Research

Jobs to Be Done templates: the statement, the forces, and the interview

Jobs to Be Done is the idea that customers don't buy products, they hire them to make progress in a specific situation. The templates that make it usable are three: the job statement, the four forces that drive a switch, and the switch interview that uncovers them. Bob Moesta, who helped create the method, uses all three to find why people actually switch, not who they are on a demographic form.

Why this matters. Most founders research what customers say they want and build the wrong thing. JTBD reframes the question around the progress a customer is trying to make, which is what actually predicts a purchase.

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The short answer

The JTBD job statement template

Write the job as progress in a situation, not as a feature request. The canonical format is three parts.

1

When [situation]

The context that triggers the need, for example: When I start a new project and can't tell what to work on first.
2

I want to [motivation]

The progress they're reaching for: I want to see the one thing that matters most right now.
3

So I can [expected outcome]

The result that means success: so I can commit without the nagging fear I picked the wrong thing.

A good job statement is stable across solutions and free of your product's features. If it names your UI, it's a feature request wearing a costume.

The cited playbook

The JTBD templates operators actually use

These come from the people who built the method, not a persona worksheet. Here are the three templates that matter, each linked to its source and ready to run on your real customers.

1

Interview for the switch, not the wishlist

Don't ask what customers want. Reconstruct the moment they switched from what they were doing before: what pushed them off the old way, what pulled them to yours, and what almost stopped them. The story of the switch is the data.
Bob Moesta · The Switch Interview
2

Map the four forces of progress

Every switch is a tug-of-war between four forces: the push of the current situation, the pull of the new solution, the anxiety of the new thing, and the habit of the old. Progress happens only when push and pull beat anxiety and habit.
Bob Moesta · Demand-Side Sales
3

Write the job, then pressure-test it against the quests

Frame the job as the progress the customer is making, then check it against the real quests people are on, needing to get out, take the next step, or put an end to something. If your statement doesn't map to a genuine quest, it's a feature, not a job.
Bob Moesta · Jobs to Be Done, Four Quests
4

Hire the job, not the persona

Two people with identical demographics can hire your product for opposite jobs, and the same person hires different products for the same job on different days. Segment by the job and the situation, because the job is stable while the demographic isn't.
Bob Moesta · The Switch Interview

Where experts disagree

Where researchers disagree: jobs or personas?

Bob Moesta

argues personas built on demographics are misleading, because behavior comes from the situation and the job, not from who someone is on paper. Interview for the switch and segment by the job to be done.

Alan Cooper

popularized personas precisely because a concrete, named archetype keeps a team designing for a real human instead of an abstract everyone. For many teams, a vivid persona communicates faster than a job statement.

ChatGPT blends both into 'understand your users.' Gavel shows you the actual tension so you can pick the lens that fits the decision in front of you.

FAQ

Jobs to Be Done questions, answered

What is the Jobs to Be Done framework?

It's a way of understanding customers by the progress they're trying to make in a situation, the job they hire a product to do, rather than by demographics or feature preferences. The insight is that people switch products to get a job done better.

What is the JTBD job statement template?

The common format is: When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [expected outcome]. It captures the trigger, the desired progress, and the success condition, without mentioning any specific product or feature.

What are the four forces in Jobs to Be Done?

Push of the current situation, pull of the new solution, anxiety about the new thing, and habit of the present. A customer only switches when push plus pull outweighs anxiety plus habit, so you can grow demand by strengthening the first two and reducing the last two.

Jobs to Be Done vs personas, which should I use?

That's the live debate. JTBD segments by situation and job; personas segment by archetype. Many teams use JTBD to decide what to build and a light persona to communicate it, but if you must choose, pick the lens that better predicts the actual switch.

Can ChatGPT do JTBD research for me?

It can format a job statement or list the four forces, but it can't run the switch interview with your real customers, which is where the actual insight lives. The template is public; the value is in the interviews, which is the context Gavel asks you to bring.

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