People don't buy software (or products generally) - they buy better versions of themselves. As UXers we deliberately empathise with customers to better understand their mental models. Product managers have a similar enquiry. Oddly, the mental models in each camp don't often seem to reference each other - although they should! In this presentation, I talked about how the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework can be a powerful lens for focusing on those touchpoints that offer the greatest leverage in building a product that people really want to buy, and waxed lyrical about important lessons I've learned in my own startup, and from magnificent mentors like Bruce McCarthy.

1. Better Versions of Themselves:
Unifying UX and Product with the Job Story

2. Disclaimer
I am still learning how to apply
some of this material.
There will be lots of Product discussion.
This presentation is a
prototype / alpha release.
You are all part of an experiment!

3. Hi, I’m Adam :-)

4. What I Do
• Business Strategy
• Product Management
• CTO
• Lean Startup / Lean UX
• “Horizon 2” Innovation and Execution *
• Enterprise & Solution Architecture
• Offshore Development, Remote Teams
* See Steve Blank — Innovation at 50x
Note: I’m no UX expert, but I’m not an amateur either :-)

5. First code written on a
Commodore Vic 20,
age 5.
Developed an app to help
me learn French vocab,
using machine learning
techniques
Studies completed:
Bachelor Degrees in
Commerce,
Computer Science,
English Literature,
Psychology.
Decided it was
time to get a job!
Also ran Webtiger, my own
boutique dev agency.
(2000-2007)
Built a range of solutions
including handheld stocktake
systems and POS, a TVC control
system for a regional television
station, and several startups’
backend systems.
Senior Engineer
contracting on enterprise
projects within
companies such as:
Centrebet, Telstra,
Queensland Health
2000-07
Turned around a floundering
$3M project for
American Express
Role was Team Leader and
Application Architect
(at TNS Payments)
Key success tools:
UX, Customer Engagement and
Agile processes.
Promoted to
Engineering Manager at
TNS Payments
Responsible for all
professional services customer
projects.
$40M program of work
~30 staff
Standardised Agile PM toolset
across 90 engineers.
Championed the creation of
DevOps and Continuous
Delivery initiatives across the
wider business.
Went looking for more strategic-level
business challenges than pure
engineering roles could offer.
Finished first part of MBA. Flirted with
management consulting…
…and decided startups are more fun.
Invented a groundbreaking
realtime sales tool for Financial Advisors,
that reduced cycle time from first call to
Statement of Advice by 80%.
Ultimately, learned some hard lessons
about dodgy business owners, and the
importance of valuing my own time &
expertise.
1979 1986 1992-98
1999
2007 2008 2010 2012-16
CTO, Product Owner & Strategist at CPDone
Helped transform their early prototype into
enterprise-grade software trusted by customers
like NAB, Yellow Brick Road, Finance
Brokers Association of Australia and
LJ Hooker Home Loans.
Created new V2.0 Product Architecture and
managed development with tight budget
constraints.
Set up Manila operations centre (20 staff).
Prototyped design-thinking SDLC.
Role has now migrated to channel partner
solutions architect, and
product management coach.
Lead Developer and
Dev Manager for the
first 24/7 cable tv stations on
the Internet.
Managed 15+ staff.
Standing ovations from
Microsoft.
Unfortunately, our capital raise
in mid 2000 proved rather
unsuccessful.
1999
Co-founder, CTO

6. Warm Up

7. Think of something you purchased recently.
Why did you buy it?

8. Consider:
• Your physical location when you bought it?
• The time of day?
• What else you were doing at the time?
• What else might you have bought instead?
Why didn’t you?
• Do you normally buy something different?
• What were you hoping to get from buying it?

9. I recently bought some breakfast in a nice Melbourne café:
• It was raining at the time, and the café was downstairs from me. I’d tried their
coffee before, and I like it better than the coffee at the other café downstairs.
• I’m bootstrapping a startup at the moment, so I don’t buy breakfast every day,
to keep costs down.
• … but I’d been sleeping on the floor, and although otherwise pretty comfortable,
I really needed to get out of the apartment and feel like I had some control over
my surroundings, and feel like I had some space to think about the previous
few days’ work, so I could work out next steps.
• I was a bit sick of looking at my co-founder, and I knew there would be a pretty
waitress to chat to while I placed my order :)
… so what I was hoping to get from breakfast was a sense of myself as feeling more
confident, more in control, and having nice things!

10. A little later in the week, I bought some wine, cheese and tapas, and
tickets to listen to a Jazz band.
The Job I was hiring for that night was basically the same as the one
I hired the café to do previously.
I spent about 10x that evening compared to the previous
morning. I enjoyed myself more, and I woke up feeling really
pumped about the day ahead.
For me, it’s much easier to hire the evening I want in Melbourne.
I’ve grown accustomed to finding breakfast talent easier to come by
in Brisbane, so out of habit, I opted for that first.

