The Jobs-to-be-Done Pyramid™: A Breakthrough Framework for Strategy, Linking Function, Emotion and Identity

The Jobs-to-be-Done Pyramid™ is a new model for product strategy, mapping customer motivation across domains of function, emotion, and identity.

CHAPEL HILL, NC, UNITED STATES, June 2, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In a bold leap forward for innovation strategy, The Jobs-to-be-Done Pyramid™: An Innovation Architecture for Humans – Linking Function, Emotion, and Identity, is now available in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and audiobook formats.

Developed by innovation expert and author W. Scott Burleson, the Jobs-to-be-Done Pyramid™ introduces the first comprehensive model for understanding customer motivation across five interconnected levels—from practical use to aspirational identity and emotion.

Classic Jobs-to-be-Done theory has long helped companies build better products by focusing on the outcomes customers seek. But there have been issues. Casual users found the terms confusing. Product leaders couldn't visualize market dynamics. Even the experts struggled to apply emotional needs to the practices of innovation, marketing, and strategy.

As great as JTBD theory has been, it's time for an update to fill the gaps. It's time for a simple, elegant, visual model of customer motivation—The Jobs-to-be-Done Pyramid™.

“People don’t just buy products to do tasks—they buy them to become who they want to be,” says Burleson. To achieve the type of loyalty that companies dream of, we have to go beyond usability. We even have to go beyond a customer's functional goals. We must go further still to reinforce their identity. And when we do that, we help them to achieve their vision of themselves. That's their true job-to-be-done. The Jobs-to-be-Done Pyramid provides a visual model across the spectrum of these customer needs."

The five levels of The JTBD Pyramid™ are:
1. Product Jobs – Tasks around using, setting up, maintaining, or disposing of a product
2. Core Jobs – The fundamental problem the customer is trying to solve
3. Role Identity Jobs – The roles people aspire to live out (e.g., creator, explorer, protector)
4. Image Identity Jobs – How people want to see themselves—and be seen by others
5. Emotional Jobs – How people want to feel in the moment of interaction

Each level includes structured categories and real-world examples, making the Pyramid an immediately usable tool for product teams, marketers, researchers, and executives. This modern update on jobs-to-be-done theory is destined to become fundamental reading for innovators and business leaders alike.

Alongside the book, Burleson has also introduced The JTBD Pyramid™ Analysis, a strategic assessment that helps organizations uncover customer jobs in their markets and prioritize strategic opportunities using the Pyramid's structure.

Available now on Amazon and at major booksellers.

For more information, consulting services, or speaking engagements, visit https://www.thejtbdpyramid.com

William Scott Burleson
The AIM Institute
scott.burleson@theaiminstitute.com

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