Jobs to Be Done Marketing Research Training Course

Course overview

Marketing teams often know their audiences by demographic, segment and funnel stage, yet still struggle to explain why customers switch, delay, reject or repurchase. Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) research addresses this gap by examining the progress a customer is trying to make in a real buying situation. It gives teams a disciplined way to investigate the forces behind demand: the triggering event, desired outcome, current alternatives, anxieties, habits and decision criteria. This is particularly valuable when a product category is crowded, a value proposition is unclear or campaign performance depends on messages that reflect genuine buying situations.

This five-day course teaches participants how to plan, conduct and synthesise JTBD marketing research. Participants learn to distinguish functional, emotional and social jobs; recruit customers around switching events; conduct Timeline Interviews; capture push, pull, anxiety and habit forces; code interview evidence; write job statements and outcome statements; and identify segments based on job context rather than demographic similarity. They also translate findings into message territories, positioning hypotheses, campaign briefs and prioritised research recommendations.

Instruction combines worked examples, instructor demonstrations, interview practice, evidence-coding workshops and team critiques. Participants work from a supplied case or an approved business challenge, using interview guides, research canvases and synthesis templates used throughout the week. They leave with a practical JTBD research pack: a research plan, interview discussion guide, coded evidence sample, job map, forces-of-progress analysis, opportunity statements and an activation brief for marketing or product stakeholders.

The course is suited to marketing, insight, product and customer-experience professionals who need defensible customer understanding before creating propositions, campaigns, content or go-to-market plans. It is equally useful for managers seeking a repeatable research approach that produces clearer decisions than persona-led brainstorming alone.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define functional, emotional and social jobs using the Jobs to Be Done framework
• Frame a JTBD research brief around a specific purchase, switching or usage situation
• Recruit interview participants using switching-event screening criteria
• Conduct a Timeline Interview that elicits triggers, desired progress, alternatives and decision moments
• Map push, pull, anxiety and habit using a Forces of Progress analysis
• Code interview evidence and synthesise it into job statements and outcome statements
• Prioritise unmet customer outcomes using opportunity scoring and evidence strength
• Produce a JTBD activation brief with positioning, message and research recommendations

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Marketing Managers — who need evidence-led positioning and campaign decisions
• Customer Insights Managers — who design qualitative research and turn findings into stakeholder action
• Product Marketing Managers — who must connect customer demand with proposition and go-to-market messaging
• UX Researchers — who want to complement usability research with purchase and switching-context interviews
• Brand Managers — who need sharper category-entry points and message territories
• Customer Experience Managers — who improve journeys by understanding the progress customers seek across touchpoints

Requirements and prerequisites

This is a foundation-to-intermediate course and does not require previous Jobs to Be Done training. Participants should be comfortable discussing customers, products, campaigns or service journeys and should understand basic marketing concepts such as target audience, value proposition, customer journey and qualitative interviews. Some exposure to customer research, CRM data or campaign planning is useful but not essential. A laptop is required for workshop templates and collaborative analysis. Statistical modelling, specialist research software, coding skills and formal market-research qualifications are not required; complete beginners should expect guided practice in interviewing and evidence synthesis.

Training methodology

The course is delivered through short instructor-led method sessions followed by structured application. Participants deconstruct real purchase situations, annotate Timeline Interview transcripts, practise probing for causal detail in paired interviews and code evidence in small groups. Case exercises use a shared market scenario so teams can compare competing interpretations of the same data. The instructor reviews job statements, forces maps and activation recommendations against clear quality criteria. On the final day, each participant converts their work into an application plan for a live product, service or campaign decision.

Course outline

Day 1: Framing demand through Jobs to Be Done

• Limits of demographic segments, personas and stated-preference research
• The customer progress definition of a job
• Functional, emotional and social job dimensions
• Core jobs, related jobs and consumption-chain jobs
• Job context, category-entry points and triggering events
• The Jobs to Be Done research process from brief to activation
• Selecting a suitable purchase, switching or usage situation for study

Workshop: Participants convert a vague marketing problem into a scoped JTBD research brief with a focal customer, situation, decision and intended business use.

Day 2: Designing and conducting JTBD interviews

• Switching-event recruitment and screener design
• Recent purchasers, switchers, non-consumers and lapsed customers
• Timeline Interview structure and chronological reconstruction
• Probing for first thought, passive looking and active search
• Eliciting desired progress without leading the participant
• Capturing alternatives, workarounds and choice criteria
• Interview ethics, recording, note-taking and evidence capture

Workshop: In paired role-play interviews, participants use a Timeline Interview guide and produce an annotated purchase-decision timeline.

Day 3: Analysing forces and customer outcomes

• The Forces of Progress model
• Push of the current situation and pull of the new solution
• Anxieties, perceived risk and implementation barriers
• Habit, inertia and the status quo
• Open coding of interview transcripts and research notes
• Writing evidence-based job statements
• Writing desired outcome statements with direction and measure

Workshop: Teams code a transcript, build a Forces of Progress map and write a validated set of job and outcome statements.

Day 4: Synthesising findings into market opportunities

• Grouping evidence by job context rather than customer profile
• Job maps and the steps customers take to make progress
• Distinguishing main jobs from adjacent needs and solution features
• Outcome importance and satisfaction assessment
• Opportunity scoring for underserved outcomes
• Segmenting by circumstance, struggle and desired progress
• Testing synthesis claims against contradictory interview evidence

Workshop: Participants create a job map and prioritised opportunity matrix from coded research evidence, then defend their prioritisation in a stakeholder review.

Day 5: Activating JTBD research in marketing decisions

• Translating jobs into positioning hypotheses
• Building message territories from desired progress and anxieties
• Using JTBD findings in creative briefs and campaign planning
• Applying jobs to value propositions, content and landing pages
• Connecting job evidence to product marketing and sales enablement
• Research readouts that separate evidence, inference and recommendation
• Planning a pilot JTBD study and stakeholder adoption roadmap

Workshop: Participants produce and present a JTBD activation brief containing a job map, priority opportunity, message hypothesis and 90-day research application plan.

Tools & standards covered

Miro, Dovetail, Qualtrics, Outcome-Driven Innovation

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions