Beyond the Milkshake: JTBD Where It Matters Most
Every article about Jobs to Be Done tells you about milkshakes and morning commutes. These examples are useful for explaining the concept. They are useless for showing you how JTBD works in contexts where product decisions carry multi-million euro consequences, regulatory constraints shape what is possible, and the end user’s job literally determines whether people live or die.
This article presents JTBD applications from the industries where I have spent the past two decades: manufacturing, construction equipment, and MedTech. These are real scenarios drawn from companies operating in the DACH region — Palfinger in loader cranes, Fresenius in enteral nutrition, and MOTUS in mobility solutions. The details are illustrative and drawn from public information and our podcast discussions (episodes #7, #12, and #41), with some specifics generalized to protect proprietary information.
For the foundational theory, see our Complete Guide to Jobs to Be Done. Here, we focus on application.
Example 1: Palfinger — Rethinking What Loader Crane Operators Actually Need
The Product-Centric View
Palfinger is the global market leader in loader cranes, with a product portfolio that spans dozens of crane models differentiated by lifting capacity, reach, and control system sophistication. In a product-centric world, the competitive conversation focuses on specifications: maximum lifting moment (in kNm), hydraulic reach (in meters), and duty cycle ratings.
The Job: Transport Materials to Elevated Positions on Construction Sites
When you reframe the market around the job — “transport materials from ground level to elevated work positions on a construction site” — the competitive landscape changes immediately. Loader cranes do not just compete with other loader cranes. They compete with tower cranes, telehandlers, boom lifts, and manual material handling methods. Each alternative accomplishes the same job with different trade-offs.
More importantly, the job-centric view reveals that the operator’s experience extends far beyond the lift itself.
What JTBD Revealed
Mapping the operator’s job through the eight stages of the Universal Job Map produced a critical insight: the most underserved outcomes were not in the Execute stage (performing the lift) but in the Prepare and Confirm stages.
Prepare-stage outcomes with high opportunity scores:
- “Minimize the time it takes to stabilize the truck and crane before the first lift”
- “Minimize the effort required to determine the optimal crane configuration for the specific load and site geometry”
- “Minimize the likelihood of needing to reposition the truck after initial setup”
Confirm-stage outcomes with high opportunity scores:
- “Minimize the time it takes to verify that the outriggers are properly deployed for the current load”
- “Minimize the uncertainty about whether the current setup can safely handle the planned lift”
The traditional product development approach — adding more lifting capacity, extending reach, improving the hydraulic system — addressed Execute-stage outcomes that were already well-served. The real opportunity was in making setup faster, more predictable, and more confidence-inspiring.
The Strategic Implication
This analysis suggested that investment in intelligent setup assistance — automated outrigger deployment, load-aware configuration recommendations, real-time stability visualization — would create more differentiation than incremental improvements in lifting performance. The product that helps the operator get from “truck parked” to “first lift completed” 30% faster, with higher confidence, wins the job better than a product with 10% more lifting capacity.
In industrial markets, engineering teams are drawn to optimizing the core function — the lift, the cut, the weld. But when you map the full job, you often find that operators spend 30-40% of their time on preparation and confirmation. That is where the frustration lives, and that is where differentiation is available.
Example 2: Fresenius — Enteral Feeding Beyond the Pump
The Product-Centric View
Enteral feeding — delivering nutrition directly to the digestive tract via a tube — is a critical clinical intervention for patients who cannot eat orally. The product-centric market revolves around feeding pumps: flow rate accuracy, tube compatibility, alarm systems, and cleaning protocols. Major players include Fresenius Kabi, Abbott, Nestlé Health Science, and several regional manufacturers.
The Job: Deliver Precise Nutritional Support to Non-Oral Patients
When the job is defined at the right level of abstraction — not “administer tube feeding” but “deliver precise nutritional support to patients who cannot eat orally” — the scope of relevant outcomes expands enormously.
The nurse administering the feeding is one job executor. But there are others: the dietitian designing the nutrition plan, the physician monitoring the patient’s nutritional status, the patient (when conscious) experiencing the feeding process, and the family member observing and often assisting in home-care settings.
What JTBD Revealed
A study across multiple stakeholder groups identified outcome clusters that the pump-centric product approach missed:
For the clinical dietitian:
- “Minimize the time it takes to adjust the nutrition plan based on the patient’s changing clinical status”
- “Minimize the likelihood that the prescribed formula is incompatible with the patient’s current medications”
- “Minimize the effort required to document nutritional intake for regulatory compliance”
These outcomes point not toward a better pump, but toward integrated nutrition management — a system that connects prescribing, administration, monitoring, and documentation.
For the patient (home care):
- “Minimize the disruption to daily activities during feeding”
- “Minimize the anxiety about whether the feeding is progressing correctly”
- “Minimize the visibility of the feeding setup to visitors” (a social job)
These outcomes point toward product design priorities that clinical engineers might never consider: form factor, noise level, and aesthetic discretion.
For the nurse (hospital):
- “Minimize the time between identifying a feeding complication and being alerted”
- “Minimize the number of manual steps required to change feeding modes”
- “Minimize the effort required to train new staff on the feeding system”
The Strategic Implication
The JTBD analysis revealed that the pump is a component of a much larger system of care. Companies that treat enteral feeding as a pump category will keep competing on flow rate accuracy and alarm features. Companies that address the full job — across stakeholders, across settings, across the continuum from prescription to monitoring — will redefine the category.
This is a pattern we see repeatedly in MedTech: the device manufacturer thinks in terms of devices, but the job crosses device boundaries. The opportunity lives in the system, not the product.
