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Uncover customer jobs, pains, and gains using a structured JTBD framework. Use when clarifying unmet needs, repositioning a product, or improving discovery and messaging.
npx claudepluginhub deanpeters/product-manager-skills --plugin workshop-facilitationHow this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/product-manager-skills:jobs-to-be-doneThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Systematically explore what customers are trying to accomplish (functional, social, emotional jobs), the pains they experience, and the gains they seek. Use this framework to uncover unmet needs, validate product ideas, and ensure your solution addresses real motivations—not just surface-level feature requests.
Systematically uncovers customer jobs, pains, and gains using the Jobs-to-be-Done framework. Produces structured JTBD analyses with job performer definitions, job process maps, pains/gains, and desired outcome statements. Use when the user mentions jobs to be done, JTBD, customer jobs, unmet needs, pains and gains, value proposition canvas, switch interviews, outcome-driven innovation, desired outcomes, or asks why customers hire or fire a product. Also triggers when the user wants to understand what job a product solves, conduct customer discovery, reposition a product around needs, define unmet needs for a roadmap, analyze competitors through a jobs lens, or create messaging grounded in customer objectives. Do NOT use for general market sizing, feature prioritization without a customer-needs lens, or persona creation based on demographics alone.
Analyzes customer research or product context to uncover functional, social, and emotional jobs to be done. Identifies pains, gains, prioritizes jobs, and suggests product implications.
Customer discovery framework using Jobs-To-Be-Done theory to uncover functional, social, and emotional jobs. Produces JTBD canvases with job statements, outcome metrics, and competing solutions.
Share bugs, ideas, or general feedback.
Systematically explore what customers are trying to accomplish (functional, social, emotional jobs), the pains they experience, and the gains they seek. Use this framework to uncover unmet needs, validate product ideas, and ensure your solution addresses real motivations—not just surface-level feature requests.
This is not a survey—it's a structured lens for understanding why customers "hire" your product and what would make them "fire" it.
Influenced by Clayton Christensen and the Value Proposition Canvas (Osterwalder), JTBD breaks customer needs into three categories:
1. Customer Jobs:
2. Pains:
3. Gains:
Use template.md for the full fill-in structure.
Before exploring JTBD, clarify:
skills/proto-persona/SKILL.md)If missing context: Conduct customer interviews, contextual inquiries, or "switch interviews" (why they switched from a previous solution).
Ask: "What tasks are you trying to complete?"
### Functional Jobs:
- [Task 1 customer needs to perform]
- [Task 2 customer needs to perform]
- [Task 3 customer needs to perform]
Examples:
Quality checks:
Ask: "How do you want to be perceived by others?"
### Social Jobs:
- [Way customer wants to be perceived socially 1]
- [Way customer wants to be perceived socially 2]
- [Way customer wants to be perceived socially 3]
Examples:
Quality checks:
Ask: "What emotional state do you want to achieve or avoid?"
### Emotional Jobs:
- [Emotional state customer seeks or avoids 1]
- [Emotional state customer seeks or avoids 2]
- [Emotional state customer seeks or avoids 3]
Examples:
Quality checks:
Ask: "What obstacles are preventing you from completing this job?"
### Challenges:
- [Obstacle customer faces 1]
- [Obstacle customer faces 2]
- [Obstacle customer faces 3]
Examples:
Ask: "What takes too much time, money, or effort?"
### Costliness:
- [What's too costly in time, money, or effort 1]
- [What's too costly in time, money, or effort 2]
Examples:
Ask: "What errors do you make frequently that could be prevented?"
### Common Mistakes:
- [Frequent error 1]
- [Frequent error 2]
Examples:
Ask: "What problems do current solutions fail to address?"
### Unresolved Problems:
- [Problem not solved by current solutions 1]
- [Problem not solved by current solutions 2]
Examples:
Ask: "What would make you love a solution?"
### Expectations:
- [What could exceed expectations 1]
- [What could exceed expectations 2]
Examples:
Ask: "What savings in time, money, or effort would delight you?"
### Savings:
- [Way of saving time, money, or effort 1]
- [Way of saving time, money, or effort 2]
Examples:
Ask: "What would make you switch from your current solution?"
### Adoption Factors:
- [Factor increasing likelihood of adoption 1]
- [Factor increasing likelihood of adoption 2]
Examples:
Ask: "How would your life be better if this job were easier?"
### Life Improvement:
- [How solution makes life easier or more enjoyable 1]
- [How solution makes life easier or more enjoyable 2]
Examples:
skills/proto-persona/SKILL.md)See examples/sample.md for full JTBD examples.
Mini example excerpt:
**Functional Jobs:** Coordinate tasks across a distributed team
**Pains - Challenges:** Team members use different tools, creating silos
**Gains - Savings:** Reduce status reporting time from 3 hours to 15 minutes
Symptom: "I need to use Slack" or "I need AI-powered analytics"
Consequence: You've anchored on a solution, not the underlying job.
Fix: Ask "Why?" 5 times. "I need Slack" → "Why?" → "To communicate with my team" → "Why?" → "To get quick answers" → "Why?" → "To avoid project delays."
Symptom: "Be more productive" or "Save time"
Consequence: Too vague to inform product decisions.
Fix: Get specific. "Save time" → "Reduce time spent generating monthly reports from 8 hours to 1 hour."
Symptom: Only documenting functional jobs
Consequence: You miss powerful motivators. People often buy based on emotional/social needs, not just functional.
Fix: Explicitly ask about perception and emotions in interviews. "How would solving this make you feel?" "Who would notice if you solved this?"
Symptom: Filling out the template based on assumptions
Consequence: You're guessing. JTBD analysis is only valuable if grounded in real customer insights.
Fix: Conduct "switch interviews" (ask why they switched from a previous solution), contextual inquiries, or problem validation interviews.
Symptom: Listing 20 pains without prioritization
Consequence: No clarity on what to solve first.
Fix: Rank pains by intensity (acute vs. mild). Ask "If we only solved one pain, which would have the biggest impact?"
skills/proto-persona/SKILL.md — Defines who has these jobs/pains/gainsskills/problem-statement/SKILL.md — JTBD informs the "Trying to" and "But" sectionsskills/positioning-statement/SKILL.md — JTBD informs the "that need" statementprompts/jobs-to-be-done.md in the https://github.com/deanpeters/product-manager-prompts repo.Skill type: Component
Suggested filename: jobs-to-be-done.md
Suggested placement: /skills/components/
Dependencies: References skills/proto-persona/SKILL.md
Used by: skills/positioning-statement/SKILL.md, skills/problem-statement/SKILL.md, skills/epic-hypothesis/SKILL.md