Strategy
Jobs To Be Done Interviews
A practical research and strategy method for uncovering the motivations, tradeoffs, and decision forces behind why people choose, switch, or leave products.
How to use Jobs To Be Done interviews to understand real decision moments, uncover unmet needs, and improve positioning around what people actually choose.
What it is
guideJobs To Be Done (JTBD)Identifying the functional, emotional, and social jobs users need done to guide product and UX decisions.Open guide interviews are a UX serviceUser ResearchUnderstand user behaviour, validate ideas, and make clearer product decisions with evidence you can act on.Open service method used to understand the motivations behind glossaryUser BehaviourUser behaviour refers to how users interact with a product, including actions, patterns, and decision-making processes.Open glossary term, particularly why people choose, switch, or abandon products.
They focus on the “job” a user is trying to get done and the forces influencing their decisions.
Instead of asking what users want, JTBD interviews explore what triggered them to act, what alternatives they considered, and what ultimately drove their decision.
This includes functional, emotional, and social factors.
The goal is to uncover the real reasons behind glossaryBehaviourBehaviour refers to how users interact with a system, including actions, patterns, and responses.Open glossary term so you can design products that better meet user needs.
JTBD interviews are most useful when the real question is why someone made a choice, not just what they did after making it.
When to use it
Use this method when you want to understand decision-making and glossaryBehaviourBehaviour refers to how users interact with a system, including actions, patterns, and responses.Open glossary term at a deeper level.
It is most useful when:
It is less useful when:
JTBD interviews are often used in product strategy and discovery.
Key takeaway
Use JTBD interviews when better product decisions depend on understanding the triggers, tradeoffs, and motivations behind real choices.
How to run it
Set up properly
Be clear on the glossaryBehaviourBehaviour refers to how users interact with a system, including actions, patterns, and responses.Open glossary term you are exploring and who you need: recent adopters, switchers, or people who left. Each answers a different question, and mixing them muddies all three.
Choose people who decided recently. The method depends on reconstructing a specific moment, and memory for decisions decays quickly.
Run the method
A jobs-to-be-done interview reconstructs a single purchase or switching decision in detail. It is closer to an investigation than a conversation, and the timeline is the instrument.
- Anchor to a specific moment rather than general glossaryBehaviourBehaviour refers to how users interact with a system, including actions, patterns, and responses.Open glossary term. "Tell me about the day you signed up" opens the method; "what do you look for" closes it.
- Ask what triggered the decision, then work backwards from there. The trigger is usually further back than people first say.
- Explore the alternatives they considered, including doing nothing. The set of alternatives defines what you actually compete with.
- Understand motivations and anxieties together. People are pulled towards a new solution and held back by the effort of switching.
- Identify the push and pull forces, and the habits and anxieties opposing them. All four are present in every real decision.
Stay on the timeline. As soon as the conversation moves to general preference, you have left the method and started an ordinary interview.
Capture and make sense of it
The value comes from understanding real decisions. After the interviews, document:
- The triggering event, and how long before the decision it occurred
- The alternatives considered, including non-consumption
- Forces pushing people away from the old solution and pulling them towards yours
- Anxieties and habits that nearly stopped the switch
Use this to understand what you genuinely compete with. It is usually not the competitor you benchmark against.
What to look for
Focus on:
Where it goes wrong
Most issues come from:
If it’s not grounded in real glossaryBehaviourBehaviour refers to how users interact with a system, including actions, patterns, and responses.Open glossary term, it won’t help.
What you get from it
Done properly, this method gives you:
Key takeaway
It helps you build products people actually choose.
Get in touch
If this sounds like something you need, we can help you uncover why your users make decisions and how to design products they actually choose.
No guesswork. No assumptions. Just insight that drives better products.
FAQ
Common questions
A few practical answers to the questions that usually come up around this method.
What are Jobs To Be Done interviews?
They are interviews focused on understanding why users make decisions.
When should you use JTBD interviews?
Use them when exploring product decisions, switching, or behaviour.
What makes JTBD interviews different?
They focus on real events and motivations, not opinions.
What is a “job to be done”?
It is the outcome a user is trying to achieve.
Do JTBD interviews improve UX?
Yes. They help design products that better match user needs and motivations.
Quick take
If you want to understand why people choose a product, not just how they use it, run Jobs To Be Done interviews.
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