Be The User Reset (Jobs-to-be-Done)
Zoom out and ask what the user hires your product for — then be that user and ask if you'd even buy what you made.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 85%
Schoening uses jobs-to-be-done not as doctrine but as a forcing function against a specific organizational failure: people turn off their brain when reviewing their own product, judging it as 'an employee who made a thing' rather than as a user asking 'is this a good experience?' The framework's value is the reset — think holistically about what the user actually wants to hire the product for, be honest about the difference between what the user wants and what you want them to want, and then literally become that user and ask whether you'd buy what you just made. A parallel test applies to communication: explain it as you would to a friend at a whiteboard.
Origin
Schoening's pragmatic reading of Clayton Christensen's jobs-to-be-done; he doesn't identify strongly with the full theory but uses it as a zoom-out reminder.
Core principles
- 01Ask what the user actually hires the product for, holistically
- 02Be honest about what the user wants vs. what you want the user to want
- 03People review their own product as employees, not as users
- 04Becoming the user for a moment restores honest judgment
- 05The same reset applies to communication: explain it like you would to a friend
How to run it
- 1
Zoom out to the job
Before judging your product, ask holistically what the user is hiring it for, and be honest about the gap between what they want and what you wish they wanted.
Pro tip Use JTBD purely as a reminder to zoom out, not as a rigid doctrine to over-apply.
Watch out In large orgs people default to 'I'm an employee who made a thing' instead of 'I'm a user — is this good?'
- 2
Become the user and ask if you'd buy it
Deliberately switch into the user's seat and ask: would you even buy the thing you just made? The honest answer is often 'oh, I hadn't thought about that.'
Pro tip Say it out loud as a user, not as the maker defending the work.
Watch out Turning off this user-brain during self-review is the most common failure in larger organizations.
- 3
Apply the whiteboard test to communication
For messaging (e.g. a landing page), stop writing marketing speak and explain the product as you would to a friend. Picture what you'd manically draw on a whiteboard to communicate it, then compare that to what you actually designed.
Pro tip If the whiteboard explanation and the designed page aren't the same thing, you don't yet understand what the product does.
Watch out People's writing deteriorates on landing pages because they try to sound clever — marketing speak signals you've lost the plot.
In the wild
A team building a landing page for a new feature slipped into clever marketing speak. Schoening pushed them to explain it as they would to a friend, and to picture the manic thing they'd draw on a whiteboard — then asked whether that and the designed page were the same thing.
→ The exercise exposed that the polished page didn't match a plain-spoken understanding of what the feature does, forcing a clearer message.
Schoening observes people in large orgs turning off their brains reviewing their own products, evaluating as 'an employee who made a thing' rather than asking as a user whether it's a good experience. The JTBD reset asks 'would you even buy the thing you just made?'
→ The reframe surfaces honest reactions — often 'oh, I hadn't thought about that' — that employee-mode review suppresses.
Common mistakes
Reviewing as a maker, not a user
Judging your own product as an employee who built it rather than as a user experiencing it hides real problems. The fix is to become the user and ask if you'd buy it.
Marketing speak over plain explanation
On landing pages people try to sound clever, and their writing deteriorates. Explaining it as you would to a friend at a whiteboard restores clarity and reveals whether you understand the product.
Is it for you?
Best for
PMs, designers, and marketers reviewing their own product or writing messaging who risk losing the user's perspective
Not ideal for
Teams that already have strong outside-in user research discipline, or purists who want a rigorous JTBD methodology rather than a zoom-out reminder
From the transcript
“have you thought holistically about what the user wants to hire your product for and are you honest about what the user wants versus what…”
“Would you even buy the thing that you just made?”
“the user hires you for a thing. Be that user for a second.”
From the episode
Why cultivating agency matters more than cultivating skills in the AI era
Max Schoening (Head of Product, Notion)