What is Job Map Development?

Job Map Development is the systematic process of creating a comprehensive, step-by-step representation of the customer's Job To Be Done. This structured approach breaks down the overall job into a sequence of discrete steps that customers take to accomplish their goal, independent of any specific product or solution they might currently use. Unlike traditional process maps that often document how customers use specific products, a job map captures the universal steps customers take to achieve their goals regardless of what tools or methods they employ.

A well-developed job map serves as a stable framework for understanding customer needs, identifying innovation opportunities, and guiding product development decisions. By mapping the job rather than product usage, companies gain insights that transcend current technologies and solutions, revealing opportunities that competitors often miss.

Why is Job Map Development important?

Job Map Development provides critical insights that drive successful product strategy and innovation:

1. Creates a stable strategic foundation

While products and technologies change rapidly, the fundamental steps in customer jobs remain relatively stable over time. This stability provides a reliable foundation for long-term product strategy.

2. Reveals the complete opportunity landscape

Many companies focus only on parts of customer jobs directly addressed by their current products, missiinnovationnities in adjacent steps. Job mapping ensures a comprehensive understanding of the entire job from start to finish.

3. Identifies hidden innovation opportunities

By mapping all job steps, companies often discover underserved areas where customers struggle but no current solutions effectively help. These gaps represent prime opportunities for innovation.

4. Aligns organizations around customer goals

A well-constructed job map provides a shared understanding of customer goals across product, marketing, and sales teams, creating organizational alignment around customer outcomes rather than product features.

5. Provides structure for measuring progress

Job maps create a framework for measuring how well products help customers execute their jobs, enabling more objective assessment of product performance and competitive position.

What are the key elements of a comprehensive job map?

1. Universal Job Structure

Most customer jobs follow a universal pattern of steps that can be grouped into these categories:

• Define/Plan - Steps where customers determine requirements and plan their approach

• Locate/Gather - Steps where customers collect necessary inputs or resources

• Prepare/Setup - Steps where customers arrange conditions to execute the job

• Confirm/Validate - Steps where customers verify they're ready to proceed

• Execute - Core steps where customers perform the main activities of the job

• Monitor - Steps where customers track progress or performance

• Modify/Adjust - Steps where customers make changes based on monitoring

• Conclude - Steps where customers complete the job and assess results

This universal structure helps ensure the job map captures all relevant activities.

2. Sequential Job Steps

Within this universal structure, the job map identifies 10-20 specific sequential steps customers take to complete their job. Each step should:

• Represent a distinct phase in job execution

• Focus on what customers are trying to accomplish, not how

• Be solution-agnostic (not tied to any specific product or approach)

• Follow a logical sequence from job initiation to completion

• Be at a consistent level of granularity

These steps create the backbone of the job map.

3. Step Descriptions

For each step in the map, detailed descriptions explain:

• What the customer is trying to accomplish in this step

• Why this step is important to the overall job

• How this step connects to preceding and following steps

• What decisions the customer makes during this step

• What information they need to execute this step effectively

These descriptions ensure a complete understanding of each job step.

4. Customer Needs Within Steps

For each job step, the map identifies 5-10 specific needs that measure execution quality:

• Needs formulated as actions and variables (e.g., "determine which route will take the least time")

• Focusing on speed and accuracy of execution

• Independent of any specific solution

• Measurable through customer research

• Comprehensive across all aspects of the step

These detailed needs provide the foundation for identifying innovation opportunities.

5. Step Importance and Satisfaction

For strategic analysis, the job map often includes:

• How important each step is to customers

• How satisfied customers are with current solutions

• Which steps have the largest gaps between importance and satisfaction

• How importance and satisfaction vary across customer segments

• How competitors perform on each step

These metrics guide prioritization of product development resources.

How do you develop an effective job map?

1. Define the job at the right level

Start by precisely defining the job to be mapped:

• Formulate the job as a verb + object + clarifier (e.g., "get to a destination on time")

• Ensure the job is defined independently of any specific solution

• Verify the job is not too broad (e.g., "be productive") or too narrow (e.g., "use a navigation app")

• Confirm the job represents a meaningful goal customers are trying to achieve

• Validate the job definition with customers before proceeding

This clear definition establishes the boundaries for your mapping exercise.

2. Interview customers about their process

Conduct in-depth interviews with diverse customers to understand their job execution:

• Ask customers to walk through how they accomplish the job from start to finish

• Probe for steps that might be taken for granted or performed unconsciously

• Explore variations in how different customers approach the same job

• Investigate challenges, workarounds, and adaptations at each step

• Record the sequence and connections between steps

These interviews provide the raw material for your job map.

3. Observe job execution in context

Whenever possible, observe customers actually performing the job:

• Watch customers execute the job in their natural environment

• Note steps that customers perform but don't mention in interviews

• Pay attention to emotional responses during different steps

• Document tools, resources, and information used at each step

• Capture the time and effort required for each step

These observations reveal aspects of the job that customers may not articulate.

4. Draft the initial job map

Organize your research findings into a preliminary job map:

• Identify common patterns across different customers

• Arrange steps in their natural sequence from job initiation to completion

• Ensure steps represent what customers are trying to accomplish, not how they do it

• Verify that steps are solution-agnostic and would remain relevant even as technologies change

• Check that steps are at a consistent level of granularity

This initial draft customer needs hypothesis for your job map.

5. Identify needs within each step

For each step in the draft map, identify specific customer needs:

• What actions must customers take in this step?

• What information must they obtain or evaluate?

• What decisions must they make?

• What standards must they meet?

• What challenges or frustrations do they face?

