Find the moment of struggle.
Demand appears when something important is hard, risky, slow, embarrassing, expensive, or emotionally loaded.
Back to Playbook
Product judgment
Jobs to be Done
Name the moment where a user hires the product to make progress.
01Context
The user job before the feature.
Jobs to be Done is a way to keep product language close to real life. The user is not usually looking for a feature category. They are in a situation, trying to make progress, comparing alternatives, and carrying anxieties about what might go wrong.
This lens is especially useful across my projects because the jobs are structurally different. Donaya is about fundraising credibility and supporter follow-up. Key Models is about finding and applying the right decision model. Gradimio is about traceable, defensible decisions. Paliet is about creative output without tool overhead.
02Model
The job behind the feature.
The model is the part of the article where the idea becomes usable: a sequence of decisions, artifacts, or checks that can guide real product work.
Name the better state.
The product is hired to help the user move from current friction to desired progress.
Understand alternatives.
A product competes with spreadsheets, manual work, agencies, current tools, doing nothing, and user habits.
The model connects the user situation, desired progress, and product surface.
- SituationFind the moment of struggle.
- ProgressName the better state.
- SwitchUnderstand alternatives.
03Case reading
The jobs differ by domain.
Nonprofit operators need fundraising to become supporter operations. Couples need wedding logistics to feel calm and contribution-ready. HR teams need compensation decisions to become traceable. Creative buyers need custom artwork without learning design tools.
The job is also where the product’s anxiety appears. A nonprofit worries whether supporter money, records, and certificates are handled credibly. A compensation reviewer worries whether a decision can be explained. A creative buyer worries whether the purchased output will match the approved preview. Those anxieties shape the product more than the feature category does.
04Artifacts
What this leaves behind.
I use artifacts as evidence of thinking. They make product judgment reviewable, reusable, and easier to connect back to the work.
Struggling moment
The situation, trigger, current workaround, and desired progress.
Switching map
The forces that push, pull, block, or keep users in the old way.