The Moment
V.1 named the cursed cycle. V.2–V.7 named what to replace it with — value as greater energy efficiency, the Job Graph as the substrate the value lives on, the segment's dominant criterion as the routing signal from Graph to lead mechanic. This chapter is the reference: every mechanic in the entry-level catalogue, what each one does, when to reach for it, and the examples that show what it looks like in the world.
I assemble this catalogue at the start of every consulting engagement and again at the start of every internal value-design session. Not because the team needs to apply all 24 — they don't. Because before you can pick the right mechanic, you have to see the full set. A team that knows three mechanics solves every problem with one of those three; the other 21 routes never enter the room. That's a slow, expensive version of the cursed cycle wearing a methodology costume.
The catalogue groups into four clusters. Base mechanics (5) are the floor the product has to deliver before any other mechanic creates real value. First priority (1) names the highest-leverage move when a Job exists in the market and no Solution performs it. Grow-value mechanics (16) operate on a working product to raise the value delta on top of the floor. Escape-direct-competition mechanics (2) change the level you're competing on when the Core-Job level has converged. The cluster boundaries are pedagogical; in real value-design sessions you'll mix from all four.
Read straight through the first time. Then return to specific entries when a real product situation calls for a mechanic — the chapter is built as a working reference for the team's Monday, not a one-pass narrative.
The Wrong Model
Twenty-four mechanics is too many to remember. Pick three good ones, run them well, and the rest is academic.
The reader who arrives with that model has been running a feature-cycle dressed as a mechanic-cycle. The point isn't to memorize 24 entries — it's to scan the full set once per value-design session so the team's choice of mechanic is a routing decision, not an accident of which one a senior person remembered. A team operating on three mechanics solves every business problem with one of those three. A team that has surveyed all 24 picks the one whose mechanism matches the segment's dominant criterion. The difference, repeated across a year of quarters, is the gap between a product that compounds and one that ships features.
The Insight
Cluster I — Base mechanics
The five mechanics in this cluster are the floor. They're not exciting; they're necessary. A product that hasn't installed them is in no position to layer the grow-value mechanics on top — every higher-leverage move stacks on a foundation that isn't there, and the team manufactures Negative Prediction Errors at scale.
1 — Perform the Core Job to the Segment's Success Criteria
What it does. Performs the Core Job to the operational specification the segment's brain uses to decide "good enough" — the concrete success criteria (speed, accuracy, completeness, reliability, comfort, privacy, the named thresholds) the focus segment came in with. Not a creative move; the floor under every other mechanic in the catalogue. Below this line, value can't be created — the brain registers under-delivery against its prediction, no matter how clever the feature above.
When to use. Always. Before any other mechanic. Diagnostic: "Can I name the segment's top three success criteria for this Core Job — and is the product delivering above the threshold on each one?" If the answer is "I'd have to guess at the criteria", the mechanic to start with is interviews against the §9 question (value-creation.md), not anything from the rest of this catalogue.
Examples. DoorDash performs "deliver dinner" with the criterion hot-in-under-35-minutes-or-it's-a-Problem. Stripe performs "accept online payments" with test-payment-cleared-in-the-dashboard-in-minutes. Wealthfront performs "manage my retirement portfolio" with auto-rebalanced-without-my-involvement and one-page-monthly-statement. TurboTax performs "file my federal and state return" with W-2-auto-imported and IRS-accepted-with-error-checks. Notion performs "organize my thinking" with sub-second-load on a thousand-page workspace. Skip this floor and nothing else lands.
2 — Kill a Job
What it does. Removes a lower-level Job from the customer's Graph as a class. The customer no longer performs that Job — the Solution absorbs it, automates it, or makes it categorically unnecessary. The brain registers a strong Positive Prediction Error proportional to how Tax-Job-shaped the killed Job was. One of the two dominant mechanics in the catalogue (the other is #7 — climb a level). Subtractive by definition: the product wins by removing nodes from the Graph, not by adding them.
When to use. When the same Tax Job appears repeatedly in customer interviews — a step the customer didn't sign up for, didn't want to perform, complained about. When a lower-level Job sits between the trigger and the first Aha Moment and stalls activation. When you can identify a Job that exists only because a previous Solution dropped the chain. When the segment is speed-first or no-stress-first (per V.7 mapping).
Examples. AirPods killed "untangle my headphones." Face ID killed "type my password." Apple Pay killed "get the card out, swipe the strip, sign the receipt." Uber's one-tap-summon killed "stand on the corner, hail, negotiate with the driver." Browser auto-fill killed "type the address one more time." The robot vacuum killed "vacuum the apartment by hand." Auto-pay killed "remember the bill on the 15th every month." Each killed Job is a unit of value the customer keeps every time they perform the higher-level Job above it.
3 — Perform More Jobs of the Customer with One Solution
What it does. Folds several of the customer's Jobs into a single Solution. The customer can now perform multiple Core Jobs (or Core + adjacent Small Jobs) inside one product instead of switching between several. Value emerges from two sides at once: fewer Tax Jobs (no context-switch, no app-juggling, no re-entering the same data) and higher share of the customer's working day. Distinct from feature creep: the move only works when the bundled Jobs actually belong to the same person and the same Big Job.
