Jobs to Be Done - Customer Motivation Framework

Understand why customers really buy by uncovering the "job" they're hiring your product to do

When to Use This Skill

• Understanding customer motivation beyond demographics and feature requests
• Finding product-market fit by identifying the real progress customers seek
• Discovering why customers switch (or don't) between solutions
• Identifying true competition that isn't obvious from industry categories
• Creating marketing messages that resonate with real customer struggles
• Prioritizing features based on unmet customer needs
• Conducting customer research that reveals actionable insights

Methodology Foundation

What Claude Does vs What You Decide

What This Skill Does

This skill helps you shift from asking "Who is my customer?" to asking "What job is my customer trying to get done?"

The result is a fundamentally different understanding of why people buy:

1. Uncover the real job - The progress customers are trying to make in their lives
2. See all three dimensions - Functional, emotional, and social needs
3. Understand the forces - What pushes people to change and what holds them back
4. Map the job - Break it down into steps where you can add value
5. Identify true competition - Everyone solving the same job, regardless of category

This transforms feature-driven product development into progress-driven innovation.

How to Use

Prompt Examples

Help me identify the Job to Be Done for customers who buy [product/service].
Use the Christensen JTBD framework. Consider functional, emotional, and social dimensions.

I'm seeing customers use my product for [unexpected purpose]. Help me understand
what job they might be hiring it for using JTBD analysis.

Create a Job Map for [specific customer goal]. Break it into the 8 universal steps
and identify where customers might struggle most.

Analyze the forces of progress for someone switching from [current solution] to [my product].
What's pushing them, pulling them, causing anxiety, and creating habit inertia?

Write Job Stories (not user stories) for my [product]. Focus on situation,
motivation, and expected outcome rather than user type and action.

Instructions

The Core Framework

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  JOBS TO BE DONE                            │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                             │
│  "When [CIRCUMSTANCE], I want to [JOB], so I can [OUTCOME]" │
│                                                             │
│  ┌───────────┐   ┌───────────┐   ┌───────────┐             │
│  │FUNCTIONAL │ + │ EMOTIONAL │ + │  SOCIAL   │             │
│  │    JOB    │   │    JOB    │   │    JOB    │             │
│  └───────────┘   └───────────┘   └───────────┘             │
│                                                             │
│  What they're    How they want   How they want              │
│  trying to DO    to FEEL         to be SEEN                 │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Step 1: Understand the Three Dimensions

Every job has three dimensions. Products that address all three are far more likely to be "hired."

Key Insight: Many products fail because they nail the functional job but ignore the emotional and social dimensions.

Exercise: For your product, fill in:

• "Customers hire us to DO _______________"
• "Customers hire us to FEEL _______________"
• "Customers hire us to BE SEEN AS _______________"

Step 2: Identify the Forces of Progress

Four forces determine whether a customer will "switch" to your solution:

                    ┌─────────────┐
                    │    PUSH     │
                    │ Problems    │
                    │ with status │
                    │    quo      │
                    └──────┬──────┘
                           ↓
┌─────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│   HABIT     │←────│   CUSTOMER   │────→│    PULL     │
│  Comfort    │     │   DECISION   │     │ Attraction  │
│  with old   │     └──────────────┘     │   of new    │
│   way       │                          │  solution   │
└─────────────┘            ↑              └─────────────┘
                    ┌──────┴──────┐
                    │   ANXIETY   │
                    │   Fear of   │
                    │   change    │
                    └─────────────┘

Switch happens when: Push + Pull > Habit + Anxiety

Tactical Application:

• Increase Push: Help customers see the true cost of their current solution
• Increase Pull: Demonstrate the progress they can make
• Reduce Anxiety: Provide guarantees, trials, social proof
• Reduce Habit: Make switching easy, offer migration tools

Step 3: Map the Job

Break down any job into the universal 8-step Job Map:

Example: Job = "Prepare a nutritious dinner on a busy weeknight"