Agent skill · product strategy · deanpeters
jobs-to-be-done
Uncover customer jobs, pains, and gains in a structured JTBD format. Use when clarifying unmet needs, repositioning a product, or improving discovery and messaging.
Why this skill is useful
Provides a structured framework for uncovering customer needs and motivations that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
About 8k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-17. 6,302 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Purpose Systematically explore what customers are trying to accomplish (functional, social, emotional jobs), the pains they experience, and the gains they seek. Use this framework to uncover unmet needs, validate product ideas, and ensure your solution addresses real motivations—not just surface-level feature requests. This is not a survey—it's a structured lens for understanding why customers "hire" your product and what would make them "fire" it. Input Works best with: The customer segment (or product whose customers) you're analyzing. Also useful: Interview notes, support tickets, or research to mine for jobs, pains, and gains; the situation or trigger you care about. Anything supplied with the invocation itself — text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended ARGUMENTS: line — counts as answers already given. Use it and skip whatever it covers; don't re-ask. Arriving empty-handed? That works too. The skill asks who the customer is and what progress they're trying to make before structuring the JTBD breakdown. Example invocation: Run JTBD for freelance designers using our invoicing tool — here are 6 interview summaries. Key Concepts The Jobs-to-be-Done Framework Influenced by Clayton Christensen and the Value Proposition Canvas (Osterwalder), JTBD breaks customer needs into three categories: 1. Customer Jobs: Functional jobs: Tasks customers need to perform (e.g., "send an invoice") Social jobs: How customers want to be perceived (e.g., "look professional to clients") Emotional jobs: Emotional states customers seek or avoid (e.g., "feel confident in my work") 2. Pains: Challenges: Obstacles customers face Costliness: What's too expensive in time, money, or effort Common mistakes: Errors customers make that could be prevented Unresolved problems: Gaps in current solutions 3. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills deanpeters/jobs-to-be-done