Meta Description: 
Build effective JTBD templates that align teams and drive growth. Learn how to create, customize, and apply templates that deliver real customer insights.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Why JTBD Templates Are Critical to Driving Growth
• What Are the Core Elements of an Effective JTBD Template?
• How Do You Customize JTBD Templates for Your Market?
• What Are the Most Common JTBD Template Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)?
• What Do High-Performing JTBD Templates Look Like in Practice?
• Conclusion: JTBD Templates as a Catalyst for Cross-Functional Growth
  

Introduction: Why JTBD Templates Are Critical to Driving Growth

Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is more than a theory—it's a methodology that helps our clients understand the true motivations behind their customers’ behavior. It clarifies the difference between what their product does and what their customers are trying to achieve. While many organizations claim to be customer-centric, few have a structured, reliable way to uncover and act on real customer needs. JTBD templates solve this gap. This is what we do at thrv. 

A JTBD template isn't just a research format or workshop tool. It's a repeatable system for capturing customer goals, breaking them into manageable parts, and aligning teams around objective, measurable outcomes. The best JTBD templates clarify strategy, prioritize roadmap decisions, guide marketing messages, and create consensus across product, engineering, design, and go-to-market teams.

This guide, written by thrv experts, is designed to help product managers, innovation leads, and business leaders build, customize, and apply JTBD templates that become the foundation for smarter, faster, customer-led growth. We'll cover:

• The key components every JTBD template must include
• How to adapt templates to fit different industries and customer types
• Common mistakes that sabotage template effectiveness
• Real-world examples of templates in action

Let's turn theory into action—and insights into revenue.

What Are the Core Elements of an Effective JTBD Template?

A JTBD template provides the structure for understanding and prioritizing your customer's job. Here are the must-have elements that make a template effective:

1. Job Statement

The job statement defines the core functional goal your customer is trying to achieve—not with your product, but in their life or work. It should be written in a simple "verb + object" format, like "Get to a destination on time," or "Ensure aircraft airworthiness."

This phrasing strips away solutions and zeroes in on the goal. A good job statement is:

• Solution-agnostic
• Measurable in speed and accuracy
• Stable over time
  
  

Avoid vague aspirations or emotional desires ("feel secure," "be happy"). These may matter, but they're not functional enough to drive product decisions.

2. Job Steps

Each job is made up of smaller, sequential steps. Think of these as the customer's process for getting the job done. Job steps help your team:

• Understand the flow of the job from beginning to end
• Identify pain points where customers struggle
• Spot opportunities for innovation and efficiency
  
  

For example, in the job "Get to a destination on time," steps may include:

• Plan the route
• Check traffic conditions
• Estimate travel time
• Choose transportation mode
• Park the vehicle
  
  

Mapping steps gives you a job blueprint. It's essential for uncovering unmet needs.

3. Customer Needs

Each job step contains several customer needs. These are not features or wants—they're metrics customers use to judge success. A well-formed need looks like: "Minimize the time it takes to determine the optimal route."

Every need should be:

• Actionable (uses a verb)
• Quantifiable (based on time, accuracy, or effort)
• Product-agnostic
  
  

Needs are where JTBD gets powerful. They quantify value from the customer's point of view.

4. Unmet Needs

Not all needs are equal. Some are already well-satisfied by the market; others are underserved. Unmet needs represent your best opportunities.

We find them using:

• Surveys to get effort scores (how difficult a need is to satisfy)
• Interviews to add context to those scores
• Segmentation by struggle, not demographics
  
  

We prioritize needs with high importance and low satisfaction: innovation sweet spots.

5. Customer Segments (by Struggle)

Rather than traditional persona-based segments ("marketing manager, age 35"), we use struggle-based segmentation. Group customers by shared unmet needs. This lets you:

• Target the customers who need you most
• Justify pricing based on urgency
• Focus product development on high-value use cases
  
  

This segmentation is dynamic and rooted in real behavior, not assumptions.

6. Growth Strategy Summary

We bring it together with a strategic summary:

• Who are you targeting?
• What job are your customers trying to get done?
• Which unmet needs will you address?
  
  

This becomes your north star for product, marketing, and positioning.

7. Competitive Benchmarking

We then analyze how current solutions (including yours) perform against each need. We look for areas where competitors are slow, inaccurate, or hard to use. These are your wedge opportunities.

This ensures you're not just different—you're better at helping the customer succeed.

8. Idea Generation Space

Our templates end with a space for brainstorming ideas that:

• Directly address a specific unmet need
• Improve speed, accuracy, or ease of a job step
• Can be tested, prioritized, and validated
  
  

This structure turns research into execution. Your team can go from insight to solution with clarity and focus.

How Do You Customize JTBD Templates for Your Market?

JTBD is flexible by design—but templates must reflect the specifics of your market, product category, and customer environment. Here's how we adapt your template for maximum relevance.

Tailor the Job Beneficiary

We identify the job beneficiary—the person who benefits from the job being done, regardless of who executes it. In consumer markets, these are usually the end users. In B2B or healthcare, the job beneficiary may be a stakeholder whose outcomes matter most.

For example:

• A navigation app: the driver is both executor and beneficiary
• A cybersecurity tool: IT executes, but the CIO is the job beneficiary
• A diagnostic test: clinicians perform the test, but patients benefit from early detection
  
  

We focus your template on the beneficiary's goal—not the executor's workflow.

Adjust Job Step Detail by Context

The complexity of your job map depends on the stakes and frequency of the job. For low-stakes, high-frequency tasks (e.g. "Find a recipe"), you might only need 5–8 steps. For high-stakes, regulated jobs (e.g. "Ensure aircraft airworthiness"), you may need 20+ steps.

