Job Stories vs User Stories: What's the Difference?

Let's talk about job stories vs user stories? What's the difference and when do you use one over the other? Learn more about what job stories are, the job story template, and when to use each (and when to use both) in this video.
Want to know more about story writing? Consider training from Mountain Goat: www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/...
*****************
References:
Intercom, Clayton Christensen, Alan Klement, & Jobs to Be Done:
www.intercom.com/blog/the-dri...
www.intercom.com/blog/using-j...
• Understanding the Job
hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-cus...
hbr.org/video/5852531897001/k...
www.revealed.market/jobs-to-b...
jtbd.info/2-what-is-jobs-to-b...
**********************
Inside this video
00:00 Introduction
00:20 What are Job Stories and Jobs to Be Done?
01:30 The 3-part Job Story Template Explained
03:00 Job Story vs User Story Example 1
04:17 Job Story vs User Story Example 2
05:13 When to Use Job Stories
06:28 Merging Job Stories & User Stories
07:10 Mix Story Types in Product Backlog

[@HKCS-yn5nc]

It's interesting to see how closely related job stories are to a user intention in essential use case dialogues, confirming my hypothesis that stories are just a subset of a use case dialogue

[@rebeccaandrews2613]

This is interesting. It is the use of Gherkins User Acceptances added to the User Story.

[@georgwagner5577]

Almost 9 mins of such great content - w/o ads. I loved it :) As a developer I prefer the Gherkin-Syntax for user stories. But job stories are a nice thingy. Thanks.

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

Thanks, Georg.

[@chriselliott3011]

I wrestled with this for a long time... There is a dogmatic approach to the use of user stories in some organisations and the job story offers an easy step for such organisations to be more pragmatic

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

Agreed. I'm frustrated when someone tells a team that _everything_ needs to be a story or to comply with any template.

[@olivierclop6061]

Hello Mike,
Very interesting for sure. I'm going to check my PBIs to spot JS hidden behind US.
It seems to me that JS can also be used as acceptance criteria because they can describe business ergonomic rules.
However, I think that if too much emphazise is put on JS, we may forget about end users and little by little forget about the agile approach that requires frequent user feedback to adjust the devlopement plan so that we build the right product. I agree with you, each team has to find the right balance that fits its product.
So we have to experiment and find the appropriate distribution, a bit like we already do with US, Enablers and Bugs. May be delivering a batch made of a US and its related JS to minimize the amount of work while, all in all, maximizing the actual delivered value...

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

It's definitely possible to get too far away from users, but I don't think that's a huge risk. A typical product backlog for me will contain a mix of some user stories and some job stories, which will help with that.

[@michaelwagener1411]

Thanks, Mike - as a scrum master, I want to write job stories, so that I can be more accurate in describing the needs of my users... 😂 Job stories have not hit my radar yet, but I am glad that they have now. I can see just how useful they could be. 👍🙂

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

Nice story :) I'm glad these are now on your radar.

[@user-ok3ws6to2i]

Thanks Mike - this was super useful following our previous conversation last month. Our backlog now contains both types. Keep up the great work. ☺

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

That's great to hear. I'm glad you're using them.

[@BenjaminScherrey]

Haven't heard of job stories before. Certainly have fought against using generic "user" as the primary stakeholder. Now I see this is a different context and job stories might be superior in those cases.

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

Yeah, any time sometime writes the same "as a user/member/whatever" ten times in a row, that's a sign that job stories would have been better.

[@zonegamma8197]

Good video thanks

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

Thank you very much.

[@solomani5959]

First I’ve heard of this approach. Sounds useful.

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

Let me know how they work out for you.

[@devinhedge]

Nice to see a 10 year old idea finally getting sunshine and traction.

[@rajeswarikv9396]

This is a new learning..Thanks Mike for sharing

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

Thank you.

[@hemantkothiyal6364]

I have a question Mike- how does job stories different than user story acceptance criteria (especially if I write them using Given When Then). I can elaborate user stories exactly like job stories by using acceptance criteria

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

The sub-stories that can be split out from either a job story or user story are equivalent to their acceptance criteria. Big stories get split into small stories. Small stories have acceptance criteria added rather than splitting them into tiny stories. So any sub-story can be thought of as an acceptance criteria to its parent story.

[@TiffannyDoll]

Job stories look like acceptance criteria.

[@MountainGoatSoftware]

I understand how those similarities can be drawn. However, Job Stories and Acceptance Criteria serve different purposes. Job Stories focus on the situation, motivation, and expected outcome of a user's interaction with a system. Acceptance Criteria are specific conditions that must be met for a User Story, or Job Story, in order to be considered complete.
While both add detail and context to the development process, Job Stories are about understanding the user's needs and motivations, whereas Acceptance Criteria are about defining specific requirements for completion.

[@TiffannyDoll]

@@MountainGoatSoftware thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it