Are emotional and social jobs important to consider?
Are you familiar with the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework?
It’s a powerful tool that goes beyond simply understanding what features users want, but rather why they need them.
The JTBD framework breaks down user needs into three distinct categories: functional, emotional, and social. While the functional job might be the most obvious – “create a CRM report” – it’s the emotional and social aspects that can unlock true product innovation and user loyalty.
The Three Jobs of Users:
- Functional Jobs: These are the core tasks users are trying to accomplish. They’re the practical needs, like “clean my clothes” or “find a flight to Paris.”
- Emotional Jobs: These are the feelings users want to experience while completing a task. Do they want to feel confident, relaxed, or in control? For example, someone using a workout app might want to feel energized and accomplished and ensure they are making progress.
- Social Jobs: Here, users are concerned with how they’re perceived by others. Do they want to project a certain image, like being seen as tech-savvy or environmentally conscious? Someone choosing a car might be drawn to a brand that reflects their adventurous spirit. Or a sales ops analysts who wants to be seen as trustworthy in producing accurate reports by their sales leaders.
The Functional Fallacy:
Many product managers, myself included at times, fall into the trap of prioritizing functional jobs. We focus on features and functionalities, thinking that emotional and social needs are just “nice-to-haves” – a bit too touchy-feely for the data-driven world of product development.
Wrong!
Let me share a recent story. A real story.
I have been a customer at this bank for almost 30 years now. Recently, this (US based) bank sold off their India operations to a local bank. I was excited because I will have access to other products like mutual funds or term deposits. I was also excited by a slightly improved user experience so I don’t have to spend too much time figuring out things on the existing banks crappy app.
After 2 years of the announcement, it was time to migrate to the new site. I got an email to register to the new site. Fortunately, they kept my user id and password. So I tried to register. And then I tried to log in.
I got an error message that I need to register. So, I try again. Now it said that I am already registered.
OK, now I am caught in a loop. I badly wanted to access my account to check some transactions. The old site had been shut down. The whole weekend I was fretting on how to get to my account statement. My first worry was – Is my money safe? Was something amiss in the migration to the new bank.
This was my emotional state of mind. Worry.
A good PM would have considered the emotional jobs that would have told them that we need to keep the banking user assured of their money and give them the feeling that their money is safe. If you had just asked about functional jobs you would have spec’d out the screens for account balance and statements etc.
How would you spec the emotional jobs?
Well, the PM would have tested the app before rolling out to ensure user can log in and register. They would have added notifications or communications to keep the users worry at ease. Things like that.
So what happened was there was a weekend update on the site. But I had no indication of that on email or on the web site. A simple message on the site stating that you may experience registration or simply disable the register button would be sufficient. I would not have spent so much time in the loop. And you know how I found out. I google searched and found a news article that there is a scheduled maintenance.
This was an example of not taking emotional jobs to be done into account.
Here’s why Emotional and Social Jobs are Critical:
- Deeper Understanding: By understanding the emotional and social aspects, you get a richer picture of what motivates users. This can lead to more innovative product solutions that not only address the task at hand but also resonate with users on a deeper level.
- Powerful Messaging: Knowing the emotional and social jobs allows you to craft marketing messages that connect on an emotional level. Instead of just talking about features, you can speak to the aspirations and anxieties users have.
- User-Centric Documentation: Even seemingly mundane tasks like writing documentation benefit from understanding emotional and social jobs. Imagine user guides that not only explain how to use a product but also how it can help users feel more confident or impress their colleagues.
Let’s look at Slack as an example.
Emotional Jobs:
- Feeling Connected: Slack fosters a sense of connection with colleagues through features like channels, direct messaging, and emojis. It allows for quick communication and information sharing, reducing feelings of isolation, especially for remote teams.
- Feeling Engaged: Slack’s fun and interactive interface with integrations like GIFs and custom emojis makes work feel less like a chore. It can even increase team spirit and a sense of belonging.
Social Jobs:
- Building Team Culture: Slack helps teams build a strong culture by allowing for informal communication, fostering team spirit through shared channels and memes, and promoting transparency through open communication.
