The Jobs-To-Be-Done Worksheet Template

My customer decided to look for a solution when [DESCRIBE THE SPECIFIC MOMENT OR EVENT THAT TRIGGERED THE SEARCH, e.g. 'they realised their manual reporting was taking three hours every Friday and they missed a client deadline because of it'].

Before that moment, they were trying to cope by [DESCRIBE THE WORKAROUND OR PREVIOUS APPROACH, e.g. 'using a spreadsheet stitched together with copy-paste from three different tools'].

That workaround stopped being acceptable when [DESCRIBE THE BREAKING POINT, e.g. 'the team grew to four people and the spreadsheet broke every time two people edited it at once'].

The customer who experiences this trigger is typically [DESCRIBE THEIR ROLE AND CONTEXT, e.g. 'a founder-led services business with 2 to 10 employees, generating between 200k and 800k a year, who handles operations themselves because they cannot yet justify a full-time ops hire'].

At the time they are searching for a solution, they feel [DESCRIBE THE EMOTIONAL STATE, e.g. 'frustrated and slightly embarrassed that something this basic is eating so much of their week'] and they are worried that [DESCRIBE THE UNDERLYING FEAR, e.g. 'if they do not fix this now, the problem will be three times worse in six months when they land the bigger clients they are actively pitching'].

When [DESCRIBE THE TRIGGER SITUATION], my customer wants to [VERB: e.g. eliminate / reduce / automate / produce / have confidence in] [THE OBJECT: the specific outcome they want, e.g. 'a reliable weekly report'] so they can [THE REAL GOAL BEHIND THE GOAL, e.g. 'spend Friday afternoons on client work instead of admin'].

Full job statement: 'Help me [VERB + OBJECT + CONTEXT IN ONE SENTENCE WITHOUT JARGON].'

Example: 'Help me get a clean, accurate client report out of my system every Friday without touching a spreadsheet.'

What my product does (feature language): [STATE WHAT YOUR PRODUCT LITERALLY DOES, e.g. 'connects to your CRM and automates weekly report generation'].

What my customer hired it for (job language): [RESTATE IN TERMS OF THE PROGRESS THEY WANT, e.g. 'gets the report done without them having to think about it'].

The words I should use on my homepage and in my sales conversations: [LIST 3 TO 5 PHRASES IN THEIR LANGUAGE, e.g. 'done before you wake up', 'no more Friday afternoon fire drills', 'your report is already in their inbox'].

The words I was probably using before (and should stop): [LIST THE FEATURE-FIRST LANGUAGE YOU HAD BEFORE, e.g. 'automated reporting dashboard', 'real-time data sync', 'multi-source integration'].

FUNCTIONAL JOB (the practical task they need done):
[DESCRIBE THE CONCRETE OUTCOME, e.g. 'Get an accurate client report produced and sent without manual work.']

EMOTIONAL JOB (how they want to feel as a result):
[DESCRIBE THE FEELING THEY ARE BUYING, e.g. 'Feel in control of their business operations. Feel like a professional, not someone held together with tape.']

SOCIAL JOB (how they want to be perceived by others):
[DESCRIBE THE EXTERNAL IMPRESSION THEY WANT TO CREATE, e.g. 'Look like a well-run, reliable business to their clients. Look like someone who has their systems together, even if the team is small.']

The purchase decision is driven most heavily by: [CIRCLE ONE: Functional / Emotional / Social] because [EXPLAIN WHY THAT LAYER DOMINATES FOR THIS SPECIFIC CUSTOMER, e.g. 'the emotional job is dominant because the functional outcome already exists with their spreadsheet, what they are really buying is relief from the weekly anxiety'].

When my customer evaluates solutions, they are asking these three questions (in order of importance):

1. [PRIMARY HIRING CRITERION, e.g. 'Will this actually work without me having to manage it?']
2. [SECONDARY CRITERION, e.g. 'Can I set it up this week, without a developer?']
3. [TERTIARY CRITERION, e.g. 'Will it still work if our CRM changes?']

The thing they say they care about but probably care about less: [e.g. 'Integrations list. They mention it but what they actually need is two or three solid integrations, not fifty.']

The thing they never mention but that actually drives the decision: [e.g. 'Whether it looks trustworthy. They will not say this, but a rough-looking product dashboard makes them nervous about reliability.']

PUSH: The problem with the current situation (what is making them want to leave):
[LIST 2 TO 3 SPECIFIC FRUSTRATIONS, e.g. 'Friday afternoons are lost. The spreadsheet breaks under pressure. They are embarrassed when a client asks for a different cut of data and they have to say 'I will get back to you'.']

PULL: The attraction of the new solution (what draws them toward yours):
[LIST 2 TO 3 SPECIFIC ATTRACTIONS, e.g. 'The report appears automatically. No one has to remember to run it. It looks professional without extra effort.']