Info
Example 3: MOTUS — Redefining Mobility for People with Disabilities
The Product-Centric View
The assistive mobility market — wheelchairs, scooters, standing aids — is traditionally segmented by product type and disability classification. Product development focuses on clinical functionality: weight capacity, turning radius, battery range, seat positioning options. Insurance reimbursement codes further constrain the market definition by categorizing products rather than outcomes.
The Job: Move Independently Through Daily Environments
When the job is articulated as “move independently through the environments that matter to my daily life,” the outcome landscape shifts dramatically from clinical specifications to lived experience.
What JTBD Revealed
Interviews with wheelchair users across Austria and Germany surfaced outcome clusters that clinical product specifications rarely address:
Functional outcomes (beyond mobility):
- “Minimize the time it takes to transition from the wheelchair to other seating (car, restaurant, office chair)”
- “Minimize the number of environments I cannot access due to the wheelchair’s dimensions”
- “Minimize the effort required to transport the wheelchair when I am not using it (car trunk, airplane, hotel room)”
Emotional outcomes (dominant in this job):
- “Minimize the feeling of being dependent on others for routine movements”
- “Minimize the anxiety about battery or mechanical failure in an unfamiliar location”
- “Minimize the sense of being conspicuous in social situations”
Social outcomes:
- “Minimize the perception by others that my wheelchair defines my capabilities”
- “Be perceived as a peer in professional settings, not as someone who needs accommodation”
The Strategic Implication
The emotional and social outcomes dominated the opportunity landscape. The most underserved needs were not about going faster, turning tighter, or lasting longer on a charge. They were about independence, dignity, and social integration.
This has profound implications for product design: the wheelchair that looks and feels like a piece of premium personal technology (think Dyson, Apple) rather than a medical device addresses social outcomes that no amount of engineering optimization can touch. The product strategy shifts from “best-in-class clinical mobility device” to “personal independence system that minimizes the gap between wheelchair users and everyone else in daily environments.”
As discussed in our podcast episode #41, MOTUS approached mobility with precisely this lens — starting from the user’s desired outcomes rather than clinical classification codes.
The MOTUS case illustrates something we see in every JTBD study: when emotional and social jobs are measured quantitatively, they consistently rank among the most underserved outcomes. Engineering-driven companies that ignore these dimensions are not just leaving value on the table — they are leaving market share on the table.
Patterns Across Industries: What These Examples Teach
Pattern 1: Underserved Outcomes Cluster Outside the Core Function
In all three examples, the highest-opportunity outcomes were not in the Execute stage (the lift, the feeding, the movement). They were in Prepare, Confirm, Monitor, and Conclude — stages that product teams often treat as secondary. This is not coincidental. Core execution is where R&D investment has been concentrated for decades. The surrounding stages have been neglected, creating opportunity.
Implication: Map the entire job. Budget interview time and survey items across all eight stages. If your product roadmap only contains Execute-stage improvements, you are fighting where everyone else is fighting.
Pattern 2: Emotional and Social Outcomes Are Underserved in B2B
Consumer companies have long understood that emotional appeal drives purchasing. B2B companies are slower to accept this, but the data is unequivocal. In every industrial and MedTech JTBD study we have conducted, emotional outcomes rank among the top underserved needs. The crane operator who feels uncertain about stability. The nurse who feels anxious about feeding complications. The wheelchair user who feels conspicuous.
Implication: Include emotional and social outcomes in your quantitative survey. Do not relegate them to qualitative “nice to know” insights. Measure them with the same rigor as functional outcomes, and prioritize them when the data says they matter — which it will.
Pattern 3: The Job Is Bigger Than the Product Category
Palfinger’s job extends beyond the crane to the entire material transport process. Fresenius’s job extends beyond the pump to the entire nutrition management system. MOTUS’s job extends beyond the wheelchair to the entire lived mobility experience.
Implication: Define the job broadly enough to see where your product category boundaries limit your innovation space. The next growth opportunity may not be a better version of your current product — it may be an adjacent offering that addresses outcomes your product category does not currently serve. For how this applies specifically to B2B enterprise contexts, see JTBD for B2B.
Pattern 4: Multiple Job Executors Create Multiple Opportunity Spaces
Every example involved multiple stakeholders with different jobs: the crane operator and the fleet manager, the nurse and the dietitian and the patient, the wheelchair user and the caregiver. Each stakeholder’s job map produces a different set of outcomes and a different opportunity landscape.
Implication: Do not assume that “the customer” is a single entity. In B2B and MedTech contexts, there are always multiple job executors. Map the job for each one. The intersections between their unmet needs are where the most defensible innovations live.
How to Apply These Lessons to Your Product Line
Step 1: Identify Your Equivalent of the “Prepare Stage”
Look at how your customers use your product, not in the marketing brochure sense but in the actual daily workflow sense. What do they do before using your product? What do they do after? How much of their total time is spent on these surrounding activities versus the core function? The answers will point you toward underserved outcome clusters.
Step 2: Interview for Emotional and Social Jobs
Add emotional and social probes to your customer research protocol. Ask: “What worries you most about this process?” “What would make you feel more confident?” “How does your performance here affect how others see you?” These questions consistently surface outcomes that traditional product research misses.
Step 3: Map Multiple Stakeholders
Identify every person who touches the job — not just the primary user, but the buyer, the maintainer, the trainer, the compliance officer, the patient, the bystander. Map the job for each. The overlaps and conflicts between their outcomes reveal strategic opportunities.
Step 4: Quantify Before You Prioritize
Qualitative insights from JTBD interviews are powerful, but they are not sufficient for million-euro product decisions. Quantify the importance and satisfaction of each outcome across a representative sample. Let the opportunity scores drive prioritization, not the most compelling anecdote from the most articulate interview participant.
Frequently Asked Questions
See JTBD in Action for Your Industry
Book a complimentary discovery call to explore how these ideas apply to your organization.