When to use. When customer-interview data shows the segment performing several adjacent Jobs across multiple tools, paying for each. When churn signals point at "I moved everything to Tool X because it does all of this in one place." When share-of-wallet is the constraint, not initial activation. When the segment is control-first or done-for-me first (per V.7 mapping).
Examples. Figma performs design + commenting + prototyping + dev-handoff + slides + Slack-style team chat for the same designer in one canvas. Notion performs notes + docs + tasks + databases + wikis for the same knowledge worker. Stripe performs payments + invoicing + subscriptions + Connect + Atlas for the same finance team. Slack performs team chat + threads + voice huddles + Canvas docs + Connect with external orgs. Yandex.Go (US analog: Uber + DoorDash + Lime in one app) performs ride-hailing + food delivery + groceries + scooter rental for the same urban customer. Watch the Graph-density curve — when a Solution performs more of the customer's adjacent Jobs, switching cost compounds nonlinearly.
4 — Fix the Problem
What it does. Performs a Job without a Problem the customer was hitting with their current Solution. A Problem is the downstream consequence of a Solution hired for a Job and that Solution failing against the Job's success criteria — a Negative Prediction Error the customer's brain stored as "this Graph performs the Big Job worse than I thought." Fixing the Problem removes the NPE source and lets the customer re-prefer the new Graph.
When to use. When customer interviews surface repeating complaints about the current Solution, especially complaints clustered in the Critical Chain (the steps the customer must complete for the Big Job to land). When sales conversations open with "we tried X but it kept breaking at Y." When churn analysis points at one specific Job-step. Especially high leverage when the Problem sits at a Critical Chain handoff between roles in B2B.
Examples. Stripe fixed "integrate payments without a six-month engineering project" — the Problem with every legacy gateway in 2010. TurboTax fixed "decode the IRS instructions and not make an arithmetic error" — the Problem with paper filing. CarMax fixed "buy a used car without getting cheated on the price" — the Problem with the dealer-haggle model. Slack fixed "thread keeps getting lost across email and a dozen messengers" — the Problem with email-as-team-chat. Linear fixed "issue tracker that loads in three seconds and doesn't feel like a 2010 enterprise tool" — the Problem with Jira for fast-shipping teams.
5 — Eliminate Negative Emotions, Deliver Positive Ones
What it does. Removes a negative emotion the customer carries in State A (anxiety, shame, irritation, fear-of-failure, doubt) — and lands the customer in a State B where the corresponding positive emotion (calm, pride, relief, confidence, satisfaction) actually arrives. Emotions are the brain's signal layer for "how is this Job going relative to what I needed?" — removing the negative side is itself a unit of value, not a decoration on top of the functional outcome.
When to use. When the segment's State A carries strong, named negative emotion — anxiety about doing it wrong, shame about asking for help, fear of consequences. When competing products focus on functional features and miss the emotional cost. When the buyer is paying for peace of mind even if they describe it as "I just want it handled." The deferred-value categories (insurance, security, preventive health, tax planning) live almost entirely on this mechanic.
Examples. Square's tip-screen swap removed the negative emotion of choosing a tip while the barista watches. TurboTax sells "the IRS won't catch a mistake" — removed anxiety, not just a calculation tool. Airbnb's AirCover sells "the host won't cancel and strand you" — removed the irreversible-loss fear that blocked Marriott loyalists from trying. BetterHelp sells "matched with a licensed therapist without explaining your worst week to a friend who recommends three names" — removed shame on entry. Wealthfront sells "you'll have enough at 65 without you having to keep checking" — removed the chronic background anxiety of self-managed retirement.
A worked Russian case to anchor the mechanic operationally: an atopic-dermatitis pharma client (the kind of vertical-pharma play whose US analog is a specialty-derm brand selling through pediatrician channels) split the segment by importance score. Mothers who rated the disease 8–10 on importance were the anxious + guilty sub-segment — they carried guilt about passing the gene to their child. The product was less the medication itself and more a stream of expert-and-mother stories saying "this is not your fault — and it's treatable." Removing guilt and anxiety was the value the segment paid for; the medication delivered it.
Cluster II — First priority
One mechanic. The highest-leverage move when it applies — and it applies far less often than the team thinks.
6 — Start Performing a Job That Nobody Currently Performs Well
What it does. Begins performing a Job that customers actively want performed and that no acceptable Solution currently delivers. The Job exists in the market, the customers exist, the willingness to pay exists — and the supply side is empty. Whoever performs it first owns the Graph for as long as the moat holds.
When to use. When research surfaces a Core Job customers describe with negative emotion and with the words "I've looked, there's nothing" or "I had to build my own version." When the trigger for the Job has clearly become more frequent (regulatory shift, demographic shift, technology shift, market-rupture event) and the existing playbook hasn't caught up. The hardest part is distinguishing this from cases where the Job exists but the customer hasn't searched — those are addressed by Activating Knowledge (per activating-knowledge.md), not by this mechanic.
