Users & Needs
One definition of the customer, shared by every part of the product
A persona made in a workshop is admired for a week, then never reopened, and the next planning document invents a slightly different customer. Strategy, design, marketing, and delivery each end up picturing someone different. UPG types the persona as one anchor the rest of the product links to: the jobs it pursues, the needs those jobs surface, the outcomes it would accept as done, the costs that keep it where it is, and the real people research resolves it into. The customer is defined once, and everything downstream links back to that one definition.
“When we buy a product, we essentially ‘hire’ it to help us do a job.”
The persona and the edges that run out from it
A personapersonaAn archetype representing a user segment pursues jobjobJob To Be Done: what the user is trying to accomplish nodes, experiences needneedA user need, pain, desire, or constraint nodes, aspires to desired outcomedesired_outcomeWhat the user hopes to achieve nodes, and incurs switching costswitching_costA barrier preventing users from switching alternatives nodes. It also experiences a user journeyuser_journeyAn end-to-end map of a user experience. Each is a typed edge, so the user side of the product is structure rather than a paragraph of backstory.
The set stays small: one persona per distinct mental model. Three sharp personas carry more than a dozen lookalikes, because every other region links to those three. The rest of this page walks out from this anchor, one edge at a time.
personaAn archetype representing a user segmentjobJob To Be Done: what the user is trying to accomplishneedA user need, pain, desire, or constraintdesired_outcomeWhat the user hopes to achieveswitching_costA barrier preventing users from switching alternativesuser_journeyAn end-to-end map of a user experienceThe persona is the anchor of the user side, and the same node every other region reaches for: the persona a value proposition targets, a journey maps, and research resolves into real participants. Define the user once, and the whole graph speaks about the same person.
A job decomposes into steps and surfaces what the user needs
A jobjobJob To Be Done: what the user is trying to accomplish is the progress a persona is trying to make. It decomposes into the job stepjob_stepA discrete step within a Job To Be Done nodes the persona actually walks, so the abstract goal becomes an observable sequence. The job also surfaces a needneedA user need, pain, desire, or constraint and motivates a desired outcomedesired_outcomeWhat the user hopes to achieve.
That is Jobs To Be Done held as structure. The steps locate where in the work the friction lives, and the causal edges record what the product owes the persona for getting that work done.
what progress is the persona trying to make?jobJob To Be Done: what the user is trying to accomplishjob_stepA discrete step within a Job To Be Donejob_stepA discrete step within a Job To Be Donejob_stepA discrete step within a Job To Be DoneneedA user need, pain, desire, or constraintdesired_outcomeWhat the user hopes to achieveA job is the progress a persona is trying to make. It decomposes into the observable steps the persona walks, and it surfaces the needs and motivates the outcomes that the work serves. Jobs to be done is the typed spine here, not a separate document: needs and features connect to it directly.
One need, connected to where it bites, how it is measured, and what meets it
A needneedA user need, pain, desire, or constraint connects four regions through one node. The same node occurs in a journey stepjourney_stepA single step in a user journey (where it bites), is measured by a desired outcomedesired_outcomeWhat the user hopes to achieve (when it is met), is reframed as a design questiondesign_questionAn open design problem to explore (so design can act), and is fulfilled by a capabilitycapabilityAn ability that enables value delivery (so engineering can build).
Because it is one node and not four paraphrases, research, design, and delivery reference the same need. When it is met, the journey step, the desired outcome, the design question, and the capability all resolve to the same record.
needA user need, pain, desire, or constraintjourney_stepA single step in a user journeydesired_outcomeWhat the user hopes to achievedesign_questionAn open design problem to explorecapabilityAn ability that enables value deliveryA need connects four ways from one node. It occurs in a journey step, which locates where the need applies. It is measured by a desired outcome, which sets when the need is met. It is reframed as a design question, which design acts on, and fulfilled by a capability, which engineering builds. Research, design, and delivery reference the same need node.
The success criterion the persona would accept as done
A desired outcomedesired_outcomeWhat the user hopes to achieve is the success criterion the persona would accept. Three edges converge on it: the persona aspires to it, the jobjobJob To Be Done: what the user is trying to accomplish motivates it, and the needneedA user need, pain, desire, or constraint is measured by it. It is the one place the user side states what good looks like.
It is also scored. High importance with low satisfaction is the gap Outcome-Driven Innovation looks for, so the same node that is quantified by a metricmetricA unified metric that measures progress, health, or behaviour across the product also reveals an opportunityopportunityA validated gap worth solving. Prioritisation by importance and satisfaction is then a query over the graph.
personaAn archetype representing a user segmentjobJob To Be Done: what the user is trying to accomplishneedA user need, pain, desire, or constraintmetricA unified metric that measures progress, health, or behaviour across the productopportunityA validated gap worth solvingA desired outcome is the success criterion for the job: the “done” signal. Persona, job, and need converge on it, and it carries scores. High importance with low satisfaction is the gap Outcome-Driven Innovation targets, so the same node that quantifies success also reveals the opportunity to pursue.
The friction that keeps the persona on the incumbent
A personapersonaAn archetype representing a user segment incurs a switching costswitching_costA barrier preventing users from switching alternatives for every reason it has not already moved: rebuilding saved reports, retraining the team, losing years of history. Typed as nodes, these reasons are on the record rather than assumed.
Each switching cost then maps to a jobjobJob To Be Done: what the user is trying to accomplish for someone: a report importer for onboarding, a migration guide for docs, a rebuttal for go-to-market. The cost carries an owner and a piece of work, traceable back to the persona that incurs it.
personaAn archetype representing a user segmentswitching_costA barrier preventing users from switching alternativesswitching_costA barrier preventing users from switching alternativesswitching_costA barrier preventing users from switching alternativesA switching cost is what stops the persona moving from their current solution. Each one is named on its own edge, so it can be acted on: a report importer for onboarding, a migration guide for docs, a rebuttal for go-to-market. Once a switching cost is a node in the graph, it has an owner and a place in the work.
The persona grounded by research below and linked by every region above
The personapersonaAn archetype representing a user segment is one node. Research grounds it from below: a participantparticipantA person participating in research represents the persona and voiced the quotequoteA direct quote from a research participant nodes behind it, so the archetype stays tethered to the real people in the study.
Every region links to it from above: a value propositionvalue_propositionA unique value offered to customers targets it, a user journeyuser_journeyAn end-to-end map of a user experience is experienced by it, a market segmentmarket_segmentA distinct group of potential customers includes it. With the persona defined once, strategy, design, and delivery resolve to the same customer rather than three slightly different ones.
value_propositionA unique value offered to customersuser_journeyAn end-to-end map of a user experiencemarket_segmentA distinct group of potential customersparticipantA person participating in researchparticipantA person participating in researchone canonical node, not a copy per deckpersonaAn archetype representing a user segmentThe persona is one canonical node. Research grounds it from below: participants represent it and carry the quotes behind it. Every region reaches for it from above: a value proposition targets it, a journey is experienced by it, a market segment includes it. Defined once, the persona keeps strategy, design, and delivery pointed at the same user.
Users & Needs is the anchor of the discovery-to-delivery spine. Follow a thread back to the evidence, or forward to what the graph does with the user:
Personas, jobs, job steps, needs, desired outcomes, and switching costs, with every property and edge.
How raw observations resolve a persona and surface the needs it experiences.
The value proposition that targets the persona and the outcomes the product commits to.