Customer Pain Points (JTBD)

Overview

Understanding what truly bothers your potential customers, what problems they are trying to solve, is the bedrock of any successful business. This isn’t just about what they say they want, but the underlying “jobs to be done” that drive their decisions. Thinking about customer pain points from the Jobs to Be Done perspective helps you see beyond superficial needs and uncover the real motivations that make them hire or fire products and services.

When you focus on jobs to be done, you’re essentially stepping into your customer’s shoes to understand their struggles, frustrations, and desired outcomes. This deep dive into their pain points allows you to identify unmet needs or areas where existing solutions are falling short. It’s about recognizing the progress they are trying to make in their lives, and how your business can be the catalyst for that progress.

This topic is a crucial part of the “Customer Deep Dive” subcategory because it provides the framework for truly understanding your target audience. Without this deep understanding, you risk building a product or service that nobody actually needs or wants. It’s about getting to the “why” behind customer behavior, which is far more valuable than just understanding the “what.”

By identifying and prioritizing customer pain points, you can then develop solutions that resonate deeply. This means your product or service will feel like a perfect fit, not just an option. It’s the difference between a company that struggles to gain traction and one that becomes indispensable to its customers, driving loyalty and sustainable growth.

Key Concepts

• The Core Idea of Jobs to Be Done (JTBD): People don’t buy products, they “hire” them to get a “job” done. This job is the progress they are trying to make in a given circumstance. Understanding this progress is key to understanding customer needs.
• Pain Points as Obstacles to Jobs: Customer pain points are the frustrations, difficulties, and inefficiencies they experience while trying to get their jobs done. These are the moments where current solutions fail or create new problems.
• Functional, Social, and Emotional Jobs: Jobs can be categorized. Functional jobs relate to the task itself, social jobs involve how the customer wants to be perceived by others, and emotional jobs relate to how the customer wants to feel. Pain points can exist in any of these categories.
• The “Struggle” Instead of the “Need”: Instead of asking customers what they need, focus on the struggles they face. This often reveals more authentic and unmet needs. For example, a need for “more time” might be a struggle related to work life balance.
• Why This Matters for Your Business: Identifying genuine pain points allows you to create a product or service that offers a clear and compelling solution. This directly leads to higher customer adoption, better retention, and a stronger competitive advantage.
• Common Pitfalls to Avoid:
  • Listening only to stated preferences: Customers often say what they think you want to hear or what is socially acceptable, rather than their true underlying motivations.
  • Focusing on demographics alone: Understanding who your customer is is less important than understanding what job they are trying to get done.
  • Building features without a clear problem to solve: This leads to bloated products with features that don’t address real customer struggles.
  • Assuming you know the job: Always validate your assumptions by talking to potential customers directly.

Implementation Guide

Step-by-Step Process

1. Identify Your Target Customer Group: Start by defining the broad group of people you believe your product or service could help. Be as specific as possible about their general situation.
2. Brainstorm Potential “Jobs”: Think about the underlying goals or progress your target customer group is trying to achieve in their lives or work. What are they trying to accomplish? Consider functional, social, and emotional aspects.
3. Conduct Customer Interviews (The “How Might We” Approach): This is the most critical step. Talk to potential customers and focus on their experiences. Ask open-ended questions that uncover their struggles. Frame questions around their attempts to get a specific job done.
   • Ask about situations where they encountered problems. For example, “Tell me about a time you tried to [complete a task related to the job] and found it difficult.”
   • Probe for details about their feelings, what they tried, what didn’t work, and what they wished was better. Use phrases like, “What was the most frustrating part of that experience?” or “What did you wish you could do differently?”
   • Avoid asking directly “What problem do you have?” or “What features do you want?” Instead, focus on their narrative of struggle and progress.
4. Analyze Interview Data for Pain Points and Jobs: Review your interview notes and recordings. Look for recurring themes, common frustrations, unmet desires, and the underlying jobs customers are trying to complete. Group similar pain points together.
5. Prioritize the Most Significant Pain Points: Not all pain points are created equal. Identify those that are most frequent, most severe, and most important to your target customer. The “job” that causes the most struggle is usually the one with the biggest opportunity.
6. Map Solutions to Pain Points: Once you have a clear understanding of the prioritized pain points and the jobs to be done, you can begin to brainstorm and design solutions that directly address these issues. Ensure your solution makes it significantly easier or better for them to get their job done.
7. Test Your Assumptions: Before building a full-fledged product, create prototypes or minimum viable products (MVPs) to test if your proposed solution actually alleviates the identified pain points and helps customers get their jobs done.