Examples. After the 2022 ruble-payment cutoff, banks in Armenia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and other CIS countries began performing "let Russians abroad pay for App Store / international SaaS / cross-border services with a card that works." Closest US analogous moves: Plaid performing "let a fintech connect to any bank in the US without per-bank integrations" — a Job that existed and that no acceptable infrastructure performed before 2013. Stripe Atlas performing "incorporate a Delaware C-corp from anywhere in the world" — a Job non-US founders carried with no clean Solution path. Anduril performing "let a Western defense customer buy modern autonomous-vehicle systems without a fifteen-year procurement cycle" — a Job customers had been describing for a decade.
The diagnostic on this mechanic is harsh: if you find one example of an acceptable Solution already performing the Job, this isn't the mechanic — it's #4 (fix the Problem) or #9 (raise the criteria), and the right framing changes.
Cluster III — Grow value (16 mechanics)
The largest cluster. These mechanics operate on a working product — the floor (Cluster I) is installed, the first-priority move (Cluster II) doesn't apply because the Job is being performed already — and the question is how to lift the value delta above what current Solutions deliver. Each mechanic targets a specific source: simplify the Graph, extend it into adjacent territory, raise quality on a dimension, reduce cost on a dimension, or rewire the link to a higher-level motivation.
7 — Move Up a Level (and Kill Many Lower-Level Jobs at Once)
What it does. Climbs one level in the Job Graph: turns the Big Job above your current Core Jobs into your new Core Jobs, and in the process absorbs (and effectively kills) many of the lower-level Jobs the customer previously had to perform manually. The single most powerful mechanic in the catalogue when applicable, because it stacks subtraction with re-framing — the customer's energy budget for the Big Job drops by half or more in one move.
When to use. When there is a Big Job above your current Core Jobs that the customer performs through many manual steps. When an emerging technology (AI is the live case) lets you absorb steps that previously required human effort. When you have the resources to deliver the higher Job end-to-end — partial climbs manufacture NPE (you promise the Big Job, deliver the Core Job, customer feels under-delivered). The check question (threat from above): "is somebody today doing my Big Job turnkey while I deliver only an element of it? If yes and they can scale — climb or die."
Examples. Uber climbed above car ownership — became the Core Job for "get from A to B around the city, on demand," killing buy / finance / insure / park / refuel / DMV / service / sell. Squarespace climbed above hosting + WordPress + cPanel — became the Core Job for "have a website live," killing buy-hosting / configure-cPanel / install-WP / manage-plugins / renew-SSL. ChatGPT climbed above outline → research → draft → iterate — became the Core Job for "produce a first draft of a written piece." Wealthfront climbed above pick-an-allocation / rebalance / tax-loss-harvest / file-1099-B — became the Core Job for "manage my retirement portfolio." Yandex.Аренда (US analog: Belong or Poplar Homes) climbed above "post the listing, show the unit, screen tenants, draft the lease, handle repairs, chase rent" — became the Core Job for "rent out my duplex turnkey." The same dynamic is currently playing out everywhere AI can absorb a previously-manual Big Job; the categories that don't climb get climbed over.
8 — Perform the Next Job in the Critical Chain
What it does. Extends the product forward in the customer's Critical Chain — performs the Job that comes after the one your product currently performs. Captures the customer at the moment they would otherwise leave for another Solution. Raises retention, average revenue per user, and switching cost simultaneously; turns one transaction into a chain.
When to use. When customer-success data shows the customer churning to another product at a predictable next step. When sales-call transcripts reveal customers asking "can it also do X?" where X is the chronologically next Job. When unit economics demand higher LTV from the same acquisition cost and the existing customer base is the cheapest place to find that lift. Especially powerful when the next Job is more frequent than yours (you convert a one-shot purchase into a recurring relationship).
Examples. Typeform performs "build a form;" the next Job in the chain is "process the responses" — Typeform now performs that too. Bench performs "bookkeeping;" the next Job is "file the taxes" — Bench now performs that too. Stripe performs "accept payments;" the next Jobs are "send invoices," "manage subscriptions," "issue refunds," "handle disputes" — Stripe ladders forward through each. Carvana performs "buy a used car;" the next Jobs are "finance it," "trade in the old one," "deliver to my driveway" — all performed inside Carvana. Square performs "accept card payments;" the next Jobs are "payroll," "loans," "appointments," "marketing" — each a forward step in the small-business chain.
9 — Better Satisfy the Success Criteria of Core / Big Jobs
What it does. Performs the same Core Job to a higher level on the criteria the focus segment actually uses to evaluate quality. Not adding criteria — raising the bar on the criteria already present. The mechanic the segment notices when which criteria dominate is well understood and the team can engineer measurable lift on one of them.
When to use. When the segment's dominant criterion is reliability, control, status, privacy, speed, or another single dimension on which competitors converge to a mediocre baseline. When research shows the segment willing to pay a premium for a quantifiable lift on one criterion (3× faster, 100× lower latency, two more nines of uptime). When you're competing inside an established category and need to be measurably better, not categorically different.
