Jobs To Be Done

Core insight: Customers don't buy products. They hire them to make progress in specific circumstances. Understanding the job — not the customer demographics or product features — is what predicts success.

Dual-use skill:

• Sales/BDR Mode: Use Forces of Progress and Switch Interviews to understand why prospects switch, structure discovery calls around the job map, and frame value propositions as outcome statements
• Strategy Mode: Use the full ODI methodology to score outcome importance vs satisfaction, identify underserved opportunities, and analyze competitive hiring/firing dynamics

When to activate: user asks about jobs to be done, JTBD analysis, customer jobs, outcome-driven innovation, forces of progress, switch interviews, or why customers switch solutions.

Trigger: analyze [company/product/market] using JTBD

Sales Mode (discovery calls, prospect research):

1. Define the core functional job the prospect is hiring for
2. Map Forces of Progress (what's pushing them to switch?)
3. Generate Switch Interview questions for discovery calls
4. Frame your value prop as outcome statements

Strategy Mode (market analysis, product innovation):

1. Write the Job Statement
2. Build the Job Map (8 steps)
3. Generate 15-30 Outcome Statements
4. Score Importance vs Satisfaction (ODI algorithm)
5. Identify top underserved outcomes
6. Analyze Hiring/Firing competitive landscape

Example: Analyze video conferencing for hybrid enterprise teams using JTBD

What Is a Job?

A job is the progress a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance. Jobs are:

• Stable over time — the job of "getting informed about breaking news" hasn't changed in 200 years; only solutions change
• Solution-agnostic — no technologies, products, or methods in the job statement
• Functional + emotional + social — every job has all three dimensions

The 3 Types of Jobs

Critical Distinctions

The test: If it mentions your product, a technology, or a specific method, it's NOT a job — it's a solution. Rewrite until it's solution-agnostic.

Formula

[When ___], [I want to ___], [so I can ___]

• When: The triggering circumstance (not a persona)
• I want to: The functional job (solution-agnostic verb + object)
• So I can: The higher purpose / desired outcome

Rules for Good Job Statements

1. No technologies, products, or brand names
2. Stable for 10+ years (if the job existed in 2010, it should read the same)
3. One core job per statement (decompose complex jobs)
4. Use active verbs: capture, deliver, ensure, coordinate, monitor

Examples

Every job follows these 8 steps. Use them to structure discovery calls and identify outcome opportunities at each stage.

Sales application: Walk prospects through steps 1-8 during discovery. Each step where they describe friction, workarounds, or pain is an opportunity signal.

Strategy application: Generate 2-4 outcome statements per step to build a comprehensive outcome set (15-30 total outcomes).

Formula

[Direction] + [metric] + [object of control]

Directions: Minimize, Reduce, Increase, Maximize, Decrease, Eliminate

Rules

• Must be measurable (contains a metric: time, likelihood, number, amount)
• Must be controllable (something the user can influence)
• Must be solution-agnostic (no product references)

Examples

Imp = Importance (1-10), Sat = Satisfaction with current solution (1-10)

Common Mistakes

When a customer switches solutions, four forces are at play. Two drive change, two resist it.

  DRIVING CHANGE                    RESISTING CHANGE
  ─────────────                     ────────────────
  ┌─────────────────┐               ┌─────────────────┐
  │  PUSH            │               │  ANXIETY          │
  │  Current pain    │──────────────▶│  Fear of new      │
  │  "This is broken"│               │  "What if it's    │
  │                  │               │   worse?"         │
  └─────────────────┘               └─────────────────┘
  ┌─────────────────┐               ┌─────────────────┐
  │  PULL            │               │  HABIT            │
  │  New attraction  │──────────────▶│  Comfort of old   │
  │  "That looks     │               │  "I know how this │
  │   better"        │               │   works"          │
  └─────────────────┘               └─────────────────┘

Switch happens when: Push + Pull > Anxiety + Habit

BDR Quick Reference — Discovery Questions

Push (uncover current pain):

1. "What's the most frustrating part of how you handle [job] today?"
2. "When was the last time [current solution] let you down? What happened?"
3. "If you could wave a magic wand, what would you fix first?"

Pull (new solution attraction):

1. "What made you start looking at alternatives?"
2. "What would an ideal solution for [job] look like?"
3. "Who else have you looked at? What caught your eye?"

Anxiety (reduce fear of change):

1. "What concerns do you have about switching from [current solution]?"
2. "What would need to be true for you to feel confident making a change?"
3. "Have you tried switching before? What happened?"

Habit (overcome inertia):

1. "How long have you been using [current solution]?"
2. "What would your team say if you changed how they do [job]?"
3. "Is the team trained on the current system? Who would need retraining?"

Sales insight: If Push is weak, the prospect isn't ready — nurture, don't sell. If Anxiety is strong, your demo must directly address their specific fears.

Customers "hire" solutions to get a job done and "fire" them when they fail. Map the competitive landscape through this lens.

Template

Key questions:

• What is the prospect currently "hiring" for this job?
• Why might they "fire" their current solution? (= your opening)
• What workarounds reveal unmet outcomes? (= your differentiation)
• Is "doing nothing" a competitor? (often the hardest to beat)

Non-obvious insight: Your biggest competitor is often NOT another product — it's the combination of workarounds, habits, and "good enough" that the prospect has assembled. Understand the full "hired set" before pitching.

