Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) Statement Builder
What are their key struggles, pains or obstacles?
What are their desired outcomes and key gains?
What does it do?
A strategic framework designed to help teams move beyond demographic profiles and focus on the functional, emotional, and social “jobs” customers are trying to accomplish. It provides a structured syntax to articulate the specific circumstances, actions, and motivations that drive a user to “hire” a product or service.
- Identify Deep-Seated Obstacles: Uncover the specific struggles, costs, and risks that make a job difficult or impossible today.
- Define Success Metrics: Clarify the desired outcomes, such as speed, predictability, and emotional gains, that a user expects from a solution.
- Synthesise Value Propositions: Combine context, action, and gain into a single, powerful statement that aligns team efforts.
- De-risk Innovation: Ensure that new features or services directly address documented “pains” and “gains” rather than assumptions.
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Also available on Miro for remote team collaboration
When to use it
This tool is most effective during the discovery and definition phases of product development or service design. Use it when:
- Defining User Needs: You need to understand the underlying “why” behind customer behaviour.
- Prioritising Product Roadmaps: You want to focus on features that solve the highest-impact struggles or deliver the most valued outcomes.
- Aligning Stakeholders: You need a shared language to describe the value your solution provides to different actors in the system.
- Refining Marketing Messaging: You want to communicate the specific “emotional/social gain” your solution offers in a way that resonates with users.
How to use it
STEP 1
Identify Struggles and Pains: List the obstacles currently preventing the job from being done, such as “High cost of equipment downtime” or “Lack of trust in existing certifications.”
STEP 2
Determine Desired Outcomes: Define what success looks like for the user, focusing on metrics and emotions, like “Minimise production downtime to less than 1 hour” or “Feel confident that investment is truly de-risked.”
STEP 3
Draft the Job Statement: Use the mandatory formula: When + [SITUATION/CONTEXT], I want to + [VERB/ACTION] so that I can + [EMOTIONAL/SOCIAL GAIN].
STEP 4
Refine and Test: Check the statement against your example (e.g., “When switching my 24/7 furnace to hydrogen, I want to maintain continuous operational uptime so that I can avoid penalties and protect my reputation.”) to ensure it is specific and actionable.
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