Jobs-to-be-Done Extractor
Turn interviews and notes into testable job statements.
Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) describes the progress a person tries to make in a specific situation. A canonical job statement:
When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome].
Jobs are not demographics ("millennial HR manager") and not tasks alone ("click export"). They capture functional, emotional, and social dimensions — why someone "hires" your product or process.
Feature backlogs optimise what is easy to build, not what customers struggle to accomplish. JTBD keeps discovery outcome-focused and reveals non-obvious competitors (spreadsheets, consultants, doing nothing). It bridges raw interviews to VPC, personas, and roadmap bets.
After 8–15 interviews, support theme analysis, or win/loss quotes — before locking VPC or a quarterly roadmap. Refresh when entering a new segment or after a positioning pivot.
- Collect situational triggers — first thought, struggle, workaround, success criteria.
- Extract job statements — functional + emotional + social where relevant.
- Attach evidence — anonymised quotes and frequency counts.
- Rank jobs — by frequency, severity, strategic fit, and willingness to pay.
- Map to segments/personas — same job may rank differently by segment.
- Link to opportunities — experiments, MVP scope, or messaging tests.
- Retire jobs — when evidence shows they are rare or already solved.
- Jobs are situational, not persona labels.
- Each top job has a quote and count (e.g. 8/12 interviews).
- Emotional and social jobs appear where they drive switching.
- Clear link from top jobs to roadmap or VPC pains/gains.
- Tasks masquerading as jobs — "use dashboard" vs "know if team is at risk before 1:1."
- No segment link — averaging jobs across incompatible buyers.
- Skipping emotional jobs — especially in HR, health, and compliance categories.
- One workshop, no interviews — fabricated jobs without evidence.
Northvale Systems (procurement ops). JTBD-01: When a new supplier is approved, I want master data in ERP without re-keying, so I can close POs the same week (8/12 interviews). JTBD-02: When audit requests evidence, I want one portal export, so I am not chasing attachments. Priority: JTBD-01 for portal MVP.
PulseWell (managers). JTBD-01: When stress signals appear before 1:1s, I want neutral early warning, so I can adjust workload without overstepping HR policy. Quote: "I don't want to be their therapist — I want a heads-up." Priority: MVP nudges.
Harbor Consulting (plant GMs). JTBD-01: When reshoring grants open, I want to know if my line qualifies before hiring consultants, so I do not waste improvement budget. Diagnostic SKU maps here.
Clearwater Initiative (field coordinators). JTBD-01: When a pump fails, I want same-day volunteer reporting, so communities are not without water over the weekend. SMS workflow targets this job.
Run /jtbd for JTBD-001 rows with evidence links. Complements /personas and the Value Proposition Canvas; feed top jobs into /journeys pain points.
Related techniques
Sources & further reading
- Ulwick, A. W. (2016). Jobs to be Done (2nd ed.). Ideapress.
- Christensen, C. M., et al. (2016). Competing Against Luck. Harper Business.