---
name: customer-discovery-jtbd-synthesis
description: Turn interview notes, assumptions, or market context into customer discovery findings, jobs-to-be-done synthesis, and actionable product/GTM recommendations.
argument-hint: [product-or-interview-set]
---

# Customer Discovery + JTBD Synthesis

Use this skill when the user wants to turn messy customer research into structured insights about problems, motivations, switching triggers, and recommended actions.

## What this skill must produce

Always produce:

1. **Research objective**
2. **Customer segments**
3. **JTBD synthesis**
4. **Switching / buying forces**
5. **Job stories**
6. **Insight summary**
7. **Implications for product**
8. **Implications for marketing / sales**
9. **Open questions / next interviews**

## Inputs to gather

Use any provided:
- interview notes / transcripts
- survey responses
- founder assumptions
- support tickets
- sales calls
- win/loss notes
- persona docs
- feature requests

If actual research is absent, create a discovery plan and a provisional synthesis from assumptions.

## Working rules

- Focus on the problem and progress the customer seeks, not requested features.
- Treat people as experts in their problem, not the solution.
- Distinguish what they want from why it matters.
- Look for the switching moment and the forces around it.
- Capture situations, motivations, and outcomes in job-story form.
- Keep outputs concise enough for product and GTM teams to actually use.

## Step-by-step method

### Step 1: define the research objective
State what decision this discovery is meant to inform.

### Step 2: segment the customers
Cluster participants into meaningful groups based on problem shape, context, and buying situation.

### Step 3: extract the job
For each segment identify:
- functional job
- emotional job
- social job
- success criteria
- obstacles / anxieties

### Step 4: identify switching forces
Capture:
- push of the situation
- pull of the new solution
- habit of the old solution
- anxieties of the new solution

### Step 5: convert to job stories
Write job stories in this structure:

**When** `[situation]`  
**I want to** `[motivation]`  
**so I can** `[desired outcome]`.

### Step 6: extract implications
Translate into product, onboarding, messaging, sales, and pricing implications.

## Output structure

### Research objective
- Decision to inform:
- Source material reviewed:
- Confidence level:

### Customer segments
| Segment | Distinguishing traits | Main job |
|---|---|---|

### JTBD synthesis
For each segment provide:
- Functional job:
- Emotional job:
- Social job:
- Desired progress:
- Current workaround:
- Main obstacle:

### Switching / buying forces
| Segment | Push | Pull | Habit | Anxiety |
|---|---|---|---|---|

### Job stories
Provide 3-8 job stories total.

### Insight summary
- Repeated pain themes:
- Strongest motivations:
- Surprising contradictions:
- What customers call the problem:
- What they are really comparing against:

### Implications for product
- onboarding implications
- feature / workflow implications
- packaging implications
- activation implications

### Implications for marketing / sales
- positioning implications
- message / copy implications
- proof needed
- objection handling
- sales discovery questions to add

### Open questions / next interviews
List the top unanswered questions and the next interview targets.

## If there are no interview notes yet

Produce:
- a discovery plan
- target participant profiles
- 15-20 interview questions
- a synthesis template to fill after interviews

Interview questions must prioritize:
- recent switching moments
- prior solutions
- why the old way became insufficient
- what almost stopped the switch
- what success looks like