Examples. Uber's tariff ladder is the canonical case — same surface verb (get from A to B), each tier raising one criterion-stack. Econom (cheap-and-fast), Comfort (clean cabin, recent-model car, quiet driver), Black (luxury vehicle, formal attire, no chitchat), XL (six seats, luggage room). Linear vs Jira — same Core Job (issue tracking) raised on speed / keyboard-first / aesthetics / no-config-overhead. Anthropic Claude raised the criteria "follows long instructions" and "code-quality on multi-file edits" against the existing assistant category. Costco raised "bulk-price predictability" inside the warehouse-retail category. Apple raised "battery life under real workload" and "fingerprint scanner reliability" against PC laptops over a decade of quiet iteration.
10 — Lower the Price
What it does. Performs the same Core Job at a lower money cost than the alternatives. The most visible cost dimension. Works because price sits in the denominator of the value formula and is felt with present-tense weight — every dollar removed registers immediately. Hard to scale: usually requires a structural cost advantage (technology, distribution, scale, business model) rather than margin compression, because margin compression doesn't compound.
When to use. When the segment is price-first (per V.7 mapping) — Walmart shoppers, commodity buyers, subsistence-budget markets, replacement purchases where alternatives are roughly equivalent on non-price dimensions. When you have a structural cost advantage no competitor can copy in the next 18 months (vertical integration, distribution scale, automation, a new technology curve that collapses the cost basis). When the category has converged on non-price dimensions and the next unit of value lives in the money cost.
Examples. Vanguard performs "manage my retirement portfolio" at index-fund expense ratios that destroyed actively-managed mutual funds. Costco performs "buy household staples" at a price unreachable by traditional grocery. Southwest Airlines performs "domestic point-to-point flying" at a structural cost basis built from one aircraft type, secondary airports, and turnaround speed. AWS Spot Instances perform "compute when you can tolerate interruption" at 60-90% off on-demand. Aldi performs "weekly groceries" at the lowest US grocery basket price by stocking ~1,400 SKUs vs 30,000 at a typical supermarket. The mechanic rewards structural advantage; teams that "lower the price" by squeezing margin don't survive the next downturn.
11 — Directly Satisfy a Deep Need (Status, Safety, Belonging)
What it does. Bypasses the functional Core Job and delivers value at the need level beneath it — status, safety, autonomy, control, competence, belonging, recognition, growth. The customer pays not because the Core Job lands better but because performing the Core Job through this Solution satisfies the deeper need directly. Often the dominant motivation in high-margin categories (luxury, premium, exclusive-community).
When to use. When the segment is status-first and the existing category has converged on functional criteria. When the Core Job is functionally commoditized but social signaling around the Solution carries premium. When the buyer's State-B emotion (per job-structure.md Element 8) carries pride or belonging more strongly than relief or satisfaction. The diagnostic is observable purchase behavior — do customers display, talk about, or wear the Solution publicly?
Examples. AirPods Max at $549 — same Core Job (listen to audio) as $30 Bluetooth headphones; the buyer is paying for the visible-on-Zoom status signal among knowledge workers. Patek Philippe and Rolex perform "tell time" identically to a $30 Casio; the value lives entirely at the status need. American Express Black performs "pay for things" identically to a debit card; the value is the rank-position signal at the restaurant. Tesla performs "get to work" identically to a Honda Civic; a substantial fraction of the price is the status link to "tech-savvy / climate-aware" identity. Premium bottled water at $10 performs "hydrate" identically to tap; the price reflects the aesthetic-at-the-dinner-table link to status and self-image. The mechanic stacks on top of every other criterion when applicable; ignore it at your peril in any consumer category with social visibility.
12 — Adjust Expectations
What it does. Recalibrates the customer's prediction before the product has to beat it. Value is the delta between experience and prediction (per value-creation.md §4) — so a prediction that the product can actually beat is itself a value lever. Communication, brand, pricing, demos, peer stories all set the prediction. The mechanic operates on the prediction side rather than the experience side, often more cheaply.
When to use. When marketing or sales has historically over-promised the Big Job — and the team is shipping real value but the customer's brain still registers NPE because the prediction was higher than what arrived. When the segment is no-stress-first and inflated promises manufacture anxiety. When the team wants the Aha Moment to land hard and pre-purchase communication is currently making the product look bigger than it is.
Examples. Snyk's early sales pitch deliberately under-promised: "we'll find some of your vulnerabilities, not all" — buyers arrived expecting partial coverage, the product beat the prediction. Costco's "price is what it is, no haggling" sets a prediction the in-store experience matches exactly — no manufactured NPE. Tesla's early "Autopilot" naming did the opposite — set a prediction the system couldn't beat and manufactured years of NPE. Linear's launch positioning was deliberately quiet — "an issue tracker that doesn't slow you down" rather than "the future of project management" — letting the actual product over-deliver on a modest predicted bar. The mechanic costs almost nothing to apply at the start; retrofitting after years of over-promise is brutally expensive.
