Identify jobs-to-be-done from customer interview notes

advancedClaude SonnetCustomer ServiceCx Researchjtbdjobs-to-be-donecustomer-researchproduct-strategycx

Use case

Use this prompt after customer interviews to surface the JTBD framework from your research. JTBD analysis produces better product decisions, more resonant marketing, and clearer positioning than demographic segmentation alone.

The prompt

You are a product strategist trained in the Jobs to Be Done framework developed by Clayton Christensen and Bob Moesta. Analyze the following customer interview notes and identify the core jobs customers are hiring this product to do.

Context:
- Product/service: {{product_name}}
- Customer segment interviewed: {{customer_segment}}
- Interview notes or transcripts: {{interview_content}}
- Current positioning (how you describe the product): {{current_positioning}}

Analyze the notes and produce:

## 1. Jobs Identified (3–5 distinct jobs)
For each job:

**Job Name:** (a verb phrase describing what the customer is trying to accomplish — not a product feature)

**Job Statement:** "When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [desired outcome]."

**Functional dimension:** The practical, task-oriented aspect of the job (what they're literally trying to do)

**Emotional dimension:** How the customer wants to feel while doing the job or after completing it (e.g., confident, in control, not embarrassed, not stressed)

**Social dimension:** How completing the job affects how others perceive them or how they feel in their professional relationships (e.g., "I want my CEO to see me as data-driven," "I don't want to look unprepared in the meeting")

**Evidence from interviews:** 1–2 quotes or observations that support this job being real and important

**Competing alternatives:** What customers do now to get this job done (before your product, or instead of it)

## 2. The Primary Job
Which of the identified jobs is most central to why customers buy this product? Why?

## 3. Gap Between Current Positioning and JTBD Reality
Where does your current positioning miss or underserve the actual jobs customers are hiring you to do? Be specific.

## 4. Positioning and Messaging Implications
2–3 specific changes to messaging, marketing, or product positioning that would better align with the jobs identified.

Variables

{{{{product_name}}}}Replace with your {{product name}}
{{{{customer_segment}}}}Replace with your {{customer segment}}
{{{{interview_content}}}}Replace with your {{interview content}}
{{{{current_positioning}}}}Replace with your {{current positioning}}

Example

Input

product_name: Anchor Analytics
customer_segment: operations directors at mid-market companies
interview_content: |
  "I need to know what's happening before someone comes to tell me it's a problem."
  "Every Monday I spend 2 hours pulling data from 3 places and putting together a summary. By the time I send it, the data is already out of date."
  "When the COO asks me a question I can't answer, it's embarrassing. I want to walk into that meeting knowing I have the numbers."
  "I don't need to be a data scientist. I just need to see what's going on."
  "My team loses trust in me if I'm the last to know about a problem."
  "I want to feel in control of the operation, not chasing it."
  "The goal isn't better data. The goal is better Monday meetings."
current_positioning: "Business intelligence platform for operations teams — connect your data, monitor your KPIs, make better decisions."

Output

## 1. Jobs Identified

**Job 1: Know About Problems Before Others Do**
Job statement: "When I'm responsible for operational performance, I want to be alerted to deviations before customers or leadership notice them, so I can address problems proactively rather than reactively."
Functional: Monitor metrics continuously without manual checking
Emotional: Feel in control, feel competent, avoid the anxiety of being caught off guard
Social: Maintain credibility with leadership; avoid the embarrassment of being the last to know
Evidence: "I need to know what's happening before someone comes to tell me it's a problem." / "My team loses trust in me if I'm the last to know about a problem."
Competing alternatives: Manual checks, alerts from team members, customer complaints

**Job 2: Walk Into Meetings With Confidence**
Job statement: "When I have a meeting with the COO or executive team, I want to have accurate, current data ready to answer any question, so I can demonstrate that I have my operation under control."
Functional: Prepare for executive meetings with live data, not stale spreadsheets
Emotional: Feel prepared and confident; avoid embarrassment
Social: Be perceived as data-driven and on top of the business by senior leadership
Evidence: "When the COO asks me a question I can't answer, it's embarrassing." / "The goal isn't better data. The goal is better Monday meetings."
Competing alternatives: Manually assembled PowerPoints, requesting data from analysts before meetings

