Jobs-to-be-Done / Value Prop Canvas
Jobs-to-be-Done starts from a simple reframe: people do not really buy products, they "hire" them to make progress on a job they are trying to get done. The tool maps that job across its functional, emotional, and social dimensions, along with the pains and gains around it, then maps those against what you offer, so you analyze the audience by the progress they are chasing rather than by their demographics or attributes. Applied to content, it shifts the question from "what do we want to say" to "what is the reader trying to accomplish right now," which produces a very different brief.
Frames content around the task the reader is hiring it to complete.
When I ___, I want to ___, so I can ___.
When to use this
- When content is brand-led or feature-led rather than built around documented reader needs.
- To generate topic ideas that originate from real jobs or purposes, rather than keyword volume or what the team finds interesting.
- As a complement or alternative to demographic personas, useful when the audience defies neat segmentation.