# Jobs-to-Be-Done Content Interview

Investigate the progress readers seek when they find, choose, use, abandon, return to, or share content during a specific decision or task.

## Usage note

Use this guide to reconstruct one recent content choice and the progress surrounding it. It is not a script for persuading participants toward your product or forcing every answer into a predefined “job.” Obtain appropriate consent, avoid collecting unnecessary personal detail, and keep direct evidence separate from the interviewer’s model.

## How to use this template

1. Recruit participants who recently made the relevant content choice or attempted the target task.
2. Define a neutral opening that names the episode without naming the outcome you hope to hear.
3. Reconstruct the timeline from first thought through search, comparison, use, result, and later reuse or abandonment.
4. Probe the push, pull, anxiety, and habit forces with examples from the episode rather than abstract ratings.
5. Summarize the progress, content role, unresolved need, and evidence, then compare patterns across interviews.

## Blank template

### Interview setup

- **Research decision:** [What content choice will this inform?]
- **Target episode:** [Recent search, selection, use, or abandonment]
- **Participant code:** [Non-identifying label]
- **Relevant experience:** [Why this episode fits]
- **Consent record:** [Recording, notes, use, and retention]
- **Interviewer:** [Name]
- **Interview date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]

### Timeline prompts

- **Before:** What was happening before you thought about finding this information?
- **First thought:** When did you first feel the old situation was not enough?
- **Trigger:** What made you act at that particular time?
- **Search:** Where did you look, and which words did you use?
- **Consideration set:** What other sources or options did you compare?
- **Choice:** What made you open, trust, save, or use this item?
- **Use:** Walk me through what you did with the content.
- **Outcome:** What changed afterward?
- **Later behavior:** Did you return, adapt, share, or replace it?

### Switching forces

- **Push of old situation:** [Frustration, risk, delay, or unmet need]
- **Pull of new option:** [Expected value]
- **Anxiety about change:** [Doubt, cost, trust, or uncertainty]
- **Habit or inertia:** [What favored doing nothing or using the old source]
- **Decisive evidence:** [Cue that shifted the balance]
- **Rejected alternative:** [Why another option lost]
- [ ] Each force is connected to an event or participant statement.
- [ ] The interviewer did not supply the desired benefit.
- [ ] Contradictory evidence is retained.

### Synthesis

- **Progress sought:** [Functional, social, or emotional dimensions supported by evidence]
- **Draft job statement:** When [situation], I want to [progress], so I can [meaningful outcome].
- **Content role:** [Trigger / Orient / Compare / Instruct / Reassure / Prove / Record / Handoff]
- **Success signal:** [How the participant knew progress occurred]
- **Remaining struggle:** [What content did not solve]
- **Design implication:** [Information, order, proof, format, or access change]
- **Confidence and gap:** [Strength of pattern and next research]