**Job 3: Reclaim Time from Manual Reporting**
Job statement: "When I'm spending hours every week pulling and formatting data, I want to automate that process, so I can focus on the work that actually requires my judgment."
Functional: Automate data collection, formatting, and report distribution
Emotional: Feel less burdened; feel like the job is manageable
Social: Not be seen as a report-builder; be seen as a strategic contributor
Evidence: "Every Monday I spend 2 hours pulling data from 3 places." / "By the time I send it, the data is already out of date."
Competing alternatives: Spreadsheets, junior staff manual reporting

## 2. Primary Job
Job 1 (Know About Problems Before Others Do) is the primary job. It carries the highest emotional and social charge — the fear of not knowing is more visceral than the frustration of manual work. This is the job that triggers evaluation, drives the decision to buy, and determines long-term retention.

## 3. Gap Between Positioning and JTBD Reality
Current positioning ("connect your data, monitor your KPIs, make better decisions") describes the functional mechanism of the product, not the job it's hired to do. The gap:
- "Make better decisions" doesn't capture the emotional driver: the fear of being caught off-guard or embarrassed
- "Monitor your KPIs" doesn't capture the social driver: being perceived as in control by leadership
- Nothing in the current positioning speaks to the Monday meeting — which is the single most concrete moment customers describe

## 4. Messaging Implications
1. Lead with the social/emotional job: "Know about problems before your customers do" addresses Job 1's emotional core more directly than "monitor your KPIs."
2. Name the Monday meeting: "Built for the Monday ops review" or "Dashboards for Monday, not for data scientists" speaks to the single most concrete use case customers described.
3. Address the embarrassment fear: Marketing language that acknowledges "no more walking into a meeting empty-handed" resonates with the emotional dimension of Job 2.

Tips for best results

1JTBD is most powerful when it surfaces jobs you weren't expecting. If your analysis only confirms what you already believed, you probably didn't go deep enough in the interviews.
2The emotional and social dimensions are where differentiation lives — most products do the functional job adequately. The product that best addresses the emotional job wins.
3Share this analysis with your marketing team and ask them to rewrite the homepage hero copy through a JTBD lens. Compare the two versions — the difference is usually striking.
4JTBD analysis ages — run it again after each major product change or customer segment expansion. Jobs evolve as products and markets mature.
5The best test of a JTBD analysis: show it to 3 customers from the segment and ask 'does this sound like you?' If 2 of 3 say yes immediately, the job is real.

Related prompts

Synthesize customer interview transcripts into themes

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Write a customer discovery interview discussion guide

intermediate

Generate a structured discussion guide for a customer discovery interview, with questions designed to surface real behavior, motivations, and unmet needs.

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Build a detailed buyer persona profile from interview notes

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Transform raw customer interview notes into a structured, actionable buyer persona that goes beyond demographics to capture mindset, triggers, and language.

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You are a product strategist trained in the Jobs to Be Done framework developed by Clayton Christensen and Bob Moesta. Analyze the following customer interview notes and identify the core jobs customers are hiring this product to do. Context: - Product/service: {{product_name}} - Customer segment interviewed: {{customer_segment}} - Interview notes or transcripts: {{interview_content}} - Current positioning (how you describe the product): {{current_positioning}} Analyze the notes and produce: ## 1. Jobs Identified (3–5 distinct jobs) For each job: **Job Name:** (a verb phrase describing what the customer is trying to accomplish — not a product feature) **Job Statement:** "When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [desired outcome]." **Functional dimension:** The practical, task-oriented aspect of the job (what they're literally trying to do) **Emotional dimension:** How the customer wants to feel while doing the job or after completing it (e.g., confident, in control, not embarrassed, not stressed) **Social dimension:** How completing the job affects how others perceive them or how they feel in their professional relationships (e.g., "I want my CEO to see me as data-driven," "I don't want to look unprepared in the meeting") **Evidence from interviews:** 1–2 quotes or observations that support this job being real and important **Competing alternatives:** What customers do now to get this job done (before your product, or instead of it) ## 2. The Primary Job Which of the identified jobs is most central to why customers buy this product? Why? ## 3. Gap Between Current Positioning and JTBD Reality Where does your current positioning miss or underserve the actual jobs customers are hiring you to do? Be specific. ## 4. Positioning and Messaging Implications 2–3 specific changes to messaging, marketing, or product positioning that would better align with the jobs identified.

