Working backwards from Intercom's marketing site, it's easy to see how to apply the jobs-to-be-done framework after the fact. But to build strong product habits that can sustain a business, you have to start from scratch.

At the end of the day, getting your entire product team to focus obsessively on the job-to-be-done is simply a good habit. It allows you to build better products faster-ones that your customers will actually use.

Here's how to orient your team around jobs-to-be-done:

• Build it in Excel.
  Software engineers and developers often exist on a technical level that is far removed from the people they're building for. Get your software engineers to try and work out the job-to-be-done in Excel-the way that most of your customers are probably doing it-to get them closer to that pain.
• Work the marketing circuit.
  Intercom's genius is that it understood thatthe jobs-to-be-done framework can apply to everything. Getting your product people in the same headspace as your marketers forces them to think through problems and customers, instead of thinking about them abstractly.
• "All Hands Support."
  Try having everyone in the company, especially the engineers on your product team, handle customer support tickets at least once a month. It's one thing to look at reams of data and customer feedback in aggregate, and another entirely to work through specific support issues that customers face. This is something that Wistia, the video hosting and analytics company, does religiously. As Wistia CEO Chris Savage says, "employee motivation should be aligned with happy customers." This comes from getting your product people in front of your customers.