Job Story Mapper Skill

Stop writing features. Start understanding jobs. This skill translates product requirements and user interviews into precise job stories that keep the team focused on outcomes — not outputs.

Jobs-to-be-Done Fundamentals

A "job" is the progress a customer is trying to make in a given situation. People don't buy products — they hire them to get a job done.

Three dimensions of every job:

• Functional job: The practical task ("get from A to B")
• Emotional job: How they want to feel ("feel confident I made the right choice")
• Social job: How they want to be perceived ("look like a competent professional to my team")

Great products address all three. Most roadmaps only address the functional one.

Job Story Format

Template:

When [situation/trigger], I want to [motivation/goal], so I can [expected outcome].

Not a user story: User stories focus on roles and features: "As a [role] I want [feature] so that [benefit]." Job stories focus on situations and motivations: "When [I'm in this specific situation] I want [this capability] so I can [achieve this outcome]."

The situation is the most important part. "When I'm in the middle of a sprint and my PM asks for an update" is a much richer trigger than "As a developer."

Mapping Process

Step 1: Identify the main job

One sentence: What is the core job your product is hired for?

"Help [user type] [accomplish outcome] when [context]."

Step 2: Break into job steps

What are all the sub-tasks within the main job? (Use a job map: Define → Locate → Prepare → Confirm → Execute → Monitor → Modify → Conclude)

Step 3: Identify pain points per step

Where does the job fall down today? Where do customers use workarounds?

Step 4: Write job stories for each pain point

One job story per distinct situation-motivation pair.

Step 5: Map to product opportunities

Which job stories are underserved? Which have existing solutions? Where is your differentiation?

Output Format

Job Story Map — [Product/Feature Area] — [Date]

Core Job Statement:

When [context], [user type] wants to [main job outcome], so they can [ultimate goal].

Job Map:

Job Stories (prioritised by underservice):

Job Story 1 — [Situation label]

When [specific situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome].

Functional dimension: [What they need to get done] Emotional dimension: [How they want to feel] Social dimension: [How they want to be perceived]

Current workaround: [What they do today] Pain intensity: [High / Medium / Low] Frequency: [How often this situation occurs] Product opportunity: [What we could build to address this]

Repeat for each major job story.

Opportunity Scoring: Rate each job story on:

• Importance to customer (1–10)
• Satisfaction with current solution (1–10)
• Opportunity score = Importance + max(Importance – Satisfaction, 0)
• Prioritise: Opportunity score > 10

Quality Checks

• Job stories use the "When / I want to / So I can" format (not user story format)
• Situation is specific (not "as a user" — a real moment or trigger)
• All three dimensions covered: functional, emotional, social
• Opportunity score calculated for each job story
• Current workaround identified for each high-opportunity story
• Product opportunity is distinct from "build the feature" (it's an outcome)

Guidelines

• Never write a job story for a feature — write it for the situation that makes the feature valuable
• If you can't identify the situation, you don't understand the job yet — go back to user research
• Social and emotional jobs are harder to surface but often the most defensible differentiators
• Recommend sharing job stories with engineering — they make better technical decisions when they understand the "why"