13 — Lower Job / Solution Cost on the Path to Value
What it does. Reduces the cost the customer has to pay (in money, time, effort, or cognitive load) before they experience the first unit of value. Distinct from #10 (lower the price of the whole Job) — this one operates on the path to value, the steps between trigger and Aha Moment. Tripwires, freemium, free trials, low-friction onboarding, and lead magnets are all this mechanic.
When to use. When activation data shows customers dropping off before the Aha. When the Aha is real (loyal customers describe it concretely per value-creation.md §12) but the path to it carries too much cost. When the segment is unfamiliar with the category and an unrecoverable upfront commitment blocks trial. When acquisition costs are high enough that converting a higher fraction of triers is cheaper than acquiring more triers.
Examples. Calendly's free tier performs "schedule a meeting without the email back-and-forth" for the user before any payment is required — the Aha lands inside the free tier. Notion's free workspace lets the user organize a real project before they hit the paywall on collaboration features. Stripe's $1 test charge in the docs lets a developer feel the API work in five minutes, before they have to integrate anything real. Duolingo's first lesson is free, in-app, instant, and produces a measurable progress signal in 90 seconds. Wealthfront's onboarding shows the projected balance at 65 before asking the user to fund the account. The mechanic compounds with #5 (eliminate negative emotion) — lower the cost-to-value and remove the fear of commitment.
14 — Take the Job Off the Customer (Done-for-You)
What it does. Turns a Job the customer was performing themselves into a Job the Solution performs for them. Derivative of #2 (kill a Job), but with a specific shape: the Job continues to exist in the world, the customer just no longer performs it personally. Converts a tool into a service. The mechanic of choice for done-for-me-first segments (time-poor affluent professionals, executives, anyone whose hourly rate exceeds the cost-to-serve).
When to use. When the segment's dominant criterion is done-for-me-first. When the customer is willing to pay a money premium to remove time + effort + cognitive load. When the Job can be performed end-to-end by humans + automation + AI at a cost lower than the customer's effective hourly rate. When the alternative is "I'll get to it eventually" — i.e., when the Job doesn't get performed at all because the customer doesn't have the bandwidth.
Examples. Belong takes "rent out my duplex" off the out-of-state landlord — performs showings, screening, lease, repairs, rent collection. Wealthfront takes "rebalance the portfolio quarterly" and "harvest tax losses" off the retail investor. Bench takes "categorize transactions and prepare tax-ready financials" off the small-business owner. Pilot takes "monthly accounting" off the startup founder. DoorDash takes "drive to the restaurant, wait for the order, drive back" off the dinner-time household. iRobot Roomba takes "vacuum the apartment" off the household. A worked Russian case: Stanfina (US analog: vertical-finance tool like Bench but for dental practices) takes "update the pricelist at target margin" off the clinic owner — same shape of move, dental vertical.
15 — Reduce Time-Gaps Between Jobs (Faster Big Job)
What it does. Shortens the wait between consecutive lower-level Jobs in the customer's Critical Chain, so the Big Job lands faster. Time-cost is one of the six dimensions of cost (per value-creation.md §8) and frequently the dominant one for time-poor segments. The mechanic operates on the waiting between Jobs, not on the duration of the Jobs themselves — often the cheaper lever.
When to use. When the segment is speed-first (per V.7 mapping). When category research shows a step-change in retention or willingness-to-pay at a specific time-threshold — a "if we can deliver in under N minutes / hours / days, the segment switches" discontinuity. When the existing supply chain or infrastructure carries built-in waiting between steps that competitors haven't questioned.
Examples. Just Eat's dark-kitchen density in central London pushed delivery times below 25 minutes — retention spiked sharply and the model became the template the company rolled out everywhere. The mechanism: below the 25-minute threshold the household stopped cooking, which collapsed the substitute behavior. Amazon's same-day-Prime delivery pushed "I need this today" out of the local-store category for a meaningful share of urban customers. Stripe's "approve and deploy in minutes" collapsed the multi-week onboarding of legacy payment gateways. ChatGPT's response latency under three seconds for short prompts collapsed the "wait for a Google search results page, click through, skim five sources" chain into one operation. Instacart's two-hour delivery window did to grocery what same-day did to general retail.
16 — Fix Chain-Breaks Between Roles (B2B Critical Chains)
What it does. Repairs a break in the Critical Chain at the handoff between two different roles (humans, vendors, systems, or institutions). In B2B the chain typically runs sales engineer → security review → procurement → legal → IT → end-user enablement, with each handoff a potential break point. Most B2B deal losses are chain-breaks at handoffs, not value rejection. The mechanic operates at the seams between roles, often invisible from inside any single role's perspective.
When to use. When sales-call mortality clusters at predictable stages (security review, procurement, IT onboarding) rather than at the value-rejection moment. When deal cycles are predictable in shape but unpredictable in length because chain-breaks at handoffs eat weeks. When customer-success data shows post-sale activation failing at the handoff from sales to onboarding to end-user. Especially high leverage when one of the roles in the chain has career risk on the line — they over-add gates as protection.