11. What better version of yourself
are you buying tonight?

12. Agenda

13. 1. Some Background — how I discovered #JTBD
2. Some Tools
• JTBD Forces Diagram
• Value Proposition Canvas
• Job Stories
3. Organising for Action
• Vision, Strategy, Goals, Priorities
• Stories from the Trenches
4. Reconciling Product with UX and Service Design
• Un-sucking the Touchpoint
• Job Story -> Wireframe

14. How I Discovered #JTBD

15. “As a CEO, I want to see stuff on a dashboard, so that I can
say my product has a cool dashboard, and besides, all my
mates have cool dashboards…”
https://jtbd.info/replacing-the-user-story-with-the-job-story-af7cdee10c27

16. Yes Boss.
But why??

17. Job Story
https://jtbd.info/replacing-the-user-story-with-the-job-story-af7cdee10c27

18. source: http://talksport.com/ruud-van-nistelrooy

19. “Job Stories are great because they make you
think about motivation and context
and de-emphasize
any particular implementation.
Often, because people are
so focused on the who and how,
they totally miss the why.
When you start to understand the why,
your mind is then open to think of
creative and original ways to solve the problem.”
— Alan Klement
https://jtbd.info/replacing-the-user-story-with-the-job-story-af7cdee10c27

20. http://alanklement.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/5-tips-for-writing-job-story.html

21. http://alanklement.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/5-tips-for-writing-job-story.html

22. “The most important thing a product
manager does is decide where their
product stops and someone else's
product takes over.
If it does too much it will clash with
existing workflow or software.
If too little, not worth the cost of
installation.”
http://alanklement.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/5-tips-for-writing-job-story.html
http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/un-sucking-the-touchpoint/
Having a Vision is Important! (more on that later)

23. JTBD Forces Diagram

24. “For someone to switch from an existing product to a new
product, the progress-making forces have to be stronger
than the progress-hindering forces.”
http://jobstobedone.org/radio/unpacking-the-progress-making-forces-diagram/

25. Confused?
I was.

26. Key idea: the “Switch” (when the light bulb flips on)
Light flips on when there is more “motivating force”
pulling them towards your product
than there is pushing them away from it.
Towards:
1. Magnetism (pull): esp. being able to imagine themself
using your product, so it feels personally relevant.
(“Consumption in the Mind”)
2. Push (impetus of a situation/context); eg. time-sensitivity
Away From:
1. Habit/Inertia (what they do already, or normally buy instead)
2. Anxiety (what gets in the way of changing their behaviour)
Easy, right?

27. What are you going to be able to do that you
couldn’t do before?
What makes the product magnetic?
Key question: What does it do for you?
(not “What does it do?”)
“That laptop bag looks great”
“Why?”
“I bought it because I want to
look more professional on this trip.”
Pull

28. Anxiety
What is holding them back from flipping?
(Think motivations!)
Selling Removalist services, but they have 20
years of crap under the house.
Offer a de-cluttering, &/or Packing
Service as value-adds to the sale.
Selling web hosting, but they don’t want to
choose their domain name right away.
Let them complete the setup process,
and choose a name later
Selling shoes online, but knowing if you’ll get
the right size is hard.
Rock-solid returns policy
• Increasing Pull might just increase Anxiety (want but can’t have)
• Increasing Push might help (eg. limited time offer)
• Reduce Anxiety by making it easier to say “yes” (eg. discounted price)
examples borrowed from http://jobstobedone.org/radio/unpacking-the-progress-making-forces-diagram/

29. It’s not enough that an iPad is sleek and shiny.
If I can’t imagine it as a part of living my life, and see myself
doing jobs with it that I need an iPad to get done,
then there just isn’t enough Pull.
Maybe an iPad seems like it’s just a big iPhone,
and I already have one of those.
No experience with an iPad => Hard to simulate having it => no Switch.
“Consumption in the Mind”
Give me an experience!
• Trial it over the weekend (good)
• Play with it in the Apple Store (less good)
Alleviate my anxiety…
• Money-back guarantee
How to overcome?

30. What about your immediate context
impels you to hire for this job?
“I’m going on a business trip in a month, and I need to look good.
My laptop bag is all beaten up, and doesn’t match my nice new suit.
So I need to find something within 30 days.”
“I have to show ASIC that I’ve done 30 hours a year of CPD, and my
license renewal is due in a week. I’ve done 20 hours, but I don’t have
time to attend any PD days this week.”
“If I buy before the end of the financial year, Adam said he’d give me a
30% discount, so long as I pay annually.”
Push

31. Habit
What do they usually hire to do this job (or part of it)?
“If (your product) does too much, it will clash with existing
workflow or software. If too little, (it’s) not worth the cost
of installation.”
http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/un-sucking-the-touchpoint/
What is comfortable about their existing situation?
Maybe they already have a great solution, and there’s just
no push to move from it. There isn’t even any anxiety
because they don’t even think about it.

