Job Stories are design deliverables based on Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD), an innovation theory, used to replace user stories and guide the design decisions.

Job Stories, as the name implies, put the user’s job at the center of the story. In JTBD theory a job is a complex entity describing what user is hiring the product to do. The job is described in context having functional, emotional, and social aspects.

In it simplest form a job story looks like this:

When [situation] ,
I want to [motivation],
so that I can [expected outcome].

And to use a practical example:

When I am at McDonald’s,
I want to buy a milkshake,
so that I can stay awake while driving.

This example is taken from the story that Clayton Christensen, one of the authors of the JTBD theory, likes to tell. If you are familiar with the story you will realize that what is presented above captures the essence of the job story, but it leaves out a lot of details.

I use this example to show that writing job stories is tricky. In my experience job stories (just like user stories) should be used as conversation starters, and not a comprehensive documentation.