From the field
Jobs-to-be-Done
A research method that defines a market by the progress customers are trying to make rather than by product category, so competitors include everything else that gets the same job done.
The obvious approach is to advertise the service by its category name and bid on the category keyword. But nobody wants a teeth whitening; they want to look confident in photos that will exist forever. The category framing puts you in an auction with every competitor; the job framing often puts you in an auction with almost nobody.
Jobs-to-be-Done
Interview five
Write the job
List the real competitors
Rebuild the angles
Use it when
- Keyword research only surfaces obvious, expensive category terms
- Ads compete purely on price because the offer sounds identical
- You are naming or framing a new service
Do not use it when
- Emergency or commodity purchases where the job is self-evident
- You need results this week; JTBD is research, not a quick fix
The steps
- Interview five recent customers. Ask what was happening in their life when they first decided to look for a solution.
- Write the job statement. "Help me [progress] when [situation]", with no product words allowed in the sentence.
- List the real competitors. Everything else that gets the job done, including doing nothing.
- Rebuild angles from the job. Ad copy, keywords, and landing page headline address the job; the service is the mechanism. The headline that names the job is also the promise you will be judged on, which is the Alevli gap.
Worked example
A dental clinic selling whitening, illustrative numbers:
| Category framing | Job framing |
|---|---|
| "Teeth whitening The Hague" | "Wedding in 8 weeks, camera-ready smile" |
| CPC €4.10, converts 4% | CPC €1.60, converts 9% |
| Competitors: every dentist | Competitors: filters, veneers, nothing |
Same service, same budget: the job-framed campaign produced leads at roughly a quarter of the cost.
Why it works
Customers search and click in the language of their situation, not the industry's taxonomy. Matching the job lowers auction competition and raises message relevance simultaneously.
Who this is for
The same method, read three ways.
01
Running it
Interview five recent customers about the moment they started looking. Write the job with no product words in it, then rebuild the keywords and the headline from that sentence.
02
Teaching it
Segmentation by situation rather than by demographic, with a competitive set that includes doing nothing. It reliably changes how a class defines a market.
03
Describing what you sell
Nobody wants your service. They want the progress it makes. Say the progress and you leave the auction everyone else is bidding in.