Jobs to Be Done framework matches audience information needs to value propositions
In the Product Ideation phase of our process, we transition from analyzing data and testing reporting hypotheses to designing the actual information product. The foundation for this design rests on a deep understanding of information needs, which almost always goes far beyond simple demographic data.
The Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework, a highly influential concept in innovation theory, provides a useful lens for this shift.
JTBD moves past asking who a person is (their demographics) or what product they consume, to understanding the fundamental progress they are trying to make in their life, i.e. the "job" they are attempting to get done.
When people encounter a problem, they "hire" a product or service to solve it.
This perspective helps us avoid building content features that sound good internally but don't serve our intended audience's actual needs.
Instead, we focus on creating scalable solutions that address our audience's genuine, enduring challenges.
Jump: HOW JTBD applies to distorted info environments | HOW JTBD relates to your value proposition | WHAT we learned
JTBD addresses the complex social, emotional, and structural systems within distorted information environments
Unlike typical applications that focus on an individual consumer, our approach embraces a community-centered view, recognizing that individuals make decisions within complex social, emotional, and structural systems.
In one of our projects on employment opportunities for workers in a major city, we identified four core JTBD through iterative research combining literature reviews, expert interviews, and direct engagement with workers.
The following JTBD describe what people are trying to accomplish when they seek employment information. These outcomes go beyond the functional task of a worker "finding new work" to capture the underlying desire for stability, security, and growth:
- Achieve financial predictability
I need to know exactly how much I'll earn and when, so I can plan my family's expenses and remittances home.
This functional JTBD emerged from the prevalence of delayed wages, opaque bonus structures, and varying compensation across districts. The complexity of compensation packages, including base wages, bonuses, and payment reliability, makes this a major JTBD that needs "hiring" a solution for.
- Minimize exploitation risk
I need to avoid employers who will withhold wages, demand unpaid overtime, or provide unsafe working conditions.
Workers actively sought information to identify trustworthy employers, yet found that only anecdotal word-of-mouth information was available. Current informal methods of vetting employers are often outdated or insufficient, leaving a functional gap that an information product can fill.
- Maintain dignity and growth
I want work that respects my experience and offers a path forward, not just survival.
Despite years of experience, many found themselves trapped in entry-level positions without visibility into advancement opportunities. Finding opportunities with training or career advancement—which correlate with higher earnings—is a distinct emotional and social JTBD compared to merely securing a position.
- Balance proximity and opportunity
I need to find the best job I can reach without destroying my family life or spending everything on transport.
The geographic distribution of opportunity versus affordable housing created constant trade-off calculations between a job's potential earnings and the associated costs, such as commuting time and expense, and its impact on time spent with family and community access. They are hiring for a solution that optimizes this complex spatial and economic equation in a functional way.
Rather than simply noting that our intended audience in our employment project consists of rural workers aged 20-50 engaged in urban construction and manufacturing, we investigated the underlying JTBD they were trying to accomplish through information seeking. This JTBD lens revealed opportunities invisible through demographic analysis alone.
For instance, our data scraping project showed security guard positions in one district of the city averaged U.S. $900 versus U.S. $1,000-1,200 in other districts. Yet only 22% of listings mentioned the training opportunities in the lower-wage district, which correlated with $225 higher average monthly wages, more than making up the difference in base pay.
By understanding workers’ JTBD, we knew to conduct this kind of geographic and benefits analysis of the data we collected. We learned that workers need comparative intelligence that addresses their specific JTBD, not just to answer "where are blue collar roles" but to find out "how can I minimize exploitation risk while maximizing growth potential given my proximity constraints?"
This granular understanding shaped our value proposition development. Rather than creating a generic article or report about safe jobs, where to find them, and how workers could compare jobs listings, we instead focused on delivering verified wage comparisons across districts, transparency about benefits and working conditions, and connections to peers who've worked for specific employers. Each element directly addresses a JTBD that the audience was trying to accomplish.
By designing a product that addresses your intended audience’s JTBD, your competitive advantage becomes your ability to listen better, understand more, and deliver a better product tailored to your intended audience.
JTBD guides your news product's value proposition to your intended audience
The value proposition is the direct link between the user's identified JTBD and the solution the product offers. It articulates what unique value the newsroom provides and why it stands out.
A value proposition acts as the guiding star for all product decisions.
The detailed understanding of these underlying JTBD—and the emotional, social, and functional drivers behind them—directly informed our product's value proposition.
Developing a compelling value proposition means translating the complex reality captured by JTBD research into a clear promise. It shifts emphasis from the newsroom's internal efforts (e.g., "We write investigative stories") to tangible results for the user (e.g., "We enable you to act on verified information").
Using the JTBD insights from our employment project, we refined our value proposition to articulate our commitment to serving people's primary needs. The final version outlines the specific progress users can expect:
Our regular security job intelligence service helps workers in a major city find stable, reliable security guard positions. We reduce the time spent searching through unreliable information, the risk of exploitation by dishonest employers, and the chance of accepting below-market wages. We provide verified wage comparisons across districts, transparency about benefits and working conditions, and connections to peers who've worked in the same industry.
This proposition directly addresses each identified JTBD: it offers verified wage comparisons (addressing financial predictability), transparency about conditions (minimizing exploitation risk), and peer connections for industry insights (supporting dignity and growth while minimizing exploitation risk). The focus is entirely on the outcome for the user—a clear shift from content-centric to audience-centric design.
For your project, your value proposition should directly address each of the JTBD that you’ve identified, whether they are functional, emotional, or social.
Product thinking delivers emotionally and practically resonating solutions for real people
Our experiments using the JTBD framework suggest that anyone, but especially people in constrained environments, need solutions that resonate both emotionally and practically. The complexity of their needs, from social connection to risk avoidance, means our product design must deliver an experience people genuinely want to integrate into their lives.
This framework ensures journalism's sustained relevance. As commodified news becomes ubiquitous, an organization's competitive advantage shifts to "we listen better, we understand more, we react quicker, and we deliver more useful information."
By grounding our purpose in people's JTBD and articulating unique solutions through a clear value proposition, organizations earn people's time, money, and trust through continuous, demonstrable value.
This tight coupling between JTBD and value proposition transforms a newsroom from a purveyor of articles to an architect of solutions, making journalism more effective and sustainable in the digital age.
The next step in our process is defining the Minimum Desirable Experience (MDE). This extends the traditional Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept by focusing on the simplest product experience that effectively solves a real user problem in a satisfying, repeatable way.
We must design a product that is not just technically sound, but truly desirable—given the constraints of remote development, limited infrastructure, and heightened security considerations.
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