Examples. DocuSign repaired the real-estate-closing chain by replacing the print-scan-fax handoff between buyer, seller, agent, and title — same Jobs, no handoff break. Plaid repaired the fintech-to-bank handoff that used to require each fintech to integrate per-bank. Vanta repaired the "we need a SOC 2 report before procurement can approve" handoff that used to take six months and a consulting engagement. Buyer-enablement assets (deal-rooms, security one-pagers, IT-integration guides, mutual action plans) are the operational form of this mechanic — they're chain-repair tools dressed as sales collateral. Snyk's GitHub integration repaired the security-review-blocks-deploy handoff in modern engineering workflows.
17 — Kill Cycles in the Critical Chain
What it does. Eliminates cyclical returns — moments where a Job in the chain sends the customer back to a previous Job to re-do it. Cycles are the single highest source of chain-breaks because each cycle multiplies the risk that one of the iterations fails permanently. The mechanic operates upstream of #16 (chain-break repair) — killing the cycle is structurally cheaper than repairing the break each time the cycle fires.
When to use. When customer-journey data shows the same Job appearing multiple times in one transaction. When B2B sales transcripts mention "and then they sent us back to fix Y" repeatedly. When tax / mortgage / healthcare / insurance flows show document re-submissions as a leading cause of abandonment. Anywhere a Solution involves "submit → wait → revise → re-submit" loops.
Examples. Better Mortgage killed the document-resubmission cycle in mortgage applications by validating uploads in real-time at the point of upload, not at the underwriting handoff three days later. TurboTax killed the missing-form cycle by running the entire interview before letting the user file — every form needed is identified upfront, not after the IRS bounces it back. Stripe killed the chargeback-resubmission cycle by handling chargebacks by default rather than routing them back to the merchant for fresh documentation each time. Carta killed the cap-table-revision cycle that used to bounce between founder and lawyer through email for every option grant. Healthcare prior-authorization platforms (Olive, Akasa) kill the denial-resubmit cycle by validating against payer rules before submission.
18 — Reduce the Number of Handoffs Between Roles
What it does. Cuts the count of distinct roles (people, vendors, systems, institutions) the Job has to pass through. Fewer roles = fewer potential chain-breaks (per #16) and fewer cycles (per #17). The mechanic operates one level up from chain-repair: instead of fixing each handoff, eliminate the handoff entirely by absorbing the next role into your product or your service.
When to use. When the Critical Chain involves more than 3-4 distinct roles and customer-success data shows handoff-related failures. When one role in the chain is structurally a low-leverage middleman who could be absorbed. When the segment is paying handoff-related Tax Jobs in either money (each role takes a margin) or time (each handoff adds delay). When in-housing or vertical-integrating becomes economically feasible.
Examples. Wealthfront absorbed the financial-advisor role + the brokerage role + the rebalancing role + the tax-loss-harvesting role into one service — used to be four roles, now one product. Carvana absorbed the dealer + the lender + the trade-in appraiser + the delivery driver — four roles compressed into one purchase. Square absorbed the merchant account + the gateway + the hardware vendor + the loan provider — payments stack collapsed from four contracts into one. Belong absorbed the listing platform + the showing agent + the tenant screener + the property manager + the repair vendor + the accountant — six roles into one turnkey service. Stripe Atlas absorbed the incorporation lawyer + the registered agent + the EIN application + the bank-account-opening step — four institutional handoffs into one product.
19 — Create New Links to Higher-Level Big Jobs
What it does. Adds a new link between your existing Core Job and a Big Job above that the customer cares about, but that nobody in your category currently claims to serve. Doesn't change the product underneath — changes which Big Job your messaging and positioning credit the Core Job for serving. The brain's motivation for performing your Core Job multiplies by the number of important Big Jobs it serves.
When to use. When the team is stuck in price-and-feature competition at the Core-Job level. When the segment is paying for your Core Job but the public framing has narrowed to a functional description. When a Big Job above your Core Job exists in the customer's life and nobody in the category has named the link. When competitive moats on the Core Job have collapsed and the only remaining differentiator is which Big Job you credibly serve.
Examples. Apple's MacBook performs "get my creative / knowledge work done" (Core Job) — and over thirty years has linked it to "signal aesthetic taste and status" (Big Job). Same hardware category as PC laptops; entirely different price-point because of the added Big-Job link. Premium bottled water (Fiji, Voss, Saratoga) performs "hydrate" — links it to "create aesthetics on my dinner table." Same Core Job as tap water; an order of magnitude higher willingness-to-pay. Patagonia performs "make outdoor clothing" — links it to "act on environmental values without compromise." The Big-Job link is the moat. A worked Russian case (financial-audit firm; US analog: a mid-sized US accounting firm running audit + tax practice): climbed from the Core Job "do a financial audit" to the Big Job "don't lose money to fines and tax penalties" by adding $30M of carrier-backed insurance against tax claims for 3 years. Same Core Job, new Big-Job link, premium pricing.
