User Stories vs Job Stories

Jobs To Be Done

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) — a product framework that allows you to observe and analyze people's needs at different levels of abstraction, from life goals to small routine actions, and use it to create a product that precisely addresses a person's need. And how to make such a product that people will gladly choose and pay for it.

Key components of the framework:

Job Story (JS)

One of the main tools of the product. A textual description of the client's desired result in a specific context with deep motivation. Can describe the need at all levels of detail. It consists of three components: when ____, want _____, so ______. For the main need, it is described in the format: when context, want small job, so big job. JS helps:

1. formulate a need with a description of the context, the client's desired result
2. communicate with the team about the client's needs in one language (the language of the client's needs)
3. keep the context of the team as we build the product, going back to JS and double-checking if we've gone astray, does this product solve the ETU Job Story?

Example of work history:

• When I bought the course, but I'm not super product savvy and I'm not sure I'll understand everything that's going to be in the course
• Want familiarize yourself with and immerse yourself in the terminology and some key tools beforehand
• So in the process of training, I had less of something that I do not understand and I will not be sorry that I spend money for an imperfect result

Big Job

Long-term expected human task/transformation. On average, it changes quite slowly over time. There is either:

1. procedural/regular, for example: "Getting to work comfortably without unnecessary actions"
2. is achieved and continues after the achievement: "To be in shape, with a BMI of 21, you need to regularly run 10 km"

Big Job:

• For Bolt: getting to any point in the city is quite comfortable and without unnecessary actions
• For BetterHelp: Return the quality of life to the previous level "To let go"
• For Starbucks: to feel free and creative, to get away from boredom and routine

Small Job

[in the person's current context] the action understood by the person by which she or he achieves the Big Job. Products that compete for Big Job claim to be hired for Small Job. In the process of a person's transition between stages of development, the Big Job is mostly preserved, and Small Jobs change, therefore, the products with which a person solves the Small Jobs may change too.

Micro Job

The required routine action that a person takes to complete a Small Job with the current product.

An example of a Micro Job for owning your car:

• When I drove to the gas station
• Should remember on which side of the car the gas tank hatch is located
• In order to drive up to the right gas station on the right side
• Otherwise I will feel silly and embarrassed that I made a mistake and drove up from the wrong side

Context

description of the initial situation, the context in which a person is when he wants to get a clear, certain result (Want), behind which there is deep motivation (So). In Job Story, When is responsible for this.

For Big Job/Small Jobs/Micro Jobs contexts are united in content, but differ in detail. Context for Big Job includes contexts Small Jobs and Micro Jobs, context Small Jobs includes contexts Micro Jobs, which must be done in order to solve Small Jobs with the current product.

The context of Big Job explains how

Examples:

For Ubeeqo carsharing

Context for Big Job:

• When I have a driving license, I know how to drive and I occasionally need a car to get to places where I need a car for a long time or I can park the car without problems, I have a salary of 4000 EUR and I can spend about 300 EUR per month on car sharing trips, but I don't need a car every day.
• Want to be able to rent a car quickly at any time and anywhere in the city, without paying huge deposits and to do it quickly and easily.
• In order to get where you need to go in comfort and feel smart that I'm not overpaying and enjoy driving

This context and this Job Story determined that a person has Small Job to find car sharing that will suit me. A person appears Small Job, with the help of which he solves the Big Job:

• When heard that there are car sharing companies Ubeeqo, Zipcar
• Want choose a car sharing that has many inexpensive cars
• In order to to feel reasonable that it is cheaper for me to drive when I can go by car sharing instead of a taxi and at the same time not suffer much from the fact that it is a long way to the car

When a person on this Small Job chooses Ubeeqo, he gets another one purely specific to Ubeeqo’s Small Job:

• When periodically I go to Ubeeqo, I saw that there are not only Fiat 500, but also Tesla. And I want to impress a girl on a date.
• Want to understand whether there are carpenters, how much it will cost me and whether I will have time to reach/drive to the carpenter and make it.
• In order to to feel smart that I increased the likelihood of a successful date without spending a huge amount of money. And he made it on time

For context: "I go to Ubeeqo" the necessary routines appear Micro Jobs:

• When I get into the newly rented car
• Should check what the charge is on and whether it is necessary to turn off the charger
• In order to I could go already
• Otherwise there is a possibility that the car is not started and I will not have enough mileage.

Forces acting on the customer when he is looking at a new product

Two forces hold the current way of addressing a need (the current product is hired for a Small Job):

1. Habituation to the current way of solving a need is usually very strong and underestimated by products or founders
2. Fear of failure with a new method

Two forces push forward to a new solution:

1. [Told] hoping for the best — the client looks at our product, our communication and imagines how cool it will be with the new solution.
2. Problems with the current way of solving the need - if the client has no problems and likes everything, it will be very difficult to remove him from the current way of solving the need, because you will have to show him superiority that will overcome the force of the habit, but if there are problems - the client will be much easier select, because the problems with the current method push him to find a new solution. And if you solve his problems, maybe he will choose you.

