Have you ever wondered what your customers really want? No, not in a general sense like «low prices» or «good service» — that’s understandable. What makes them choose your product over their competitor? Why do they come back or leave after their first purchase? Surveys, questionnaires and competitor analysis only give the tip of the iceberg: 30% want discounts, 20% want quick delivery, blah blah blah — but it’s not enough to really understand what drives people. And that’s where the «problems to solve» approach comes on the scene. It’s like a magnifying glass that shows you why your product is, and how you make it so that you don’t just buy it, you get to fall in love with it, and you want to know how it works, and how you can use it in marketing, management, or even startups?

What are “tasks to solve”?

Imagine you’re buying coffee at a coffee shop. You think, «I’m buying coffee because I want coffee»? Not really. You probably want to cheer up before a hard day at work, relax with a book in a cozy atmosphere, or just take a stylish Instagram photo. Coffee is not a goal, it’s a tool. The «task to solve» approach suggests looking at your product through the eyes of a customer: what task is it helping to solve? Who is your client (age, gender, income), and in what situation does he come to you and why.

A classic example is a drill. Nobody buys a drill for a drill. People buy a drill to hang up a shelf, decorate a house, or give a gift to a husband who always fixes something. The job is not to own a drill, but to solve a specific problem at a particular moment, and if you understand this problem, you can make a product that the client chooses without hesitation.

This approach was born out of the ideas of Clayton Christensen, an innovation guru, who said, «Customers don’t buy products, they hire them to do the work.» And this «job» is the key to understanding. In 2025, companies that have mastered JTBD leave competitors far behind because they know what customers need and give it the best.

Why does it work?

The problem-to-solve approach is not just a fashion theory; it really changes the way you think about your product and customers. Here are three reasons why it works:

1. Deep understanding of customers. Instead of guessing what people want, you dig to the bottom of it, like freelancers buying financial accounting software not because they like to keep books, but because they want to bill a client quickly and not spend the whole night on it, and understand their task, and you will create a product that solves their pain.

2. Less than that. When you focus on a task, you stop pushing unnecessary features into the product. Why add 3D animation to the food ordering app when the customer just needs to pick a pizza quickly? It saves time, money and nerves, both for you and for customers.

3. Loyalty for ages. If your product is better than the competition, customers will come back. A simple example is, why do people choose Spotify? Because it solves the problem of «I want to listen to music that suits me, without too much trouble.» Personalized playlists, recommendations, all of these hit the target, and people stay.

According to Harvard Business Review, companies using JTBD increase customer retention by 15-20% and reduce the cost of developing unnecessary features by 30%.

How to implement the “task-to-solve” approach?

Enough of the theory, let’s get to it. How do you apply JTBD to your business, whether you’re a marketer, a manager or a startup? Here’s a step-by-step plan that works, even if you have a small budget and a team of three.

Step 1: Get into context

To understand what customers need, you need to get in their shoes. Ask questions: in what situation do they use your product? What makes them angry? What makes them choose you over a competitor? For example, if you own a coffee shop, talk to customers or watch them. Someone comes in in the morning, grabs coffee and runs to work. Someone sits for hours with a laptop. Someone takes pictures of a social media latte. These are different tasks: «get up quickly,» «work in a cozy environment,» «look stylish.»

How do you do that? Do interviews, watch, read reviews. For example, freelancers often complain that billing is hell: lots of time to process, errors in calculations, customers who require «another option.» If you make freelancer software, your job is to make it simpler to a single click.

Step 2: Define the tasks

Break down customer needs into specific scenarios. For a coffee shop, it could be:

I want to get coffee quickly so I can get to the meeting.
I want to sit in silence and read.
I want to take a beautiful photo for Instagram.

For each scenario, define what matters. For quick coffee, it’s speed and convenience. For quiet, it’s a comfortable place and a minimum of noise. For photo, it’s a stylish cup and a beautiful interior. The more precise you are in defining the problems, the easier it will be to solve them.

Step 3: Rethink the product

Now think about how your product can do these things better. Back to the coffee shop. For quick coffee, you can pre-order it through an app: the customer orders in two clicks, comes in and picks up without a queue. For silence, you can select a zone without music and with comfortable chairs. For photo, you can add Instagram details: beautiful cups, chalkboard, photo area.

A real-life example: the fitness app Peloton found that users wanted to not just exercise, but “feel more confident in the gym.” They added video exercise guides and short tips from trainers.

