Turning desired health outcomes into measurable requirements and user stories
Key Takeaway
When a goal is vague, interview the actual customers and users first. Then capture each need as a solution-agnostic job story with a measurable outcome.
Discovery turns what a customer says they want into statements a project team can build and test. Jobs to Be Done methods capture the customer's goal and its measurable outcomes without naming a solution. User stories with acceptance criteria then describe the features that deliver those outcomes, each with a clear pass or fail test. Every team building from the requirements then shares the same testable targets.
Start from the job
A customer buying a shovel may really need a hole in the ground. So discovery looks first at what the user is trying to accomplish. Discovery then ties each job and need to measurable outcomes, defined as success for the user.
Four principles guide how you capture jobs:
- Customer-centric: Jobs come from conversations with customers, not from your own team.
- Solution agnostic: Describe the job without naming an existing solution or technology.
- Stable over time: Needs change slowly, so jobs you keep rewriting signal a problem.
- Measurable outcomes: If you cannot tell how you would know the job was delivered, revisit the job.