11. August 2026
Forces in the Jobs to be Done Model
The forces of progress
In just under six minutes, Peter Rochel gets to the heart of what this central element of a Job to be Done is all about.
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00:00 Intro
00:19 Pains, gains, forces
00:36 Direction of effect
01:25 Gains and problems
01:31 Measurable?
02:54 Finding the forces
05:44 Get out
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A central element of the customer job
Forces are one of three central elements of a Job to be Done and of The Wheel of Progress JTBD Canvas – alongside events and the limiting context. Forces are the emotionally charged drivers of – or brakes on – progress and change.
We divide forces into two main categories, each with three specific groups. To fully understand a Job to be Done and the desire for progress, you always need all six forces.
Pain, gain, problem or benefit?
Either way, it is an emotional force that relates to a task to be done – the Job to be Done. So there are no jobs without forces, and no forces without jobs. We first divide forces into two main groups: problems and benefits (pains and gains), often also referred to as customer pains and customer gains.
If a characteristic feels pleasant, it belongs to the category of customer gains. Unpleasant characteristics belong to the customer pains.
Direction of effect and the forces of progress
Forces can also have a specific direction of effect. Both pains and gains can either promote progress – the switch to new solutions – or work against it. Accordingly, the gains are divided into pull and habit, and the pains into push and anxiety. Push and pull drive progress, or at least the switch; habit and anxiety work against it.
Outcomes
Pains and gains can also contain criteria that customers use to recognise improvement or deterioration in relation to the Job to be Done. In this case, we speak of expected results, or desired outcomes.
A Wheel of Progress Canvas always contains all the forces relating to the Jobs to be Done.
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