Step 4: Test and collect feedback

Run a prototype or a minimal version of a solution and see if it works. For example, if you pre-ordered a coffee shop, ask customers: Is it more convenient? If you made an in-app guide, see how engagement has changed. Use A/B testing, surveys, or just observe behavior. The main thing is don’t be afraid of iterations. If something doesn’t work, try again.

Why is this important to marketers?

For marketers, JTBD is a campaign goldmine, and instead of the clichéd “our product is the best,” you can hit the target, for example, instead of “Buy our coffee, it’s delicious,” say, “Have a 2-minute meeting with our coffee, order it through an app.” It’s not just advertising, it’s solving a specific customer problem, and it increases CTR by 15-20 percent, according to HubSpot research, because people see that you understand their pain.

Another example: if you’re promoting freelance software, don’t write «the best accounting tool»: write, «Burn out 30 seconds and forget about paperwork.» It’s catchy because it solves a real problem. And JTBD helps segment audiences not by demographics, but by tasks: «those who want to save time» or «those who want to automate routine.»

Why is this important to managers?

For managers, the problem-to-solve approach is a way to build products that are really needed. Instead of following the trends («everybody adds AI, let’s do it!»), you focus on what matters to customers. This reduces the risk of failure: according to CB Insights, 42% of startups die because their product is not needed. JTBD helps avoid this trap.

Example: Intercom, which makes customer-to-customer software, used JTBD and found that its users wanted to “respond quickly to customers without losing context,” and they added automatic chat saves and smart response templates.

Real Cases That Inspire You

Let’s see how big companies use JTBD to make you realize that it’s not just a theory.

Case 1: Airbnb. They found that their customers wanted more than just accommodation, but “to feel at home on a journey,” so Airbnb put a focus on unique apartments, reviews from real people, and filters like “fit for families,” and that loyalty grew and market share overtook traditional hotels.

Case 2: Slack. Their users’ task is to «communicate with the team without chaos.» Slack added integrations with other tools, channels for different projects and smart chat search. Result? Millions of users who don’t imagine work without Slack.

Case 3: Duolingo. Their customers want to «learn the language without boredom.» Duolingo has made lessons short, playful and rewarding.Total? 500 million users and status as the most popular language learning app.

Pitfalls and how to get around them

JTBD is a powerful tool, but it’s not a magic wand. Here’s a few things to keep it from screwing up:

Don’t confuse the task with the product. If you sell drills, don’t think that the customer’s job is to «buy a drill.» Dig deeper: «hang up a shelf,» «make repairs,» «feel like a master.»
Listen to the customers, but not blindly. People can’t always articulate what they want, but watch their behavior and look for hidden pain.
Don’t try to solve all the problems at once. Find the one that’s most important and make it perfect, and it’s better to be the best at one thing than the average at everything.

How do you start right now?

You don’t have to be a genius to implement JTBD. Here’s what you can do today:

Talk to your customers. Do 3-5 short interviews or spread a survey with questions like, “In what situation do you use our product?” or “What makes you angry in the process?”
Make a task list. Write down 5-10 scenarios where customers are referring to your product, such as for a coffee shop: “get coffee on the way to work,” “get a meeting,” “get a little relaxed in the evening.”
Make an improvement. Pick one problem and think about how to make it easier or cooler, maybe add a new feature or simplify the process.
Test it. Run a small change (like a new phrase in an ad or a feature in a product) and collect feedback. Does it work?

A case in point: a small online clothing store owner noticed that customers often return items because of the «wrong size,» and he surveyed them and found that their job was to «buy clothes that fit perfectly,» and added a virtual fitting room with AI that matches the size of the photo, and returns dropped by 15 percent, and sales rose by 10 percent.

Bottom line: Do one task perfectly

So, problem solving isn’t just an approach, it’s a way of looking at your business through the eyes of a customer. Forget about abstract values and missions. Find the one problem that your product solves best and make it perfect. It’s like in love: if you understand what your partner needs and you give it, he’ll be with you forever. The same thing with customers.

So take it and try it. You have one conversation with a client, you find a problem, and you figure out how to do it better, and it could be a new text in an ad, a new feature in a product, or even a little bit like a handy button on a website, and who knows, maybe that’ll be your ticket to loyal customers and growing sales.

Do you know what your product is doing? Share your thoughts or your case in the comments — let’s figure out how to make your business even cooler!