| name | jtbd-forces-analyzer |
| description | Analyze Jobs-to-be-Done switching forces from interview excerpts, customer feedback, or structured context-explorer output. Use when asked to identify Push of the current situation, Pull of a prospective alternative, Habit of the current approach, Anxiety about switching, Big Hire or Little Hire signals, and evidence gaps in a possible customer switch. Do not use to define a Core Functional Job, predict purchase probability, score switching readiness, calculate opportunity, or recommend product strategy. |
JTBD Four Forces Analyzer
Explain why customers want to change, yet still won't buy, switch, or renew.
Use this when
- You want to understand why prospects dislike their current tool but still hesitate to switch.
- You have customer interview notes or sales feedback containing current workarounds and prospective tools.
- You need to map Push, Pull, Habit, and Anxiety switching forces without making speculative purchase probability claims.
Don't use this when
- You need to design a customer discovery interview or get immediate next questions (use
jtbd-switch-interview).
- You need to formulate formulaic desired outcomes or calculate survey opportunity scores (use
jtbd-opportunity-calculator).
- You need to audit strategic pricing or growth matrix positioning (use
jtbd-growth-strategist).
Minimum input
- Minimum Input: Raw interview quotes or structured context data containing both a current approach (status quo) and a prospective alternative (candidate solution). If either is missing, returns
analysis_status: insufficient_switching_context with specific questions needed to complete the context.
What you get
- Human Summary: 5 key insights detailing reasons to change (Push), reasons to stay (Habit), reasons to choose you (Pull), reasons to hesitate (Anxiety), and the single most critical thing to validate next.
- Four Forces Arrays: Source-linked excerpts for
push, pull, habit, and anxiety.
- Switching Readiness Hypothesis: A qualitative assessment (
hypothesis_available | insufficient_evidence) stating supporting forces and missing evidence. (No numerical formulas or purchase probabilities).
Quick prompt
"Analyze the switching forces (Push, Pull, Habit, Anxiety) from this interview excerpt: '[Paste interview text here]'."
What to do next
- Need to validate missing anxiety or friction points? Run
jtbd-switch-interview to get targeted follow-up questions.
- Ready to formalize the customer's functional goal? Pass to
jtbd-job-definer.
Analysis Status Discipline
analysis_status: evidence_extracted: A valid switching context exists (both current approach and prospective alternative are established) AND at least one supported item is extracted from either the Four Forces or hire signals.
analysis_status: insufficient_switching_context: Material fails to establish either a current approach or a prospective alternative.
analysis_status: insufficient_input: No source material is provided.
Scope
Extract and classify evidence for:
push: Pressure or dissatisfaction making the current approach less acceptable.
pull: An explicitly stated or evidenced attractive property of a possible alternative; do not infer pull from the mere existence of a feature request.
habit: Routine, familiarity, integration, learned behavior, or dependency maintaining the status quo.
anxiety: Concern about uncertainty, migration, reliability, learning, privacy, cost, approval, or operational risk of changing approaches.
big_hire_signal: Evidence about deciding to adopt, buy, switch to, or first use a new approach.
little_hire_signal: Evidence about continued use, repurchase, renewal, or repeated selection after adoption.
switching_context: The current approach, prospective alternative, actor, and circumstance framing a possible switch.
Evidence Rules
- Preserve direct evidence as source-linked excerpts.
- Label interpretations as
inferred; do not upgrade them to direct facts.
- Do not create a pull merely because a requested feature exists.
- Do not classify generic dislike as push unless it creates pressure to change.
- Do not classify an existing workflow as habit unless the material indicates familiarity, inertia, embeddedness, or a reason it persists.
- Do not classify general fear as anxiety unless it concerns a prospective switch or alternative.
- Keep vendor product claims separate from customer evidence; label unsupported claims as
unverified_claim.
- Do not add, total, weight, or compare forces numerically (e.g., do not calculate Push + Pull > Habit + Anxiety).
- A switching-readiness statement must remain a hypothesis and must identify supporting and missing evidence.
- Big Hire and Little Hire are signals, not mandatory stages; mark them
unknown when evidence is absent.
Output Format
human_summary:
reason_to_change: ""
reason_to_stay: ""
reason_to_choose_you: ""
reason_to_hesitate: ""
most_important_thing_to_validate_next: ""
analysis_status: evidence_extracted | insufficient_input | insufficient_switching_context
switching_context:
actor:
value: ""
status: direct_evidence | inferred | unknown
circumstance:
statement: ""
status: direct_evidence | inferred | unknown
evidence: []
current_approach:
statement: ""
status: direct_evidence | inferred | unknown
evidence: []
prospective_alternative:
statement: ""
status: direct_evidence | inferred |
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Reference
Read references/four-forces-rules.md before:
- Distinguishing Push from Habit or generic dissatisfaction
- Distinguishing Pull from a product feature request or vendor claim
- Distinguishing Anxiety from general emotional discomfort
- Identifying Big Hire versus Little Hire signals
- Writing a switching-readiness hypothesis