Jobs To Be Done
What progress is someone trying to make, and where does friction stop them?
You don't invent demand. You discover it by watching what people do, not what they say. The gap between their current situation and their desired outcome — that's the job. The friction in that gap — that's your opportunity.
The Framework
| Question | What It Reveals |
|---|---|
| What are they struggling with? | The job |
| What are they using now instead? | The competition (always something) |
| What would make them switch? | The trigger |
| What almost stops them? | The hidden objection |
| What does progress look like to them? | The outcome you're selling |
People don't buy products. They hire solutions to make progress. Understand the job, and the product designs itself.
Dig Deeper
📄️ Validate Demand
Does anyone actually want this, or are you building for an audience of one?
📄️ Create Stories
How do you spec a product that never gives the same answer twice?
📄️ Prioritization Algorithm
How do you decide what to build next — and when to stop?
The Pattern
Jobs x Attributes. One row per job. Columns are what you need to know.
This pattern applies everywhere:
- Marketing Protocols — 25 marketing jobs mapped
- Work Charts — Human/AI capability per job
- Business Development — From job discovery to venture creation
The Pipeline
Five steps from friction to proven capability. Each step's output is the next step's input. Steps 1-3 are Dream Team's domain — defining what creates value. Step 4 is engineering's domain — deciding how to build it. Step 5 is Dream Team again — verifying engineering delivered what was specified. The commissioner is never the builder.
| Step | Page | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Discover | Validate Demand | Observed friction | Demand Evidence Card |
| 2. Spec | Create PRD Stories | Demand Evidence Card | Intent Contract + F/F/O table + Handoff Contract |
| 3. Rank | Prioritize PRDs | Scored PRDs | Sorted build order |
| 4. Build | Dev Workflow | Handoff Contract | Deployed capabilities + return signals |
| 5. Commission | Outcome Results | Deployed capabilities + return signals | L0-L4 evidence (PRD signed off) |
Stories are the atomic unit. Each Feature/Function/Outcome row in step 2 becomes an e2e intention spec that Dream Team can verify in step 5. The flow engineering bridge turns stories into maps, maps into types, types into code.
Context
- Validate Demand — Awareness levels, intent signals, interview method
- Create PRD Stories — Spec capabilities with Feature/Function/Outcome tables
- Prioritize PRDs — Scoring algorithm, rubrics, gates, build order
- Outcome Results — L0-L4 commissioning, validate standards and results
- Behavioural Economics — Why people do what they do
- Advertising Industry — JTBD applied to SME vs enterprise buyer jobs
- Flow Engineering — Stories become maps become code
- Validate a Great Idea — Demand validation thesis applied to ventures
Questions
What progress is someone trying to make — and where in the pipeline does your understanding of it break down?
- At which step does the signal from the original pain get lost — discovery, spec, ranking, or commissioning?
- When a PRD story (Feature/Function/Outcome) doesn't map cleanly to a commissioning check, is the story wrong or the check?
- What's the cost of skipping step 1 (validate demand) and jumping straight to step 2 (create stories)?