We capture enough detail to:

• Reveal risk areas
• Find workflow inefficiencies
• Guide compliance and regulatory thinking
  
  

Include Consumption Jobs

In addition to functional jobs, we include related consumption jobs such as:

• Learn how to use the solution
• Set up or configure the solution
• Get support or troubleshoot issues
  
  

These influence adoption and long-term satisfaction. They're often where churn happens—so your template should capture and prioritize them too.

Reflect Market Language

We use terminology your customers use. This improves research accuracy and internal alignment. If you're mapping the job of a pilot, "perform preflight inspection" is clearer than "check before flying."

We customize your job steps and needs to fit how customers think and talk.

Integrate JTBD with Your Existing Frameworks

You don't have to abandon OKRs, agile epics, or design sprints. Instead, we align them to JTBD language:

• Link backlog items to specific unmet needs
• Tie OKRs to improving satisfaction scores for top needs
• Use job steps to map and test customer journeys
  
  

JTBD becomes your strategy layer—your existing tools become more focused and effective.

What Are the Most Common JTBD Template Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)?

Even with good intentions, teams often undermine their JTBD work through preventable missteps. Here are the top traps to avoid:

Mistake #1: Using Features Instead of Needs

Bad example: "Customer wants in-app chat support" Better: "Minimize the time it takes to resolve an issue."

Fix: Always phrase needs in terms of outcomes. Stay solution-agnostic.

Mistake #2: Skipping the Research

Guessing at job steps or needs leads to bias. You may solve problems your customers don't actually have.

Fix: We start with qualitative interviews. Then use quantitative surveys to validate unmet needs.

Mistake #3: Over-Segmenting with Personas

Personas can distract from the real driver of behavior: the job. Two users with different demographics may have identical needs.

Fix: We segment based on shared struggles. Group by unmet needs, not traits.

Mistake #4: Ignoring Consumption Jobs

A product may excel at the core job but fail at onboarding, installation, or billing—leading to churn.

Fix: We include consumption job steps and needs in your template.

Mistake #5: Leaving Templates Static

Customer needs change. So should your template.

Fix: We revisit and update templates every 6–12 months with new data.

Avoiding these mistakes keeps your JTBD practice credible and useful across functions.

What Do High-Performing JTBD Templates Look Like in Practice?

Let's look at three real-world examples from thrv's work.

Example 1: Biscom's Security Information Exchange

• JTBD: Securely send, receive, and act upon private health information
• Segment: Healthcare providers handling sensitive patient data
• Unmet Need: Ensure compliance with healthcare regulations while exchanging information
• Solution: Comprehensive secure information handling platform beyond traditional fax
• Results: Tripled growth rate over two years, achieving successful exit with expanded valuation multiple

Biscom, a 30-year-old fax services company, used JTBD to transform its business model. By shifting focus from "fax services" to the broader job of secure information handling, they identified 17 critical steps and over 100 customer needs. This comprehensive template guided their pivot toward solving more significant problems for healthcare clients, particularly around regulatory compliance.

Example 2: AutoQuotes Foodservice Equipment Marketplace

• JTBD: Efficiently select, price, and purchase foodservice equipment that meets specific operational needs
• Segment: Foodservice professionals in mature markets seeking better selection processes
• Unmet Need: Reduce time to evaluate and compare equipment options across multiple vendors
• Solution: Enhanced marketplace platform with comparative analysis tools
• Results: New products contributed to 30% of new bookings despite challenging market conditions

AutoQuotes used thrv’s templates to identify growth opportunities in a mature market where they already had deep penetration. Their template helped align the operating team, board, and employees around the customer's complete job, not just the quoting process. This alignment led to product innovations that addressed previously unseen market opportunities.

Example 3: Target's Registry Platform

• JTBD: Prepare for life's major milestones by acquiring necessary items with help from friends and family
• Segment: First-time registry creators overwhelmed by the selection process
• Unmet Need: Simplify the process of determining which items are most necessary
• Solution: Curated registry recommendations and simplified management tools
• Results: Reversed declining revenue trend, achieving 25% annual growth and 20% NPS increase

Target's Registry team transformed their approach by using JTBD templates to move beyond feature parity with Amazon. Instead of reactively matching competitive features, they focused on the deeper job customers were trying to accomplish. Their template helped identify unmet needs in the registry creation and management process, leading to innovative features that Amazon eventually copied, demonstrating Target's shift from follower to market leader.

These examples demonstrate how thoroughly developed JTBD templates create alignment, uncover opportunities, and drive measurable business growth across different industries and contexts.

Conclusion: JTBD Templates as a Catalyst for Cross-Functional Growth

A powerful JTBD template is more than a document—it's a shared framework that connects strategy to execution. It aligns product, marketing, sales, and customer success teams around what truly matters: helping your customer succeed.

With thrv’s well-structured templates, your team can:

• Uncover hidden opportunities
• Prioritize with confidence
• Differentiate where it counts
  
  

When implemented effectively, thrv’s JTBD templates become the foundation for a customer-centered organization. They transform how teams think about product development, moving from feature-driven roadmaps to outcome-focused innovations. Marketing messages shift from highlighting capabilities to addressing real customer struggles. Sales conversations focus on customer progress rather than product specifications.

Most importantly, thrv’s JTBD templates create a common language across the organization. Everyone from executives to developers understands what customers are trying to achieve and how the company uniquely helps them accomplish their goals.

At thrv, we help companies build JTBD templates that turn insight into growth. Whether you're in SaaS, healthcare, or retail, our approach adapts to your context and scales with your team.

Schedule a thrv demo and start building what your customers really want—faster and with less risk.