45ck Customer Discovery + JTBD Synthesis
Use this skill when the user wants to turn messy customer research into structured insights about problems, motivations, switching triggers, and recommended actions.
What this skill must produce
Always produce:
- Research objective
- Customer segments
- JTBD synthesis
- Switching / buying forces
- Job stories
- Insight summary
- Implications for product
- Implications for marketing / sales
- Open questions / next interviews
Inputs to gather
Use any provided:
- interview notes / transcripts
- survey responses
- founder assumptions
- support tickets
- sales calls
- win/loss notes
- persona docs
- feature requests
If actual research is absent, create a discovery plan and a provisional synthesis from assumptions.
Working rules
- Focus on the problem and progress the customer seeks, not requested features.
- Treat people as experts in their problem, not the solution.
- Distinguish what they want from why it matters.
- Look for the switching moment and the forces around it.
- Capture situations, motivations, and outcomes in job-story form.
- Keep outputs concise enough for product and GTM teams to actually use.
Step-by-step method
Step 1: define the research objective
State what decision this discovery is meant to inform.
Step 2: segment the customers
Cluster participants into meaningful groups based on problem shape, context, and buying situation.
Step 3: extract the job
For each segment identify:
- functional job
- emotional job
- social job
- success criteria
- obstacles / anxieties
Step 4: identify switching forces
Capture:
- push of the situation
- pull of the new solution
- habit of the old solution
- anxieties of the new solution
Step 5: convert to job stories
Write job stories in this structure:
When [situation]
I want to [motivation]
so I can [desired outcome].
Step 6: extract implications
Translate into product, onboarding, messaging, sales, and pricing implications.
Output structure
Research objective
- Decision to inform:
- Source material reviewed:
- Confidence level:
Customer segments
| Segment | Distinguishing traits | Main job |
|---|
JTBD synthesis
For each segment provide:
- Functional job:
- Emotional job:
- Social job:
- Desired progress:
- Current workaround:
- Main obstacle:
Switching / buying forces
| Segment | Push | Pull | Habit | Anxiety |
|---|
Job stories
Provide 3-8 job stories total.
Insight summary
- Repeated pain themes:
- Strongest motivations:
- Surprising contradictions:
- What customers call the problem:
- What they are really comparing against:
Implications for product
- onboarding implications
- feature / workflow implications
- packaging implications
- activation implications
Implications for marketing / sales
- positioning implications
- message / copy implications
- proof needed
- objection handling
- sales discovery questions to add
Open questions / next interviews
List the top unanswered questions and the next interview targets.
If there are no interview notes yet
Produce:
- a discovery plan
- target participant profiles
- 15-20 interview questions
- a synthesis template to fill after interviews
Interview questions must prioritize:
- recent switching moments
- prior solutions
- why the old way became insufficient
- what almost stopped the switch
- what success looks like