment they first realized they needed a solution, then walk through the timeline: search, comparison, decision, use, and any switch away or continued use. During the interview, ask follow-up questions about push factors from their current situation, pull factors toward the new option, and habits that may have held them back from changing.
If you want, I can also provide:
- a JTBD interview script
- a 10-question JTBD interview guide
- a template for turning interview notes into JTBD statements
