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Jobs-To-Be-Done — Customer Discovery Framework

Understand the job, not the customer. People don't buy products — they hire them to get a job done.

When to Use

• Before designing a new feature or product
• When existing features aren't converting or being used
• Alongside cm-brainstorm-idea for deep customer context
• User mentions: "customer discovery", "JTBD", "what do customers want", "product-market fit", "why are users churning"

The JTBD Framework

Job Statement Formula

When [SITUATION], I want to [MOTIVATION], so I can [EXPECTED OUTCOME]

Three Job Dimensions

Dimension	Definition	Example
Functional	The core task to accomplish	"Get from A to B quickly"
Social	How the person wants to be perceived	"Be seen as a reliable professional"
Emotional	How the person wants to feel	"Feel confident in my decision"

Process

Phase 1: Job Discovery (Interviews)

1. Recruit 5-8 recent customers (ideally within 90 days of purchase)
2. Use the Switch Interview technique — ask about the moment they decided to switch/buy
3. Key questions:
   • "Walk me through the day you decided to [buy/switch/start using X]"
   • "What were you doing before that solution existed?"
   • "What was the first thing you tried? Why didn't that work?"
   • "What almost stopped you from switching?"
4. Record patterns: triggers → anxiety → progress → outcomes

Phase 2: JTBD Canvas

For each major job discovered, complete the canvas:

JOB STATEMENT:
When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]

FUNCTIONAL DIMENSION: [core task]
SOCIAL DIMENSION:     [perception goal]
EMOTIONAL DIMENSION:  [feeling goal]

FORCES PUSHING TO HIRE:
(+) Push: [what makes them switch from current solution]
(+) Pull: [what attracts them to new solution]

FORCES RESISTING HIRE:
(-) Anxiety: [fears about new solution]
(-) Habit: [attachment to old solution]

COMPETING SOLUTIONS CURRENTLY HIRED:
1. [direct competitor or workaround]
2. [indirect solution]
3. [do-nothing option]

OUTCOME METRICS (how customer measures success):
- Speed: [e.g., "get answer in <5 minutes"]
- Accuracy: [e.g., "zero errors in the output"]
- Effort: [e.g., "no manual steps required"]

Phase 3: Opportunity Scoring

Rate each outcome metric:

• Importance (1-10): How important is this outcome to the customer?
• Satisfaction (1-10): How satisfied are they with current solutions?
• Opportunity score = Importance + max(Importance − Satisfaction, 0)

Scores ≥ 15 = underserved outcomes → highest priority to address.

Output

Save JTBD canvas to docs/jtbd/jtbd-canvas-[date].md.

Integration

Skill	Relationship
cm-brainstorm-idea	UPSTREAM: JTBD feeds into strategic analysis
cm-planning	DOWNSTREAM: Validated jobs inform feature plans
cro-methodology	COMPLEMENT: JTBD objections → CRO objection handling
cm-dockit	OUTPUT: JTBD canvases are a document type in DocKit