How to use Job Stories?

Product and feature idea generation, communication, targeting

Job Story is a great artifact that helps provide your team with useful information about people’s needs and take advantage of the Jobs To Be Done Theory. In this article, I will explain how they can be used to generate product and communication ideas.

Triple Strike Canvas

In order to show the awesomeness of Job Story and be no worse than any foreign JTBD evangelists 😅 we decided to create our own canvas. We called it Triple Strike Canvas as a joke.

The point is, almost every good Job Story helps “kill three birds with one stone at once”:

1. To come up with a product idea or feature;
2. To write a communication message that will convey the value of the product idea to users;
3. To specify targeting to understand where and when to communicate the benefits of the product idea.

The numbers indicate the recommended order of filling out the canvas.

Here is an example:

During research for the repair services online platform we found out that employees get paid based on amount of work they do for clients without having fixed salary. Sometimes they don’t have enough orders to cover their monthly expenses, so they look for additional orders themselves without telling their employer. They also are afraid to get punished for that.

On the other side employer distribute orders among handymen without realizing that they have already taken other orders on the same time slots. As a result the business loses clients and quality of work is reduced significantly.

This Job Story describes the problem from the side of employees/handymen.

It turned out that Triple Strike Canvas has some positive side effects. First, it helps to align the product and marketing teams around the user problem. And make them better understand each other in terms of product idea and communication messages. Secondly, you can use the canvas to facilitate idea generation session at your company.

How to use the Triple Strike Canvas

There is another example from one of the projects we have done:

• Product: Social network
• Job Story: When I come across a news topic that has been overused and over-exploited by media, I want to get rid of it so that I don’t get irritated over and over again.

Job Story describes the problem of users of a large Rusian content platform.

Step 1 — a product/feature idea creation.

Ask the question: “How can we help users… [resolve the case described in the Motivation part]”?

Example:

• Question: How can we help users when they [come across a news topic that has been overused and over-exploited by media] [get rid of it]?
• The product/feature idea: An opportunity to “turn off” the news on certain topics or with a certain hashtag in the newsfeed.

Each part of the Job Story helps refine another one. For example, “Motivation” helps come up with a product / feature idea, and the “Situation” and the “Expected Outcome” helps make a “reality check”.

You can refine the product idea first to make sure that it can be used in the “Situation” and to ensure that the person will get the “Expected Outcome”.

This idea works, I guess ☺️

Step 2 — synchronizing the idea with advertising and interface communications

“Outcome” helps write a communication message to convey the value of the product or feature to the user. Think about what you can tell users so that they get the expected outcome or recognize their problem in the message.

• Job Story: When I come across a news topic that has been overused and over-exploited by media, I want to get rid of it so that I don’t get irritated over and over again.
• The product/feature idea: An opportunity to “turn off” the news on certain topics or with a certain hashtag in the newsfeed.
• Question: What do we tell users so they understand that [An opportunity to “turn off” the news on certain topics or with a certain hashtag in the newsfeed] will help them [not to get irritated again] when they [come across a news topic that has been overused and over-exploited by media]?
• Communication/advert message: Newsfeed without “obuse”.
• The interface message: You can disable news on any subject that annoys you.

The communication message helps to convey the value of the idea to potential users, and the interface message helps current users to learn about the feature at the most appropriate time.

These messages can be used in advertising campaigns. Plus, you may use these messages to write more precise interface communication informing current users about features inside the product.

Step 3 — specifying targeting for the communication

“Situation” helps understand where to find people in the problematic situation to communicate the value of the product/feature idea.

• Question: Where can we tell users about [An opportunity to “turn off” the news on certain topics or with a certain hashtag in the newsfeed] when they [come across a news topic that has been overused and over-exploited by media]?
• Targeting (communication channels, touchpoints, user flow stages): product advertising, landing page, news feed, posts.

The “Situation” in this Job Story clarifies the moment when it is best to show the new product/feature idea message.

Conclusion

Job Story and Triple Strike Canvas help product and marketing teams focus on the users’ needs to come up with product/feature ideas, create advert/interface communications and refine targeting.

Each part of the Job Story is useful and important:

1. 💔 Situation helps refine targeting;
2. 📱 Motivation helps create product/feature ideas;
3. 💏 Outcome helps develop communication.

Triple Strike Canvas can be used to make this process easier to understand:

1. 💎 The product/feature idea. How can we help users get the [Motivation] in the [Situation]?
2. 💌 Communication message. What do we tell users so that they understand that the [Product idea] will help them get the [Expected Outcome] in the [Situation]?
3. 🎯 Targeting. Where can we communicate the [Product idea] to the users in the [Situation]?

Job Story also helps in setting design, development and communication goals which I will talk about in the next article.