Your customer has a problem. You understand their experience. But the next question is:

What are they actually trying to get done or achieve?

The Jobs-to-be-Done Canvas helps you move from who is my customer and what problem do they have to what progress are they trying to make in this situation they find themselves?

Instead of designing around a customer profile, you’ll focus on the job they are trying to accomplish.

What is this toolkit about?

The Jobs-to-be-Done Canvas is a guided tool for identifying the underlying job your customer is trying to accomplish.

A job is not simply a task.

It is the progress a person is trying to make in a particular situation.

Your goal is to understand what your customer is really trying to achieve, why the situation matters, and what makes the job difficult.

What problem does it solve?

Entrepreneurs often define customers by demographics or describe problems too broadly. They think:

“My customer is a small business owner who needs marketing.”

But that doesn’t tell you what the person is actually trying to accomplish.

A better question is:

“What are they trying to get done when this situation occurs?”

The Jobs-to-be-Done Canvas helps you avoid:

• Designing around demographics instead of customer needs

• Confusing a task with the underlying job

• Building solutions around your assumptions

• Focusing only on the product customers say they want

• Missing the deeper outcome the customer is seeking

• Solving the wrong part of the customer’s problem

People don’t simply buy products. They use solutions to make progress.

When should I use this toolkit?

Use this toolkit when:

• You have identified a customer problem worth investigating.

• You understand the customer’s experience but need to identify the underlying job.

• You want to understand what customers are actually trying to accomplish.

• You are comparing different ways customers currently solve the problem.

• You are preparing for customer discovery interviews.

• You want to design a solution around the customer’s desired progress rather than your preferred product.

Don’t use the canvas to force a job onto the customer. Treat your job statement as a hypothesis to investigate and validate.

What will I have when I’m done with the toolkit?

You’ll have a Jobs-to-be-Done Canvas containing:

• The situation that triggers the job

• What the customer is trying to accomplish

• The functional job they need to get done

• The emotional outcome they want

• The social outcome they care about

• What makes the job difficult

• What they currently use to get the job done

• What is missing or unsatisfactory about current solutions

• A clear Job Statement worth investigating

You’ll finish with a clearer understanding of the progress your customer is trying to make.

How to use the toolkit

This Notion toolkit will guide you through five simple activities:

1. Define the situation
Identify when and why the customer needs to make progress.

2. Identify the job
Describe what they are trying to accomplish, not the product they might buy.

3. Explore the desired outcomes
Look at the functional, emotional, and social outcomes they want.

4. Examine current solutions
Identify what they currently use or do to get the job done and what isn’t working well.

5. Write the Job Statement
Capture the job in a clear statement that can be investigated with real customers.

Focus on the job, not your solution.

The Toolkit

Jobs-to-be-Done Canvas Notion Template

Use the interactive Notion template to nail the jobs the 3 groups you are investigating their problems are trying to achieve.

👉 Open the Jobs-to-be-Done Canvas

Duplicate the template into your Notion workspace before you begin.