- Boosting Collaboration: Features like shared documents and file sharing within channels, along with real-time messaging, streamline collaboration and promote teamwork.
Let’s look at Canva as an example.
Emotional Jobs:
- Feeling Creative: Canva’s user-friendly interface and vast library of templates empowers even non-designers to create professional-looking visuals. This promotes a sense of accomplishment and fosters creativity.
- Feeling Confident: Sharing creations on social media or within Canva’s community allows users to receive feedback and gain confidence in their design skills.
Social Jobs:
- Expressing Yourself: Canva allows users to create visuals that represent their ideas, stories, and brands. This helps with self-expression and personal branding.
- Social Sharing & Community Building: Users can easily share their designs on social media or collaborate with others on projects within Canva. This fosters a sense of community and allows users to connect with like-minded individuals.
If you are a PM, how would you incorporate social and emotional jobs in your design.
Here are some patterns to help you think.
Social Jobs:
1. Project Management Tool:
- Goal: Promote a sense of team unity and collaboration.
- Design Feature: Implement features that go beyond task management, like allowing team members to share kudos and celebrate milestones publicly within the project. This fosters a sense of camaraderie and accomplishment.
2. Enterprise Communication Platform:
- Goal: Enable clear and transparent communication across departments, promoting trust and reducing information silos.
- Design Feature: Integrate features like real-time presence indicators and threaded conversations to streamline communication and ensure everyone is on the same page. This fosters a collaborative environment where information flows freely.
3. Learning Management System (LMS):
- Goal: Facilitate a sense of community and knowledge sharing among employees.
- Design Feature: Integrate social learning elements like discussion forums, peer-to-peer mentoring opportunities, and gamification features that encourage healthy competition and knowledge sharing within the platform.
4. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) System:
- Goal: Project a professional and efficient image to clients and partners.
- Design Feature: Develop a user-friendly interface with intuitive search functionalities that allows employees to quickly find and share relevant information with external stakeholders. This ensures a smooth and efficient client experience.
Emotional Jobs:
1. Project Management Tool:
- Goal: Reduce feelings of overwhelm and improve task clarity for team members.
- Design Feature: Implement features like workload management tools that help individuals visualize their tasks and identify potential bottlenecks. Prioritization tools can also empower team members to feel more in control of their workload.
2. Human Resources (HR) Software:
- Goal: Promote a sense of employee well-being and job satisfaction.
- Design Feature: Integrate features for employee recognition programs and allow for anonymous feedback mechanisms. Additionally, consider features that promote work-life balance, like flexible scheduling tools and vacation tracking. This demonstrates a commitment to employee well-being and fosters a positive work environment.
3. Data Analytics Software:
- Goal: Empower users to feel confident and data-driven in their decision making.
- Design Feature: Develop easy-to-understand dashboards and visualizations that make complex data readily interpretable, even for non-technical users. This allows users to make data-backed decisions with ease.
4. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Platform:
- Goal: Reduce stress and workload for sales representatives, allowing them to feel more in control and productive.
- Design Feature: Automate repetitive tasks like data entry and generate automated reports to free up sales reps’ time. Integrate features like sales pipelines and forecasting tools to give reps greater visibility into their sales funnel and performance. This empowers them to focus on closing deals.
And not just for product capabilities, you can also weave these insights to downstream functions like – positioning, marketing or documentation.
Let’s say a social job is to make sure that your buyer feel good about purchasing your product. You can add case studies or testimonials or arrange references as part of your sales process.
If the user wants to feel they are working on a cutting edge tech, then include them in a community or like minded professionals.
If the persona wants to feel they are learning and gaining skills e.g. a marketing person learning about salesforce, then you can offer certifications to make them feel accomplished.
Conclusion:
The Jobs-to-be-Done framework, when used holistically, is a game-changer. By embracing the emotional and social aspects alongside the functional needs, you can develop products that users not only need but also love. Remember, people don’t just buy products, they buy experiences and the way those experiences make them feel. So, tap into the emotional and social desires of your users, and watch your product soar.