Measuring Success

• Qualitative Feedback: During customer interviews and usability testing, observe how customers react to your proposed solution. Do they express relief, understanding, or enthusiasm?
• Adoption Rates: Once launched, track how many target customers start using your product or service. High adoption suggests you’ve successfully addressed a real need.
• Retention Rates: Are customers continuing to use your product over time? This indicates that your solution is consistently providing value and helping them get their jobs done.
• Customer Satisfaction Scores: While not solely based on pain points, overall satisfaction often correlates with how well a product solves the core jobs and eliminates frustrations.
• Word-of-Mouth Referrals: Happy customers who feel truly understood and well-served are more likely to recommend your business to others.

Tools and Resources

• Recommended Books, Chapters, Articles:
  • “Competing Against Luck” by Clayton Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan: This is a foundational book on Jobs to Be Done. Focus on the early chapters that explain the core concept and the examples.
  • “When Coffee and Kale Meet You” by Alan Klement: This book provides practical guidance on how to conduct JTBD interviews and analyze the results.
  • Intercom’s Blog on JTBD: Search for “Jobs to Be Done Intercom” on youtube.com or via a web search for practical articles and case studies. They often share excellent insights.
• Recommended YouTube Videos:
  • “Jobs to Be Done Theory Explained”: Search youtube.com for videos from institutions like Harvard Business School or reputable marketing channels that provide clear explanations of the JTBD framework. Look for examples that illustrate the concept with real-world products.
  • “How to Conduct JTBD Interviews”: Find videos that demonstrate effective interview techniques. Pay attention to the types of questions asked and how interviewers probe for deeper insights.
• Data Research Tools:
  • Spreadsheets (e.g., Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel): Essential for organizing and analyzing interview notes and survey data.
  • Note-taking Apps (e.g., Evernote, Notion, OneNote): To capture thoughts and interview details efficiently.
  • Survey Tools (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, Typeform): For gathering broader quantitative data once you have initial qualitative insights, though interviews are paramount for JTBD.
• Blogs:
  • The Jobs to Be Done Hub: Search for this online for articles, resources, and community discussions on JTBD.
  • Clayton Christensen Institute Blog: Look for articles related to disruptive innovation and JTBD.

Checklist

• Have I clearly defined the specific target customer group I am focusing on?
• Have I brainstormed a list of potential “jobs” my target customers are trying to get done?
• Have I conducted at least 5-10 in-depth customer interviews to understand their struggles related to these jobs?
• Did I focus my interviews on uncovering struggles and progress rather than asking for feature requests?
• Have I analyzed my interview notes to identify recurring pain points and the underlying jobs?
• Have I prioritized the most significant pain points based on frequency, severity, and importance to the customer?
• Have I outlined how my potential product or service will directly solve these prioritized pain points?
• Have I identified ways to test my proposed solution with target customers to validate its effectiveness?
• Have I familiarized myself with the Jobs to Be Done theory by reading relevant articles or watching introductory videos?

References

• Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. HarperBusiness.
• Klement, A. (2016). When Coffee and Kale Meet You: Taking Jobs-to-be-Done Research to the Next Level. Happy Melly.
• Intercom Blog (Search for “Jobs to Be Done”)
• Clayton Christensen Institute Blog (Search for “Jobs to Be Done”)