These needs provide deeper insight into each job step.

6. Validate and refine the map

Test your job map with customers and stakeholders:

• Review the map with customers to ensure completeness and accuracy

• Validate the sequence and relationships between steps

• Test the map across different customer segments to ensure it's universally applicable

• Share the map with internal stakeholders to build consensus

• Refine based on feedback until you have a stable representation of the job

This validation ensures your job map accurately represents the customer's perspective.

7. Measure importance and satisfaction

Once the map structure is validated, measure key metrics:

• Survey customers on the importance of each step and need

• Assess satisfaction with current solutions for each step

• Identify gaps between importance and satisfaction

• Segment results to identify patterns across customer groups

• Analyze competitive performance on key steps

• These measurements transform the map from a descriptive tool to a strategic guide.

What are common challenges in Job Map Development?

Solution-centered thinking

Many teams struggle to separate what customers are trying to accomplish from how they currently do it with existing solutions. This leads to job maps that simply describe product usage rather than capturing the underlying job.

Missing implicit steps

Customers often perform certain job steps unconsciously or take them for granted, making these steps easy to miss during research. Examples include verification steps, preparation activities, or monitoring behaviors that customers may not mention unless specifically prompted.

Inconsistent granularity

Job maps sometimes mix high-level and detailed steps, creating maps where some portions are much more detailed than others. Maintaining consistent granularity ensures the map is usable for innovation purposes.

Overcomplicating the map

Some teams create overly complex maps with too many steps, making them difficult to use for strategic decision-making. Finding the right balance of comprehensiveness and usability is critical.

Premature solution focus

There's a natural tendency to jump immediately to solution ideas while mapping the job, rather than fully understanding the current process. This can lead to superficial understanding and missed innovation opportunities.

How do you use a job map once it's developed?

1. Identify innovation opportunities

Analyze the job map to discover opportunities for innovation:

• Identify steps with high importance but low satisfaction

• Look for steps where all competitors perform poorly

• Find steps that customers handle through complicated workarounds

• Discover "white space" steps not addressed by any current solution

• Target steps with high economic impact for customers

These opportunities become the focus for product development initiatives.

2. Develop targeted solutions

Create solutions specifically designed to help customers execute job steps:

• Generate concepts focused on high-opportunity steps

• Design features that address specific needs within steps

• Develop approaches that improve execution speed and accuracy

• Create interfaces that mirror the natural job flow

• Build capabilities that address multiple connected steps

This targeted approach leads to solutions with higher customer value.

3. Align marketing and sales with the job

Use the job map to structure customer-facing activities:

• Organize marketing content around job steps and customer struggles

• Train sales teams to discuss how solutions help with specific job steps

• Create demonstrations that showcase improved job execution

• Develop case studies that highlight job outcome improvements

• Structure customer success programs around job completion

This alignment creates more effective customer acquisition and retention.

4. Measure product performance

Use the job map as a framework for measuring product performance:

• Track how well products help customers execute each job step

• Measure improvements in execution speed and accuracy

• Compare performance against competitors on key steps

• Identify areas where performance lags customer expectations

• Quantify the economic impact of job execution improvements

These measurements create accountability for customer outcomes.

5. Guide long-term strategy

The job map provides a stable foundation for long-term strategy:

• Identify adjacent jobs that could be addressed in the future

• Discover opportunities to expand into additional job steps

• Anticipate how emerging technologies might change job execution

• Monitor how customer expectations for job execution evolve

• Develop roadmaps that progressively address more of the job

• This long-term perspective helps companies build sustainable competitive advantages.

What are best practices for job map visualization and documentation?

Visual Representation

Effective job maps use visual elements to enhance understanding:

• Sequential arrangement showing job flow from beginning to end

• Consistent iconography for different types of steps

• Color coding to highlight opportunity areas

• Size variation to indicate step importance

• Connection lines showing relationships between steps

These visual elements make the map more intuitive and memorable.

Documentation Format

Comprehensive job map documentation typically includes:

• An executive summary of the overall job

• The visual job map showing all steps in sequence

• Detailed descriptions of each job step

• Lists of needs within each step

Importance and satisfaction data for steps and needs

Segment-specific variations in job execution

Competitive analysis by job step

Strategic recommendations based on the map

This documentation ensures the job map is usable across the organization.

Accessibility Considerations

To maximize the job map's organizational impact:

• Create versions at different levels of detail for different audiences

• Develop interactive digital versions that allow exploration

• Produce physical visualizations for workshop and collaboration spaces

• Include customer quotes and stories that bring the map to life

• Create presentation materials that explain the map and its implications

These accessibility considerations ensure the job map becomes a widely used resource.

Maintenance Plan

Job maps require regular updating to maintain their value:

• Schedule periodic reviews to incorporate new customer insights

• Update importance and satisfaction metrics as the market evolves

• Monitor how technological changes affect job execution

• Revise the map as new job steps emerge or old ones become obsolete

• Document changes over time to track evolution

This maintenance ensures the job map remains a relevant strategic tool.

How thrv helps with Job Map Development

thrv provides innovation methodologies and tools to help companies develop comprehensive job maps that drive innovation and growth. The thrv platform includes templates and frameworks for creating consistent job maps, tools for collecting and organizing customer research, visualization capabilities for presenting job maps effectively, and analytics for identifying strategic opportunities based on job steps.

For organizations seeking to understand customer needs more deeply, align teams around common goals, or identify breakthrough innovation opportunities, thrv's approach to Job Map Development provides a clear path to customer-centered growth based on a comprehensive understanding of what customers are trying to accomplish.