01.25.21: JTBD x Automation

Learned this new framework for finding opportunities to automate workflows (shout out to a stellar workshop by Michael Gill ).

I first heard of the concept of Jobs to be done (JTBD) a few years ago. It’s a common framework in product and strategy circles but I really liked how Michael applied the thinking to automation and workflows.

Usually in JTBD you’re thinking about your customer’s job in this concept you’re the customer and you break down the job you’re trying to do intro triggers, actions, and tools which will become a nifty roadmap for creating the automation later.

Here’s an example of an automation opportunity that I solved today. If you don’t know, I run a (week) daily podcast where I chit-chat about things on my mind while running Lunch Pail Labs. I use anchor FM to record and distribute the podcast but I haven’t been posting it anywhere so I wanted to create an easy automation that would take care of that for me.

Below is the statement I used to break down the tasks

When I publish a new podcast episode with anchor FM, I need to share the episode on Twitter

  • When I publish a new podcast episode = the trigger aka what will set off the chain of reactions of the other tasks

  • Anchor FM, and Twitter = tools that’ll need to hook up to either through an API or some no-code automation

  • Share the podcast = the action I need my automaton to take

Luckily this was all easily done in Zapier, they didn’t have a direct integration to anchor.FM but I was able to use the RSS feed. Now, it’s up and running and if others would like to try it, they can swipe the zap here.

Lola Ojabowale