20 — Perform Orientation Jobs
What it does. Performs the Orientation Jobs the customer runs before hiring a Solution — understand the category, learn how to evaluate options, figure out what good looks like, decide what to ask for. The customer performs these Jobs whether or not the product helps. Performing them with the customer (through content, calculators, gated guides, free assessments) makes you the trusted name in their Consideration Set when they're ready to hire a Solution for the actual Core Job.
When to use. When the segment is new to the category and the Orientation Jobs are heavy (B2B SaaS, financial products, healthcare, complex consumer purchases). When competitors are racing on the Core Job and ignoring the upstream orientation. When you have the depth of expertise to actually be useful in the orientation rather than to look useful. When the segment trusts vendors who teach more than vendors who pitch.
Examples. Lenny's Newsletter performs the orientation Job "figure out how to be a great PM in 2026" — and routes readers toward Lenny's premium products, his network, his podcast guests' tools. Stripe Press performs the orientation Job "understand how to build a tech company" — routes readers back to Stripe as the platform for that company. HubSpot Academy performs the orientation Job "learn modern marketing" — routes graduates toward HubSpot as the platform that performs the practice. Coursera and Khan Academy perform orientation Jobs that route into adjacent products and certifications. Aviasales performs the orientation Job "find the cheapest tickets to consider" — and converts a meaningful share of search traffic into bookings inside its own affiliate network. Same shape as Skyscanner or Hopper in the US flight market.
21 — Split the Value and Deliver in Stages
What it does. Decomposes the full Big-Job value into pieces and delivers a chunk of it early — before the customer has invested fully in the Solution. The customer experiences a slice of the Big Job landing, which loads Activating Knowledge (per activating-knowledge.md), reduces fear about the rest, and converts the relationship from "will this work?" to "how much more can I get?" Closely related to #13 (lower cost-to-value), but operates on the value side rather than the cost side.
When to use. When the full Big-Job delivery is multi-step, expensive, or time-consuming, and the customer is unlikely to commit upfront. When tripwire offers, free assessments, or first-session-free pricing can deliver a real PPE before the larger commitment. When the segment carries acquisition costs high enough that walking each prospect through a stage of value is cheaper than acquiring more cold prospects.
Examples. Skyscanner / Hopper / Google Flights deliver a stage of value (find the cheapest available routing) before any booking decision is made. Snyk's free vulnerability scan delivers a slice of "secure your codebase" before the paid tier is offered. A typical Russian counterpart in the consumer-education category — Skyeng (US analog: an online language-learning service in the Duolingo / Cambly category) — runs a free pre-class assessment that performs a stage of "improve my English" before the user commits to a course package. Wealthfront's free retirement-projection delivers a slice of "see where I'm headed at 65" before account funding. Tripwire offers (a high-value lead magnet at $7-$27) deliver a chunk of the full course's value before the main offer is presented.
22 — Perform Small Jobs for Additional Big Jobs That Arose
What it does. Notices that the customer's process of performing the original Core Job has triggered new Big Jobs (often around safety, control, or status) — and performs the Small Jobs that serve those newly-active Big Jobs. The Jobs the customer didn't know they'd have to perform until they started; the ones that surface mid-process when a new need activates.
When to use. When customer interviews about the original Core Job surface unexpected mentions of "and then I had to figure out X, which I hadn't thought about." When the segment is dealing with money, safety, identity, or compliance — needs likely to activate inside any transaction. When customer-success teams keep getting questions about adjacent topics the team didn't think were part of the product.
Examples. Carvana performs "buy a used car" — and also performs the safety-need Jobs that arise during it: 7-day return policy, certified inspection report, lien-free guarantee, vehicle-history transparency. The original buyer didn't plan to think about lien fraud; once they started buying, the need activated. Airbnb performs "stay in a private home" — and also AirCover (re-housing if the host cancels), 24-hour support, host verification, security-deposit protection. The original guest didn't plan to think about host risk; the listing activated it. A worked Russian-market scene that maps directly: a private car seller (any used-vehicle marketplace context — the Russian Avto.ru is the closest analog to AutoTrader in the US) starts the transaction and immediately needs "how do I not get scammed?" — work that wasn't in their original Job list. Products that perform these safety Small Jobs (escrow, identity verification, payment hold) capture the value. DocuSign for real-estate closings performs the trust-and-paper-trail Small Jobs that activate the moment the buyer realizes the closing is real.
Cluster IV — Escape direct competition
Two mechanics. These don't grow value inside the existing Core Job — they change which Core Job you compete for. The move that escapes direct competition isn't a better feature; it's a different position on the Job Graph.
23 — Reposition Through Other Big Jobs / Super Big Jobs
What it does. Keeps the Core Job, changes the Big Job the product is positioned to serve. The product still performs the same Core Job in the world — but the messaging, brand, pricing, and which customer the team competes for all derive from the new Big Job. Often the cheapest strategic move available: requires no product change, just a rewiring of the link upward (per #19) combined with a deliberate exit from the old positioning.
