Choosing your analysis framework: bugs & features, jobs to be done, or both

Your analysis framework (called a lens during onboarding) determines how Pilea categorizes incoming feedback into backlog item types. Choosing the right one means your backlog reflects the kind of work your team actually tracks - whether that’s bugs and features, jobs to be done, pains and gains, UX quality, or categories of your own.

ℹ️ Note: The framework is set per workspace. You can switch it later by re-analyzing the workspace (see below), but that removes and rebuilds your backlog items, so it’s worth choosing carefully.

What is an analysis framework?

When feedback arrives in Pilea - from Intercom, HubSpot, a survey, a file etc, the AI reads it and creates a backlog item. The framework you choose determines what type that backlog item gets assigned.

For example, if a user says “the login flow is confusing,” Pilea might classify that as a Bug (Backlog Management), a Functional Job (Jobs to be Done), a Pain (Pains & Gains) or an Efficiency issue (UX Quality) - depending on your framework.

Every framework also has a Plain Feedback category for feedback that doesn’t fit any other type.

The built-in frameworks

Backlog Management

Best for: Teams that plan work as features, improvements, bugs, and technical debt.

Backlog items are categorized as:

• Feature Request - Something new to build
• Improvement - An enhancement to something that already exists
• Bug - Something that’s broken or not working as intended
• Technical Debt - Underlying code or architecture that needs addressing

This is the most common choice for product teams. If you’re unsure which framework to choose, start here.

Jobs to be Done

Best for: Teams that want to understand the underlying goal behind each piece of feedback, not just the surface request.

Backlog items are categorized as:

• Functional Job - A practical task the user is trying to complete
• Emotional Job - How the user wants to feel while using the product
• Social Job - How the user wants to be perceived by others

This framework is common in UX research and discovery-heavy teams. It shifts focus from “what did they ask for” to “why did they ask for it.”

Pains & Gains

Best for: Teams that want a simple split between what hurts customers today and what would make the product more valuable.

Backlog items are categorized as:

• Pain - Friction, frustration or something that gets in the way
• Gain - An outcome or benefit the customer wants more of

UX Quality

Best for: Teams focused on improving the quality of the interaction - not just adding features, but making the existing product work better.

Backlog items are categorized as:

• Learnability - How easy it is to understand the product for the first time
• Efficiency - How fast experienced users can accomplish tasks
• Errors - How often users make mistakes and how recoverable those mistakes are
• Satisfaction - How pleasant the experience feels overall
• Accessibility - How well the product works for users with different abilities

This framework maps to usability heuristics and is a strong choice for design-led teams or products where user experience is a primary differentiator. It isn’t offered during onboarding, but you can pick it when creating a workspace or when re-analyzing.

Build your own framework

If none of the built-in lenses match how your team decides, choose Build your own. A custom framework has a name, a description and up to twelve categories, each with its own name, icon and a short description of what kind of feedback belongs there. Pick categories that match the recurring decision your analysis feeds, not just topic buckets.

If you’d rather not design it from scratch, click Open chat under Chat with Pilea. Pilea asks a few questions about your product and how your team makes decisions, then proposes a framework you can adopt or refine.

You can build a custom framework in three places: the Set up step of onboarding, the Add workspace dialog, and Settings → Workspaces → Custom frameworks. From Settings → Workspaces you can also edit a framework later: rename categories, swap the icon, or add a category. Changes apply to future analysis; already-classified items keep their category. A category can’t be deleted while a workspace is using the framework.

Which framework should you choose?

If your team…	Choose…
Plans work as bugs, features, and improvements	Backlog Management
Wants to understand user intent behind requests	Jobs to be Done
Wants a simple split between problems and opportunities	Pains & Gains
Is focused on improving interaction quality	UX Quality
Makes a specific recurring decision the built-in types don’t capture	Build your own
Is unsure	Backlog Management

How your framework is set

During onboarding, Pilea reads your goal and recommends a lens, marked Recommended. Hover any lens to preview how your backlog would read through it, then pick one. If you skip the choice, your first workspace uses Backlog Management.

Every workspace you create afterwards gets its own framework, chosen in the Add workspace dialog. See Creating and switching between workspaces.

Want to use a different framework?

You have three options:

• Re-analyze the workspace. Go to Settings → Analysis → Re-analyze workspace, pick a different framework under Analysis framework, and confirm. Pilea removes the current analysis output, including backlog items, since they carry the old framework’s types, and re-analyzes every mention under the new lens in the background. A progress banner shows where it’s at. This can be run once per 24 hours and is available to organization Admins and Owners.
• Duplicate the workspace first. Under Settings → General, use Duplicate to copy the workspace with all its analyzed data, then re-analyze the copy under the new framework. Handy for trying a new lens on real data without touching the original.
• Create a new workspace. Click your workspace name in the top-left sidebar, select Add workspace, and choose the framework you want.