The Context Generator for Jobs-to-be-Done Research
This is a critical tool to use on the front-end of your research project
This is not something you will see the incumbents do. They do everything in their head, which is why never see complete workpapers that trace out the thought process like auditors are expected to do (yea, I was bank auditor for a year). For the amount of money they ask you to invest, the don’t leave much that’s traceable beyond. 👍🏻
I use contexts at the front end of the process when establishing the key research questions and scope is critical. While universal jobs exist in a hierarchy, contexts add layers to this picture because for each job there could be a quite considerable number of contexts to consider…no pun intended.
Sometimes you’ll need to study a single context deeply. The situational factors, the job map, and the success metrics will be highly sensitive to these context changes.
Other times, you will want to capture data more broadly, across several contexts.
Either way, studying them in advance helps you make these determinations as you’re thinking through the questions you need to answer.
The following is a walkthrough of the Context Generator Prompt. This is by no means the most sophisticated of the prompts you’ll encounter here. But, I think you’ll agree that it does a solid job that would take you hours if not days to figure out. Keep in mind, ‘n’ is your friend. If you want 5, generate 5. If you want to consider 50, generate 50.