Job Story
Job Overlap
When the same product serves multiple jobs for the same user, creating competing demands.
Job overlap happens when a user hires the same product for multiple jobs that have different requirements. A spreadsheet might be used for both quick calculations and complex financial modeling—two jobs with very different stakes and complexity. Job overlap creates design tension: optimizing for one job may degrade the other. Products that handle job overlap well provide mode switching, progressive disclosure, or separate workspaces for different jobs.