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jtbd-analyzer skill

/skills/artyomx33/jtbd-analyzer

This skill helps you uncover the real job customers hire your product to do by analyzing functional, emotional, and social motivations.

npx playbooks add skill openclaw/skills --skill jtbd-analyzer

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

Files (4)
SKILL.md
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---
name: jtbd-analyzer
description: Uncover the real "job" customers hire your product to do. Goes beyond features to understand functional, emotional, and social motivations. Use when user says "jobs to be done", "jtbd", "why do customers", "what job", "customer motivation", "what problem", "user needs", "why do people buy".
---

# Jobs-To-Be-Done Analyzer

## The Core Concept

Customers don't buy products. They HIRE products to do a job.

"People don't want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole."
Actually: They want a shelf → to display photos → to feel proud of family.

## The Three Job Dimensions

| Dimension | Question | Format |
|-----------|----------|--------|
| **Functional** | What task needs doing? | "Help me [verb] [object]" |
| **Emotional** | How do I want to feel? | "Make me feel [emotion]" |
| **Social** | How do I want to be seen? | "Help me be seen as [quality]" |

## The Process

1. **Job Statement:** "When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]"
2. **Map all 3 dimensions** for each user type
3. **Find real competition:** What ELSE could do this job?
4. **Prioritize:** Which jobs are most critical and underserved?

## Output Format

```
PRODUCT: [What you're analyzing]

For [User Type]:
JOB: "When [situation], I want [motivation], so I can [outcome]"

📋 FUNCTIONAL: [Task to accomplish]
💜 EMOTIONAL: [Feeling desired]
👥 SOCIAL: [Perception desired]

ALTERNATIVES: [What else could do this job?]
UNDERSERVED: [What part isn't done well?]
PRIORITY: Critical / Important / Nice-to-have
```

## Key Questions

1. "What were you trying to accomplish when you [action]?"
2. "Walk me through the last time you needed to [job]"
3. "What would you do if [product] didn't exist?"
4. "What's frustrating about how you currently [job]?"

## Integration

Compounds with:
- **first-principles-decomposer** → Decompose job to atomic need
- **cross-pollination-engine** → Find how others solve similar jobs
- **app-planning-skill** → Use JTBD to inform features

---
See references/examples.md for Artem-specific JTBD analyses

Overview

This skill uncovers the real "job" customers hire your product to do by moving beyond features to functional, emotional, and social motivations. It converts customer signals into clear job statements and ranks which jobs are most critical or underserved. Use it to refocus product strategy, messaging, and discovery on the outcomes people actually seek.

How this skill works

The analyzer builds structured job statements: "When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]". It maps each job across three dimensions—functional, emotional, and social—identifies alternative solutions customers use, and highlights gaps where needs are underserved. Outputs include prioritized job profiles and concrete recommendations for product, positioning, or experiments.

When to use it

  • You hear phrases like "jobs to be done", "jtbd", or "what job" during research or planning
  • You need to translate feature requests into real customer outcomes
  • You want to discover hidden emotional or social drivers behind purchases
  • You are validating product-market fit or deciding feature priorities
  • You want to map competitive alternatives beyond direct competitors

Best practices

  • Start with user stories and interviews; ask situational, recent-experience questions
  • Create one job statement per distinct situation and user type
  • Map all three dimensions (functional, emotional, social) for each job
  • List real alternatives customers might hire instead of your product
  • Prioritize by frequency, criticality, and how underserved the job is
  • Pair JTBD output with experiments or feature prototypes to validate

Example use cases

  • Turn support tickets and feature requests into prioritized JTBD statements
  • Reframe marketing messaging from features to outcomes customers want
  • Identify non-obvious competitors that customers use to solve the same job
  • Guide product roadmaps by focusing on the most critical, underserved jobs
  • Inform discovery interviews by using JTBD questions to surface motivations

FAQ

How is JTBD different from personas?

Personas describe who users are; JTBD explains what they are trying to accomplish and why. JTBD focuses on situations and outcomes rather than demographics.

Can a product serve multiple jobs?

Yes. Map each user type and situation to separate job statements, then prioritize based on impact and how well current solutions serve them.