The Jobs-to-be-Done Ladder
The Jobs-to-be-Done hierarchy divides human needs into four levels—from abstract life motivation to emotional and social jobs to functional goals and concrete actions. This model helps to identify users' true motivations and barriers and to develop targeted innovative or optimizing design solutions.
The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) hierarchy structures human motivations into different levels of abstraction, similar to a ladder that leads from concrete actions to fundamental life motivations. This hierarchical view helps designers understand at which level they want to innovate and which needs their solutions should address.
Motivations (top level)
At the top of the hierarchy are the most abstract and powerful driving forces: basic human motivations and life goals. These include fundamental aspirations such as harmony, power, discipline, and fun. They are timeless and cross-cultural and form the foundation of all downstream jobs. These “aspirations” describe ideal changes in life circumstances—what people want to become or achieve.
Emotional and social jobs
Below these are the emotional and social jobs, which describe how people want to feel and how they want to be perceived by others.
Emotional jobs address desired emotional states: feeling competent, being in control, feeling proud, or reducing stress. A budgeting app is used not only to track expenses, but also to feel financially secure and in control.
Social jobs focus on the desired external perception: being seen as a semi-professional athlete, appearing responsible, or belonging to a certain group. The same budgeting app could also be used to appear financially responsible in front of the family.
Functional jobs
Functional jobs describe the specific tasks and goals that people want to achieve—regardless of specific products or solutions. They answer the question “What do I want to achieve?” and are usually measurable and observable. Examples include “track expenses,” “get from A to B,” or “find information.” These jobs are solution-agnostic—they describe the desired outcome, not the path to get there.
Actions (lowest level)
At the bottom of the hierarchy are the specific actions and interactions with specific products or services. These “product jobs” include all steps of use: unpacking, installing, operating, maintaining, or disposing. They are the easiest to observe and measure, but they do not reveal the “why” behind them.
Barriers at all levels
The key point is that barriers can occur at any level of the hierarchy and hinder the entire job. A technical hurdle in product use can lead to failure just as much as an emotional barrier (feeling incompetent) or a social barrier (fearing to be perceived as “stingy”). Successful designs systematically address barriers at all levels.
The power of hierarchy lies in its ability to help designers find the right level of abstraction for innovation. While improvements at the action level lead to incremental optimizations, innovations at higher levels can become breakthrough, category-defining solutions that open up entirely new markets.