What needs to be finished first
A list of at least 8 people who switched or purchased in the last 90 days, with timing and compensation.
A clearly delimited investigation area (product category or job hypothesis) is documented.
What needs to be ready before start
Interview guide with Forces-of-Progress lens; recording device (with consent); transcription tool (Otter, Whisper); synthesis board (Miro with timeline and forces axes); interview slots in calendar.
One interviewer with experience in open interviews; one note-taker per session; one synthesis lead for later analysis; at least two additional stakeholders as observers distributed across the sample.
Hypotheses about the job; competing products and alternatives (including non-digital ones); switch triggers from earlier data (support, surveys); consent forms.
60 min per interview, 8-12 interviews total, 1-2 days synthesis
One note-taker per interview slot. Test recording setup in advance. Guide interviews in chronological order: First Thought -> Passive Looking -> Active Looking -> Decision -> First Use -> Habit. Block synthesis session directly after last interview.
The one question this method answers
What concrete job were switchers trying to get done, and which four forces led them to the current product?
Marker: Phase
| Step | Duration | Action | Hint |
|---|---|---|---|
1Phase 1: Secure sample | 1 week before | Recruit 8-12 switchers who made a decision in the last 90 days. Spread sample across two or three segments, not only power users. | Without recent decisions, memory becomes distorted. Switches older than 90 days are rationalized after the fact. |
2Phase 2: Timeline interviews | 60 min each | Walk chronologically through the switch story: first thought, passive looking, active looking, decision, first use, habit. Ask for concrete dates, locations, and triggers. | Starting with "why did you buy" yields marketing answers. First thought belongs at the end of the timeline, not at the beginning. |
3Phase 3: Forces of Progress | 20 min each, then in workshop | Reconstruct four forces per interview: Push (friction with status quo), Pull (attraction to new product), Anxiety (concerns), Habit (inertia). Use quote evidence. | If only Push and Pull are strong, depth is missing. Anxiety and Habit distinguish someone merely interested from an actual switcher. |
4Phase 4: Job synthesis | 4-6 h workshop | Look for patterns across interviews. Formulate job statement: "When [situation], I want [motivation], so that [expected outcome]". Summarize typical forces for each job. | Three to five jobs are realistic. If workshop identifies 15 jobs, many are tasks, not jobs. Aggregate to a higher outcome level. |
5Phase 5: Implications | 1-2 h | For each prioritized job, define concrete implications: positioning, messaging, feature hypotheses, and new hiring triggers in marketing. Include owner and follow-up step. | If no concrete implications emerge, the interview was too superficial or synthesis too generic. Better to sharpen and continue than close vaguely. |
What comes out at the end
JTBD study with methodology, sample description, job statements, forces diagrams per job, key quotes, implications for product, marketing, and sales, plus open questions for follow-up discovery.
Study as standalone document with date and sample size. Assign IDs to job statements (JOB-01, JOB-02) and reference them in roadmap and backlog. Treat follow-up studies as new versions; do not overwrite old ones.
Compact working template for Jobs to Be Done with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.
Frames demand through the progress that customers want to achieve.
When and for what do we use this method?
Which data, observations, decisions, or materials are available?
Short notes along the runsheet.
Owner, date, and success signal.
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
Sample: 11 solo freelancers who switched from Excel or competitors in the last 60 days.
Job 01: When I need to send several invoices at month-end, I want to bill recurring clients with correct tax rules in one pass, so I do not have to check each invoice separately.
Forces (Job 01):
Implications:
Open: Do switchers in summer behave differently than in January? Follow-up wave Q4.
Recognize symptoms and steer against them
Interviews with current users or prospects cannot reconstruct switching forces.
Recruit strictly for completed switches in the last 90 days. Keep prospects and loyal users in separate studies, not mixed.
Answers sound like marketing slogans with no concrete triggers, locations, or people.
Stay strictly chronological: what happened, where were you, who was involved. Ask "why" only after timeline. Concrete detail forces memory over rationalization.
Job statement contains product name or feature ("use Slack to chat").
A job is product-independent. Ask what the person would do if this product did not exist. This alternative exposes the real job.
Forces diagram is one-sided; switch appears simple, yet conversion remains low in practice.
In each interview, ask explicitly about concerns, delays, and near-dropout moments. Without Anxiety and Habit data, synthesis is incomplete.
The lead synthesizes alone and findings reflect one perspective. Stakeholders reject results as "gut feeling".
Have at least three people from product, marketing, and sales as observers distributed across sample. Synthesize together with quote evidence, not solo.
Three interviews, three different jobs, no confirmation.
At least 8 interviews per segment, otherwise one exceptional case becomes an exaggerated job. Stop when saturation is clear; continue if variance remains high.
Done signals checkable in under a minute
Go to the profile for purpose, similar methods, and sources or continue to the next method in the catalog.