Map the prospect's decision journey from first thought to final decision. Based on Bob Moesta's demand-side interviewing methodology.

The Timeline

First       Passive      Active       Deciding     Consuming    Satisfaction
Thought     Looking      Looking
  │            │            │            │            │            │
  ▼            ▼            ▼            ▼            ▼            ▼
"Something  "I notice    "I'm         "Comparing   "Using the   "Was it
 isn't       alternatives  actively     options,     new          worth
 working"    in passing"   searching"   getting      solution"    switching?"
                                        buy-in"

Questions per Phase

First Thought: "When did you first realize the current way of doing [job] wasn't working? What triggered that moment?"

Passive Looking: "Before you started actively searching, did you notice any alternatives? Where? What caught your attention?"

Active Looking: "What made you shift from 'just noticing' to actively searching? What did you search for? Who did you talk to?"

Deciding: "How did you narrow your options? What criteria mattered most? Who else was involved in the decision?"

Consuming: "What was the onboarding/setup experience like? Did reality match expectations?"

Satisfaction: "Looking back, did the switch solve the original problem? What surprised you — good or bad?"

Sales Application

• Won deal debrief: Walk the buyer through all 6 phases — you'll discover what ACTUALLY sold them (it's rarely what you think)
• Lost deal debrief: Find where in the timeline you lost — First Thought (no pain) vs Deciding (lost on criteria) vs Consuming (bad onboarding)
• Discovery calls: Use First Thought and Active Looking questions to understand where the prospect IS in their timeline right now

Tony Ulwick's Outcome-Driven Innovation scoring identifies which outcomes are underserved (high opportunity) vs overserved (commoditized).

Formula

Opportunity Score = Importance + max(Importance - Satisfaction, 0)

• Importance (Imp): 1-10, how critical is this outcome to getting the job done?
• Satisfaction (Sat): 1-10, how well does the current solution address this?
• Score range: 1-20

Interpretation

Scoring Example

JTBD Opportunity Index (0-100 Composite)

For consistency with Blue Ocean and Business Model Canvas scoring:

def jtbd_opportunity_index(outcomes):
    """Normalize ODI scores to 0-100 composite index."""
    scores = [imp + max(imp - sat, 0) for imp, sat in outcomes]
    max_possible = 20  # imp=10, sat=0
    avg_normalized = sum(s / max_possible for s in scores) / len(scores)

    # Weight by number of underserved outcomes
    underserved_ratio = sum(1 for s in scores if s > 15) / len(scores)

    index = (avg_normalized * 70) + (underserved_ratio * 30)
    return round(index * 100) / 100

# Interpretation:
# 75-100: Massive opportunity — many critical underserved outcomes
# 50-74:  Solid opportunity — clear gaps to exploit
# 25-49:  Moderate — some gaps, market partially served
# 0-24:   Low opportunity — market well-served, compete on cost/convenience

Analyze friction across the full lifecycle of how customers interact with solutions for this job.

Each friction point in the consumption chain is a potential innovation opportunity or competitive advantage.

Job Statement

When coordinating a meeting with both in-room and remote participants, I want to ensure everyone can see, hear, and contribute equally, so I can run productive meetings regardless of where people are located.

Job Map (Key Steps)

Top 5 Outcome Statements (Scored)

JTBD Opportunity Index: 72/100 — Solid opportunity, 3 of 5 outcomes underserved.

Forces of Progress (Prospect Switching from Legacy Room System)

Verdict: Push + Pull strong. Anxiety manageable with phased rollout. Habit requires AV team champion.

Hiring/Firing

• Job Statement follows [When], [I want to], [so I can] — no products, technologies, or methods mentioned
• Job Map covers all 8 steps with discovery questions
• Outcome Statements use Direction + Metric + Object formula and are measurable
• Forces of Progress mapped with specific evidence/quotes (not generic)
• ODI Opportunity Scores calculated: Importance + max(Importance - Satisfaction, 0)
• Top 3 underserved outcomes identified (score > 15)
• Hiring/Firing table maps competitive landscape through job lens
• JTBD Opportunity Index calculated (0-100 composite score)

JTBD integrates with 4 other strategy skills for first-principles thinking:

Pipeline: JTBD (what job?) → Blue Ocean (where's the space?) → BMC (how to deliver?) → Challenger (what insight?) → NSTTD (how to communicate?)

Emit Outcome Sidecar

As the final step, write to ~/.claude/skill-analytics/last-outcome-jobs-to-be-done.json:

{"ts":"[UTC ISO8601]","skill":"jobs-to-be-done","version":"1.0.0","variant":"default",
 "status":"[success|partial|error]","runtime_ms":[estimated ms from start],
 "metrics":{"job_statements_created":[n],"outcome_statements":[n],"odi_scores_calculated":[n],"underserved_outcomes":[n]},
 "error":null,"session_id":"[YYYY-MM-DD]"}

Use status "partial" if some stages failed but results were produced. Use "error" only if no output was generated.