32. Value Proposition Canvas

33. "Listen to some music"
(Task)
"Help me relax and enjoy flying late at night
with my favourite Thievery Corporation album.”
(Job)
Tasks are not Jobs.

36. Job Stories

37. Context:
When someone approaches a bank for a
home loan and fills out an application…
Motivation:
The applicant wants to know if the
application is accepted or not…
The banker wants to make sure that the
application is filled out correctly…
The bank wants to check if the applicant has
acceptable credit history…
Expected Outcome:
So that a home loan is quickly given to a low
risk person, which the bank feels confident it
will profit from. alanklement.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/5-tips-for-writing-job-story.html
Stories might have more than one character.

38. Why you care :-)

39. “The Customer is the Product”
Marketing 101 taught me that you’re supposed to find a need in the market, then
work out a way to deliver it.
Somehow, Marketing in the Real World seems to be more about how to sell stuff to
people who don’t necessarily need/want it.
Buyer’s remorse is not a sustainable sales outcome.
Developing empathy with the buyer helps us understand how to design solutions that
fit better and better. Especially if we can develop some uniqueness about the offering
that is delightful. It’s hard to design for delight without first developing empathy.
Then Marketing becomes a re-iteration of the Job Story.
And the Support Team understanding the context and motivations behind the
purchase decision helps them to be less mechanical, and more empathetic when
providing assistance.

40. Organising for Action
(aka “AB’s struggle last week”)

41. Vision “Who do we want to be when we grow up?”
Strategy(s) “How should we execute to achieve our Vision?”
Goals “How will we measure the effectiveness of our Strategies?”
Priorities “What value should we build towards achieving our goals?”
— from Bruce McCarthy’s Curing Shiny Object Syndrome
http://www.slideshare.net/ProductCampBoston/curing-shiny-object-syndrome-setting-goals-priorities-for-success-bruce-mccarthy-productcamp-boston-2015

42. Vision “The #1 source of B2B contact information.”
Strategy(s)
“Leverage crowd-sourcing to develop the largest
and most-accurate B2B contact database.”
Goals
“Fulfill more demand by growing the database by X%.”
“Create competitive barriers by raising accuracy by Y%.”
Priorities [insert special sauce here]
(Also tells you what you are NOT doing!)
http://www.slideshare.net/ProductCampBoston/curing-shiny-object-syndrome-setting-goals-priorities-for-success-bruce-mccarthy-productcamp-boston-2015

43. “I already know this market well.
I’ve been talking to people about this for the last 10 years.”
“We have a prototype already (just no sales).”
“If we just put all these COTS plugins together, we have a
product we can sell!”
“We don’t want to turn down business.”
Temptations of a Founder

44. We started with…

45. “Let’s map the space of World Positive Ventures!”
We should build…
• a Wordpress network of websites,
• with everybody’s profile listed in a
single directory,
• and the ability for them to
connect and collaborate with each other
using BuddyPress,
• and they should be able to do eCommerce,
• and we should give them automated marketing and CRM capabilities,
• and everybody should have a website, which lets them publish content into
various online magazines,
• and…
• and…
• … !
Then we asked ourselves: What Jobs might customers hire Icologi to do?

46. Now, our whiteboard says…

47. Icologi will become
the #1 global community
facilitating
the optimal flow
of World Positive Capital.
Vision

48. … through:
Migrating existing communities,
Crowdsourcing profile data,
Enabling crowdfunding driven through
our community, to help ventures raise
capital, and
Becoming a trusted source of high-quality
information.
W
ORK
IN
PROGRESS!
Strategies

49. We realised that some important jobs that we’ve
identified don’t have a
COTS solution.
Our value will be created by growing a large Icologi
Community membership base.
We can grow by targeting the
temporary communities
formed during conference events, and
get hired to make it
easier for them to continue conversations
after the events are concluded,
across a wider community.
Since we need to custom build some features
on top of what we can buy off the shelf,
we decided to learn about and
promote our crowdfunding features
— by crowdfunding their development :-)

50. Context
When a World Positive Venture goes looking for capital…
Motivations
…the CEO wants to access funds from a Community who can provide
valuable advice and other intangible forms of capital,
the Funders want to establish that the Venture has a good reputation and
credibility within the Community,
and the Funders want to feel confident that the Venture’s team is capable
of executing…
Expected Outcome
… so that funds are quickly invested in a Venture that are most likely to
succeed in their mission, and the Funders believe they are investing in a
Venture that is really going to make a positive impact in the world.
High Level Job Story

