| name | jobs-to-be-done-extractor |
| description | Extracts Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) statements (functional, emotional, social) from raw research - interviews, surveys, support tickets, sales calls - and produces a job map with progress measures and outcome statements. Use when reframing a product around customer outcomes, segmenting beyond demographics, building a competitive switching analysis, prioritizing features, or aligning product, marketing, and sales on the same job. |
Jobs-to-be-Done Extractor
Reframes the product around the job the customer is hiring it to do.
What this skill is
A workflow that turns unstructured customer research into Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) artifacts: functional, emotional, and social job statements; a job map; force diagrams (push / pull / habit / anxiety); outcome statements; and a hire / fire analysis. Built on the Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) school of Anthony Ulwick and the milkshake school of Clayton Christensen, with explicit handling of overserved versus underserved outcomes.
What it solves
- Persona-based segmentation that doesn't predict purchase behavior
- Roadmaps driven by feature requests instead of customer outcomes
- Marketing copy that lists features but doesn't connect to the job
- Switching analysis that ignores the four forces (push, pull, habit, anxiety)
- Inconsistent JTBD interpretations across product, marketing, and sales
When to invoke
- Synthesizing customer interviews, switching interviews, or win-loss calls
- Re-segmenting the market beyond firmographics
- Building positioning or messaging that resonates with the actual job
- Prioritizing the roadmap by underserved outcome importance
- Aligning product, marketing, sales, and customer success on a shared customer model
Phase 1: Source the raw material
Catalog what you have:
- Customer interview transcripts (switching, churn, win-loss, discovery)
- Sales call recordings plus notes
- Support tickets and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) verbatims
- Survey free-text responses
- Reviews (G2, Capterra, Reddit, Twitter / X)
- Internal Slack messages from customer success and sales
Log source, recency, sample size, and any selection bias.
Phase 2: Extract the job statements
For each customer signal, write a job statement using the canonical form:
When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [expected outcome].
Categorize each into:
- Functional - the practical task being accomplished
- Emotional - how the customer wants to feel
- Social - how they want to be perceived
Most products serve a primary functional job plus 1-2 emotional or social jobs. Identify the main job versus related jobs versus little hires.
Phase 3: Build the job map
Decompose the main job into the 8 universal job stages:
| Stage | Question | Example |
|---|
| Define | What do they need to decide before starting? | |
| Locate | What inputs or context do they need to gather? | |
| Prepare | How do they set up the work? | |
| Confirm | How do they verify they're ready? | |
| Execute | What is the core task? | |
| Monitor | How do they track progress? | |
| Modify | How do they adapt mid-job? | |
| Conclude | How do they finish and clean up? | |
For each stage, list the desired outcomes the customer wants to optimize.
Phase 4: Outcome statements and importance × satisfaction
Convert each desired outcome into a measurable statement:
[Minimize / Increase] the [unit of measure] [object of control] [contextual clarifier]
Example: Minimize the time it takes to verify the report matches the source data.
Score each outcome on 1-10:
- Importance - how critical to the customer
- Satisfaction - how well current solutions deliver
Plot on the Opportunity Score matrix:
Opportunity Score = Importance + max(Importance − Satisfaction, 0)
Outcomes scoring ≥ 15 are underserved (innovation opportunity). Outcomes scoring < 10 with high satisfaction are overserved (cost-reduction or simplification opportunity).
Phase 5: Forces of progress analysis
For switching or adoption decisions, map the four forces:
| Force | Pulls toward new | Pulls toward old |
|---|
| Push of the current situation | Frustrations, broken workflows | |
| Pull of the new solution | Promised benefits, identity fit | |
| Anxiety of the new solution | | Switching cost, learning curve, risk |
| Habit of the old | | Inertia, sunk cost, social bonds |
A switch happens when (Push + Pull) > (Anxiety + Habit). Identify which force is the bottleneck and prioritize accordingly.
Phase 6: Hire / fire analysis
For each segment, identify:
- Who they hired you over (direct competitor, workaround, do-nothing)
- Who they fired to hire you (incumbent, manual process)
- What would make them fire you (deal-breakers, deteriorating outcomes)
Output
- 5-12 prioritized job statements (functional plus emotional plus social)
- Job map with 8 stages and desired outcomes per stage
- Opportunity Score matrix flagging underserved and overserved outcomes
- Forces of progress diagram for top switching scenarios
- Hire / fire analysis per segment
- 3-5 messaging seeds for marketing and sales
Operating rules
Always
- Quote customer language verbatim before paraphrasing
- Distinguish functional versus emotional versus social
- Score outcomes for both importance and satisfaction
- Use the canonical situation / motivation / outcome statement form
- Map all four forces, not just push and pull
Never
- Mix demographic personas with JTBD segments
- Skip the "when" situation - it's where the job lives
- Reduce a job to a feature request
- Anchor on the first interview (verify across multiple sources)
- Confuse the customer's words with their job