When to use. When the existing Big Job has become commoditized and the team is grinding on price + features against converged competitors. When research surfaces a different Big Job above the same Core Job that no competitor is targeting. When the team can credibly serve the new Big Job without changing the product. When the brand has flexibility to reposition without breaking trust with the current base.
Examples. Volvo repositioned car-driving from "get to work" to "keep my family safe" decades ago — same Core Job, different Big Job, durable position. Patagonia repositioned outdoor clothing from "stay warm and dry" to "act on environmental values" — same Core Job, different Big Job. Tesla repositioned EV-driving from "have a quirky electric car" to "be on the right side of the energy transition (and look the part)" — same Core Job, different Big Job. Whoop repositioned wearable-fitness from "count my steps" to "optimize my recovery and performance" — same Core Job, different Big Job, $30/month subscription. Square's Cash App repositioned peer-to-peer payments from "send money to a friend" to "be in the Black-cultural-economy ecosystem" through Bitcoin support, Cash Card, and celebrity partnerships.
24 — Perform the Previous Job in the Chain
What it does. Extends the product backward in the customer's Critical Chain — performs the Job that comes before the one your current product performs. Captures the customer earlier than direct competitors, which makes you the first Solution they consider when the trigger fires. Often the cheapest acquisition channel in the entire catalogue, because the customer isn't yet comparing vendors at the Core-Job level when they land in your funnel.
When to use. When the segment shows a predictable "research / orient / compare" Job that comes before the purchase decision. When competitors compete only at the Core-Job level (the moment of hiring a Solution) and have left the upstream territory empty. When content marketing, calculators, comparison tools, or aggregator positions can capture intent earlier than the purchase moment. The aggregator playbook (per value-creation.md §17) lives entirely on this mechanic.
Examples. Google Flights performs the previous Job "find the cheapest, most convenient flight" before any ticket is bought from any airline — captures most US flight-search intent. Kayak, Skyscanner, Hopper do the same in adjacent segments. Zillow performs "browse the housing market" long before any buyer is ready to talk to a realtor — owns the previous Job in the home-purchase chain. Healthcare.gov plan-finder performs "compare insurance plans" before the customer signs up with any single carrier. Carfax performs "check the history of a used car" before any purchase decision — captures the previous Job in the buy-a-used-car chain. Russian-market equivalents: Aviasales (US analog: Kayak) and Sberbank's Domklik mortgage-and-search platform (US analog: a vertically-integrated mortgage portal like Rocket Mortgage's home-search layer) both perform the previous Job in their respective chains and feed paying customers into downstream Core-Job products.
How the 24 mechanics relate
Three structural observations are worth holding while you scan the catalogue.
First, the dominant mechanics are subtractive. Kill a Job (#2), climb a level and absorb lower-level Jobs (#7), take the Job off the customer (#14), reduce handoffs (#18) all create value by removing nodes from the Graph, not by adding them. The most powerful direction in the methodology runs against the additive default of feature thinking. The cursed cycle wins the day-to-day battle (it produces shippable artifacts); the subtractive mechanics win the year.
Second, the mechanics layer rather than substitute. A real value-creation move usually combines three or four mechanics applied to the same Job-Segment pair. Wealthfront combines #14 (done-for-you) + #1 (Core Job to criteria) + #5 (eliminate financial anxiety) + #20 (orientation content) + #21 (free projection before funding). AirPods combine #2 (kill untangle-headphones) + #3 (perform calling + music + status-signal in one solution) + #11 (status need directly) + #19 (link to "I'm an Apple person" identity Big Job). Don't pick one mechanic and stop; map the four-or-five mechanic stack the move actually deploys.
Third, the mechanic to lead with is the one that matches the segment's dominant criterion (per V.7 mapping). Speed-first → #15 (reduce time-gaps) and #2 (kill a Job). Done-for-me first → #14 (take the Job off) and #7 (climb a level). No-stress first → #5 (eliminate negative emotion) and #4 (fix the Problem). Reliability-first → #9 (raise the criteria) and #1 (Core Job to criteria). Status-first → #11 (deep need directly) and #19 (link to status Big Job). The catalogue isn't a buffet — it's a routing problem the segment's dominant criterion solves.
The mechanics themselves are not exhaustive. The full Next Move Theory catalogue has roughly a hundred, with the remaining ~75 spread across acquisition / conversion / retention / unit-economics / scaling territory — those live in the Next Move Theory layer that begins where this book ends (see the Epilogue). What you have in this chapter is the value-creation entry set: enough to operate on any product situation a team is likely to face in the first three years of building.
Wes
Where it leads
The catalogue and the routing logic are now both on the table. What's missing is the integration — how value (Part V), behaviour change (Part III), segmentation (Part IV), and the Job Graph itself (Part VI) compose into one operating discipline for the product team. The next chapter is the synthesis for Part V — what value is once you've absorbed the cursed cycle, the predict-and-compare engine, the Graph as substrate, and the 24-mechanic catalogue. Then Part VI opens the Graph itself.