Example

Input

product_name: Anchor Analytics
customer_segment: operations directors at mid-market companies
interview_content: |
  "I need to know what's happening before someone comes to tell me it's a problem."
  "Every Monday I spend 2 hours pulling data from 3 places and putting together a summary. By the time I send it, the data is already out of date."
  "When the COO asks me a question I can't answer, it's embarrassing. I want to walk into that meeting knowing I have the numbers."
  "I don't need to be a data scientist. I just need to see what's going on."
  "My team loses trust in me if I'm the last to know about a problem."
  "I want to feel in control of the operation, not chasing it."
  "The goal isn't better data. The goal is better Monday meetings."
current_positioning: "Business intelligence platform for operations teams — connect your data, monitor your KPIs, make better decisions."

Output

## 1. Jobs Identified

**Job 1: Know About Problems Before Others Do**
Job statement: "When I'm responsible for operational performance, I want to be alerted to deviations before customers or leadership notice them, so I can address problems proactively rather than reactively."
Functional: Monitor metrics continuously without manual checking
Emotional: Feel in control, feel competent, avoid the anxiety of being caught off guard
Social: Maintain credibility with leadership; avoid the embarrassment of being the last to know
Evidence: "I need to know what's happening before someone comes to tell me it's a problem." / "My team loses trust in me if I'm the last to know about a problem."
Competing alternatives: Manual checks, alerts from team members, customer complaints

**Job 2: Walk Into Meetings With Confidence**
Job statement: "When I have a meeting with the COO or executive team, I want to have accurate, current data ready to answer any question, so I can demonstrate that I have my operation under control."
Functional: Prepare for executive meetings with live data, not stale spreadsheets
Emotional: Feel prepared and confident; avoid embarrassment
Social: Be perceived as data-driven and on top of the business by senior leadership
Evidence: "When the COO asks me a question I can't answer, it's embarrassing." / "The goal isn't better data. The goal is better Monday meetings."
Competing alternatives: Manually assembled PowerPoints, requesting data from analysts before meetings

**Job 3: Reclaim Time from Manual Reporting**
Job statement: "When I'm spending hours every week pulling and formatting data, I want to automate that process, so I can focus on the work that actually requires my judgment."
Functional: Automate data collection, formatting, and report distribution
Emotional: Feel less burdened; feel like the job is manageable
Social: Not be seen as a report-builder; be seen as a strategic contributor
Evidence: "Every Monday I spend 2 hours pulling data from 3 places." / "By the time I send it, the data is already out of date."
Competing alternatives: Spreadsheets, junior staff manual reporting

## 2. Primary Job
Job 1 (Know About Problems Before Others Do) is the primary job. It carries the highest emotional and social charge — the fear of not knowing is more visceral than the frustration of manual work. This is the job that triggers evaluation, drives the decision to buy, and determines long-term retention.

## 3. Gap Between Positioning and JTBD Reality
Current positioning ("connect your data, monitor your KPIs, make better decisions") describes the functional mechanism of the product, not the job it's hired to do. The gap:
- "Make better decisions" doesn't capture the emotional driver: the fear of being caught off-guard or embarrassed
- "Monitor your KPIs" doesn't capture the social driver: being perceived as in control by leadership
- Nothing in the current positioning speaks to the Monday meeting — which is the single most concrete moment customers describe

## 4. Messaging Implications
1. Lead with the social/emotional job: "Know about problems before your customers do" addresses Job 1's emotional core more directly than "monitor your KPIs."
2. Name the Monday meeting: "Built for the Monday ops review" or "Dashboards for Monday, not for data scientists" speaks to the single most concrete use case customers described.
3. Address the embarrassment fear: Marketing language that acknowledges "no more walking into a meeting empty-handed" resonates with the emotional dimension of Job 2.

Tips for best results

1JTBD is most powerful when it surfaces jobs you weren't expecting. If your analysis only confirms what you already believed, you probably didn't go deep enough in the interviews.

2The emotional and social dimensions are where differentiation lives — most products do the functional job adequately. The product that best addresses the emotional job wins.

3Share this analysis with your marketing team and ask them to rewrite the homepage hero copy through a JTBD lens. Compare the two versions — the difference is usually striking.

4JTBD analysis ages — run it again after each major product change or customer segment expansion. Jobs evolve as products and markets mature.

5The best test of a JTBD analysis: show it to 3 customers from the segment and ask 'does this sound like you?' If 2 of 3 say yes immediately, the job is real.