51. Context
When a World Positive Venture goes looking for capital…
Motivations
… the CEO wants to know if a VC agrees to fund them,
the CEO wants to access funds from a VC who can provide valuable advice
and other intangible forms of capital,
the VC wants to make sure that the Venture is a good fit for their portfolio,
and
the VC wants to ensure that the Venture’s team is capable of executing…
Expected Outcome
… so that funds are quickly invested in a Venture that are most likely to
succeed in their mission, and the VC believes that they have selected an
appropriate risk profile to add to their existing portfolio.
High Level Job Story

52. W
ORK
IN
PROGRESS!

53. Getting hired to solve
the red ones isn’t a part
of our vision.
Green ones were
common across
interviewees.

54. UX Perspectives

55. "A touchpoint is a point of interaction involving a specific
human need in a specific time and place…
…a moment in time.
I want to design to support that moment in time.
More specifically, a touchpoint is meeting that need
through delivering on the company’s value proposition
in that time and place.”
— Chris Risdon, Adaptive Path
Un-sucking the Touchpoint
- http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/un-sucking-the-touchpoint/

56. “Historically, touchpoints have been defined in three types:
• static: such as packaging or an advertisement
• interactive: a website or a kiosk; and
• human: such as a sales rep.
But as a designer, this didn’t tell me much … from
a human-centered view.
It wasn’t very actionable.
Being a point of contact with a brand wasn’t enough.”
http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/there-is-no-spoon-the-construct-of-channels/

57. “When I’m in Melbourne for work (to a CBD), and I want to get away to Mornington Peninsula, and I
feel time pressure to maximise the weekend, I’d like to be able to go downstairs and drive a car
right away, so that I can avoid wasting time travelling to and dealing with a rental car office.”
“When I have a lot of places to go in one day, I’d like a more cost-effective way than Uber or full day
car-hire to be able to get around. I just don’t have the time to wait for public transport, so I’d like to
have access to a car for about 6 hours. It would be great if I could drive one away from somewhere
near me right now.
Job Stories
http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/there-is-no-spoon-the-construct-of-channels/

58. “When I’m in Melbourne for work (to a CBD), and I want to get away to Mornington Peninsula, and I
feel time pressure to maximise the weekend, I’d like to be able to go downstairs and drive a car
right away, so that I can avoid wasting time travelling to and dealing with a rental car office.”
“When I have a lot of places to go in one day, I’d like a more cost-effective way than Uber or full day
car-hire to be able to get around. I just don’t have the time to wait for public transport, so I’d like to
have access to a car for about 6 hours. It would be great if I could drive one away from
somewhere near me right now.
Job Stories
“Oh, you’ve got to
be kidding me!”

59. A channel isn’t the point of interaction.
A channel is the means by which
a point of interaction —a moment —
is enabled or constrained.
A touchpoint often gets conflated with channel
(or platform, or medium).
Often referred to, for example, as
the “phone touchpoint” or the “web touchpoint.”
But a touchpoint is not a channel,
and a channel is not a touchpoint.
We construct them as a way to define those
opportunities or constraints around a particular
moment—a touchpoint.
If you think of the mobile phone as a channel, you are
now afforded opportunities, and presented with
constraints, in how you and your customer or user
interact.
— Chris Risdon http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/there-is-no-spoon-the-construct-of-channels/
A customer getting their rental car.
A single touchpoint,
but a concert of channels!

60. Job Story -> Wireframe

61. When car salespeople and their customers interact
with each other via the product...
...customers want to feel like they can trust the
organization, process, and the salesperson.
Salespeople are going to want to be confident their
process makes their customers feel comfortable...
...so clients will feel safe entering their financial
information into a process.
Job Story
https://www.intercom.com/books/jobs-to-be-done

62. Wireframe
https://www.intercom.com/books/jobs-to-be-done

63. UserTesting
Test for Job Story (with real customers)
• “How did you feel when you…”
• “What was your impression of Joey (the salesman)?”
Test for Job Story (with the salespeople)
• “How did your customer react to the software?”
• “Did they have any problems entering their financial info?”
• “What impression do you feel they took away from the call?”

64. http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/exploratorium-mapping-the-experience-of-experiments/
ExperienceMap

65. http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/exploratorium-mapping-the-experience-of-experiments/
ExperienceMap
Jobs?

66. Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek - Uncovering the Jobs to Be Done
Clayton Christensen — Understanding the Job (the Milkshake story)
Further References:
JTBD Radio — Unpacking the Progress-Making Forces Diagram
Bruce McCarthy — Curing Shiny Object Syndrome
Steve Blank — How to Build a Startup (great material on BMC and Value Prop Canvas)
Adaptive Path — Experience Mapping
Alan Klement — Designing Features Using Job Stories (Intercom Blog)

67. Get in Touch!
adam@adambreen.com
@adambreen