thedixitjain JTBD Discovery Techniques
Use when conducting interactive discovery conversations to uncover jobs users are trying to accomplish. Adapted from Bob Moesta's Switch interview methodology for AI-guided feature discovery — the user describes their situation, Luna extracts forces and jobs through structured questioning.
Four Forces Extraction
Map user responses to Four Forces of Progress. Each force has characteristic language patterns to listen for and prompts to surface them.
Force 1: Push of Current Situation
User says: "I'm frustrated that..." | "It keeps breaking when..." | "I waste so much time on..." | "The last straw was when..."
Prompts:
- "What's your biggest frustration with how things work now?"
- "Tell me about the worst experience with the current approach."
- "What finally made this intolerable?"
- "What triggered this request — was there a specific incident?"
Force 2: Pull of New Solution
User says: "I want to be able to..." | "I imagine being able to..." | "My colleague said it could..." | "I need it to..."
Prompts:
- "What would the ideal outcome look like?"
- "What could you do that you can't do now?"
- "What specific capability excites you most about this?"
- "If this worked perfectly, what would change in your workflow?"
Force 3: Anxiety of New Solution
User says: "I'm worried that..." | "What if it doesn't..." | "I'm not sure I can learn..." | "The risk is..."
Prompts:
- "What concerns do you have about this new approach?"
- "What could go wrong that would make you regret this change?"
- "What would need to be true for you to feel safe adopting this?"
- "Is there anything that almost made you not request this?"
Force 4: Habit of Present
User says: "I'm used to..." | "At least with the old way, I know..." | "I've already invested..." | "My team is comfortable with..."
Prompts:
- "What do you like about the current approach, despite its problems?"
- "What feels safe or familiar about staying as-is?"
- "What would you have to give up or relearn?"
- "What workaround have you built that actually works well enough?"
Force Balance Assessment
After extracting forces, assess the balance:
| Balance | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Push + Strong Pull | High motivation to switch | Proceed — real demand |
| Strong Pull only | Shiny feature syndrome | Probe for Push — is there real pain? |
| Strong Push + Weak Pull | Pain without clear solution | Explore solution space before committing |
| Strong Anxiety or Habit | Adoption barriers | Address anxiety in design; plan migration path |
Critical rule: Stories driven only by Pull without Push are low-priority candidates. Real jobs have real frustrations.
Job Dimension Probing
Functional Jobs (surface first)
The practical task the user is trying to accomplish.
Questions:
- "What are you trying to get done?"
- "Walk me through the steps you take today."
- "What does 'success' look like in practical terms?"
- "What tools or resources do you use currently?"
Emotional Jobs (require deeper probing)
How the user wants to feel during and after.
Questions:
- "How does the current situation make you feel?"
- "What are you worried about at that point?"
- "When it works (or fails), how does that feel?"
- "What feeling are you trying to avoid?"
Social Jobs (often unarticulated)
How the user wants to be perceived by others.
Questions:
- "Who else is involved or aware of this?"
- "What would your team/manager/stakeholders think?"
- "How does this affect how others see you or your work?"
- "Is there anyone you're trying to impress or reassure?"
Question Bank: Deepening Techniques
Use these patterns to go deeper when surface-level answers are insufficient.
| Technique | Pattern | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| Timeline probe | "When did you first realize this was a problem?" | User gives vague frustration without specifics |
| Contrast probe | "How is this different from [related thing]?" | User conflates multiple concerns |
| Consequence probe | "What happens if you don't solve this?" | User can't articulate urgency |
| Concrete probe | "Can you give me a specific example?" | User speaks in generalities |
| Inversion probe | "What would make this feature useless to you?" | User gives only positive requirements |
| Scale probe | "How often does this happen? Daily? Weekly?" | User describes pain without magnitude |
Anti-Patterns
| Anti-Pattern | Problem | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Asking hypotheticals | People are poor predictors of future behavior | Ask about past events that already happened |
| Yes/no questions | Shallow data, no insight | Open-ended: "Tell me about a time when..." |
| Leading the witness | Contaminates data | Stay neutral; do not suggest answers or validate |
| Asking about features | Gets wants, not jobs | Ask about struggles and desired progress |
| Rushing to solutions | Misses real job | 80% of interview on problem, 20% on solutions |
| Accepting first answer | Surface-level understanding | Probe deeper: "Can you say more about that?" |
| Projecting emotions | Assumes how user feels | Ask directly: "How did that make you feel?" |
| Skipping social dimension | Misses organizational context | Always ask who else is affected or aware |
Synthesis Pattern
After extracting forces and dimensions, synthesize into job story format:
When [situation/push], I want to [motivation/pull], so I can [outcome/functional+emotional].
Validate with user: "Did I capture that correctly?" Refine until the user confirms.
If multiple jobs emerge, note each separately — opportunity scoring (load jtbd-opportunity-scoring) determines priority.
Cross-References
- For core JTBD theory and job story format: load
jtbd-coreskill - For prioritization using opportunity scoring: load
jtbd-opportunity-scoringskill - For translating discoveries to BDD scenarios: load
jtbd-bdd-integrationskill - For original Switch interview methodology (human-to-human customer research): see Bob Moesta, "Demand-Side Sales 101"
Source: nWave-ai/nWave → nWave/skills/nw-jtbd-interviews/SKILL.md
Also appears in: nWave-ai/nWave/plugins/nw/skills/nw-jtbd-interviews/SKILL.md