Anxiety: What makes them hesitate even though they want to switch:
[LIST THE REAL HESITATIONS, e.g. 'Will setting it up take longer than just keeping the spreadsheet? Will it break silently and I will not notice until a client complains? Is it worth the monthly cost for a problem that only hurts me one afternoon a week?']

Habit: What keeps them attached to the old way:
[LIST THE INERTIA FORCES, e.g. 'The spreadsheet is free. They built it themselves so they understand every cell. Their VA knows how to use it.']

My product is not just competing against [MAIN COMPETITOR NAME]. It is also competing against:

- Doing nothing and living with the problem: [DESCRIBE WHAT 'DO NOTHING' LOOKS LIKE FOR THEM, e.g. 'continuing to lose three hours every Friday and telling themselves they will fix it when things slow down']
- The DIY alternative: [DESCRIBE WHAT THEY WOULD BUILD THEMSELVES, e.g. 'a fancier spreadsheet, or hiring a VA to do the manual work']
- A category substitute: [DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENT-TYPE SOLUTION THEY CONSIDER, e.g. 'asking their accountant to handle client reporting as part of the monthly bookkeeping package']

The reason they choose my product over all of these is: [SINGLE CLEAREST REASON, e.g. 'it is the only option where the output is ready without anyone having to do anything, every time'].

Collect verbatim quotes from customer interviews, reviews, support tickets, or sales calls. Fill in the blanks below.

The phrase they used to describe the problem before they found you:
'[EXACT QUOTE OR PARAPHRASE IN THEIR WORDS, e.g. "I was spending my whole Friday afternoon just compiling things that should already be in one place."]'

The phrase they used to describe the moment they knew they needed a solution:
'[EXACT QUOTE, e.g. "I finally missed something because I was so burnt out from the admin that I stopped double-checking."]'

The phrase they used to describe what life looks like now:
'[EXACT QUOTE, e.g. "Now I actually forget it is even running. The report is just there."]'

The single word or phrase they use most often when recommending you:
'[EXACT WORD OR PHRASE, e.g. "reliable", "just works", "sorted"]'

The metaphor or comparison they reached for naturally:
'[e.g. "It is like having a really organised colleague who never forgets."]'

Before: My customer was someone who [DESCRIBE THEIR SITUATION, IDENTITY, AND FEELING BEFORE YOUR PRODUCT, e.g. 'spent Friday afternoons wrestling with a spreadsheet, felt vaguely behind, and dreaded the question "can you send me a breakdown of that?" because it meant two more hours of work'].

The moment they decided to change: [DESCRIBE THE SPECIFIC TRIGGER, e.g. 'A client asked for a report at 4pm on a Friday and they had to say they would get it by Monday. That felt unprofessional for the price they were charging.'].

After: Now they are someone who [DESCRIBE THEIR NEW SITUATION AND IDENTITY, e.g. 'has clean reports ready before the client thinks to ask. Their Fridays are for client work. They feel like they run a proper operation.'].

The progress they made: [DESCRIBE THE TRANSFORMATION IN ONE SENTENCE, e.g. 'They went from running operations on willpower to running it on systems.'].

HEADLINE (the job, in their language, no jargon):
[WRITE YOUR NEW HEADLINE, e.g. 'Your client report is already in their inbox. You did not touch it.']

SUBHEADLINE (the functional outcome + the emotional payoff in one sentence):
[e.g. '[PRODUCT NAME] automates your weekly reporting so Fridays are for client work, not copy-paste.']

PRIMARY CALL TO ACTION (what the next step looks like, specific not generic):
[e.g. 'See how it works in 3 minutes' rather than 'Get started' or 'Learn more']

THREE BULLET PROOF POINTS (the three hiring criteria from Section 3, rewritten as outcomes):
- [HIRING CRITERION 1 AS AN OUTCOME STATEMENT, e.g. 'Set up once. Works every Friday. No reminders needed.']
- [HIRING CRITERION 2 AS AN OUTCOME STATEMENT, e.g. 'Connected to your CRM in under an hour. No developer required.']
- [HIRING CRITERION 3 AS AN OUTCOME STATEMENT, e.g. 'Works the same way whether your team is two people or twelve.']

The formula: I help [WHO] [ACHIEVE THE FUNCTIONAL JOB] so they can [THE REAL GOAL BEHIND THE GOAL] without [THE THING THEY HATE DOING OR FEAR].

Fill it in:
'I help [YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER, e.g. 'founder-led services businesses'] [FUNCTIONAL JOB, e.g. 'get clean client reports out every week automatically'] so they can [REAL GOAL, e.g. 'focus Fridays on revenue work'] without [WHAT THEY HATE, e.g. 'touching a spreadsheet or chasing anyone for data'].'

Test your pitch: If a stranger reads this and says 'that is exactly my problem', it works. If they say 'interesting, what does that mean exactly', rewrite it. Clarity beats cleverness every time.

Your revised pitch: '[WRITE YOUR FINAL VERSION HERE]'