The job behind the action

Users do things in your product. They click buttons, open screens, fill in forms. From the outside, you see actions.

What you don’t directly see is the deeper question: what are they actually trying to accomplish? What outcome do they have in mind? What would make them feel like the task is done well?

The actions are surface-level. The job underneath is what really matters. If you design only for the visible actions, you’ll build a product that fits a behaviour but not a need. If you design for the underlying job, the product can support it well even when the surface actions vary.

This shift — from observing actions to understanding jobs — is one of the most important habits to develop in early UX work.

Why this distinction matters

Users don’t come to your product...

Understanding what users are really trying to do