Big Job is a necessity

JTBD describes the client's need with the term Big Job — a long-term transformation, a new version of themselves that our client wants to become.

On average, it changes quite slowly over time.

The main principles of working with the client's needs at the Big Job level:

If a person can get to the desired state for a minimum number of Small Jobs and, even more so, Micro Jobs, a person will always choose this path. Example:a loan is an ideal way to get to the desired state IMMEDIATELY, without going through the stages of earning money for the desired purchase.

A person is on the way to a Big Job through Small Jobs. Example: Big Job—move to Berlin. Small Jobs:

1. To understand if I even have the opportunity to move
2. Understand what are the ways to move
3. to see if I would really like it there
4. convince my partner to go with me
5. prepare documents and formal criteria necessary for relocation
6. Find a job
7. Find an apartment
8. to move

For one or a bunch of Small Jobs, a person hires products that help him complete that particular Small Job/s

The client and their Big Job change over time

Let's take a couple of cases: [process] getting to work without major pains and [final] learning to play the guitar

Big Job: Getting to work without a big pain

Oksana lives in a rented apartment in Berlin, takes 25 minutes to the office by subway every day. In total, Oksana takes 55 minutes by metro to get there.

Which Small Jobs consist of achieving the process Big Job:

Public transport

1. Find the best bus/subway combination
2. For buses, leave home on time to catch the right bus
3. Extend the transport card every month
4. Go to/from the bus/metro
5. It is quite comfortable to drive

Take a walk

1. When there is time and desire to walk, the decision to walk part of the route and which route will come

Public transport

Oksana hires various solutions (bus, metro, BVG website and app, Moovit app) to solve these Small Jobs. And at different moments of time, they either arrange it or cut it. Problems:

1. Many people
2. Moovit had outdated information about the bus route — she was late
3. I was in a hurry to get to work, forgot my transport card — stood in line at the BVG machine, was late for the meeting.

But in general, public transport suits Oksana.

How Big Job's process can change:

1. The client moved to the next level of development and Big Job changed, for example: "I don't want to think about how to get to work, I just go."
2. The client radically changed his life and refused to achieve this Big Job, for example, he started working from home. But at the same time, he decided on Big Job: "To work as comfortably as possible for the current level of development

The final Big Job changes if:

1. The client achieved the goal
2. The client decided to change the goal halfway through
3. The client completely refused to achieve the goal

At what point does the client start looking for a new solution for their Small Jobs/Big Jobs?

The client begins to look for solutions for his Small Jobs and Big Jobs (if BJ is a process AND there is a main Small Job),if the customer can no longer achieve the desired state with the current product. This happens if:

1. the product is spoiled
2. The client is at the same level of development, the product has not changed for a long time, but during this time the whole world has improved and the old product seems already an anachronism
3. the customer has moved to the next level of development and the product is not suitable for him

The product is spoiled

It was good, it became so-so. For example, you are used to the fact that the MacBook Pro is a powerful, reliable tool to which you can connect anything and everything.

But in 2016, a new generation without USB-A, Thunderbolt, SD, HDMI slots is released. With a horrible keyboard that sticks, cooling issues that keep you from maxing out (rendering anything) displays that burn out, and having to buy 150 usd worth of dongles to connect your usual hardware.

And many professionals went back to the 2015 15'' MBPro and suffered from underperformance. The need has not changed, the world has grown, but the product has deteriorated. And professionals began to return to old laptops OR switch to expensive screw-type laptops .

The world has improved, but the product has not

The world is improving very fast. All the services we use are getting better. But it happens that during this time some services get stuck in development.

For example, Twitter, which did not add a core function for 10 years, while Instagram, Snap and TikTok stole features from each other and expanded the audience due to Stories, Shorts and automation of advertising services.

The client moved to the next level of development and the old product ceased to suit

The main reason why people start looking for a new solution for an old need.

Taxi: the client began to earn more and is now not ready to drive on economy, wants more predictable and adequate drivers, cleaner and more comfortable than a car. And if earlier UberX was convenient, now it turns into comfort in Bolt.

Coffee: the customer has become more demanding about the taste of coffee and the awareness of baristas. He used to shop at Starbucks and occasionally sit and work there. Now he buys coffee at Costa, because it is much tastier, has a wider selection of different coffees, a nicer atmosphere: quieter, not such a flow of people and a more comfortable environment

CRM: the number of customers has increased, if earlier one person (the owner) worked with one excel sheet, now two salespeople and one customer manager have switched to Google Sheet, but problems appear — data is lost, there is no automation, no messages. And the team is moving to HubSpot.

End of life product

At that point, the customer starts looking for a new solution and we can get their attention and probably lure them away from Uber, Starbucks, and HubSpot.