Understanding your customers is paramount, yet many companies grapple with generic approaches that fail to pinpoint true growth opportunities. Customer Effort Score (CES) offers a precise, actionable..
Many companies pursue innovation, yet few witness a corresponding surge in their valuation multiples. This discrepancy often arises from innovation that is superficial rather than strategically..
The stark reality of product innovation is that many new products fail. According to research cited by Qualtrics, which references Gartner and McKinsey, only 55% of product launches occur on..
In today's fast-paced technology markets, corporate strategy cannot be a game of chance. For private equity sponsors and portfolio company CEOs, relying on intuition alone is a high-risk proposition..
In today's rapidly shifting technological landscape, the specter of obsolescence looms large, threatening even the most innovative products. Companies that chase fleeting technological trends often..
In today's competitive landscape, a defensible market position is not merely an advantage; it is the cornerstone of sustained growth, superior equity returns, and premium valuation multiples,..
Customer struggle, often viewed as a business challenge, presents a significant, frequently untapped, frontier for strategic growth and equity value creation. For private equity sponsors and..
Customer need misalignment can cost private equity firms millions. When companies fail to align their products, marketing, or sales with customer needs, it leads to wasted resources, slower growth,..
The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework helps portfolio companies grow by focusing on customer needs rather than just product features. JTBD helps private equity firms and portfolio companies achieve..
Private equity success depends heavily on aligning teams - both portfolio executives and sponsors - around shared goals. Misalignment can derail value creation, while a united team can drive growth,..
The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework helps businesses analyze competition by focusing on customer needs instead of product features. It identifies what customers are trying to achieve (jobs), the..
What is Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD?A framework that identifies what customers are trying to achieve, prioritizing outcomes over features. This helps businesses discover unmet needs and evaluate..
Market segmentation often falls short because it relies too much on demographics or product features. The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework solves this by focusing on what customers aim to achieve,..
The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework offers a customer-focused approach to uncover synergies and drive growth, maximizing value across ] portfolio companies
Scenario planning can boost private equity firm IRR performance and help navigate market uncertainties. It involves preparing for multiple future outcomes by analyzing risks like market volatility,..
Using Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) framework can help align your executive board and customer needs. It shifts the focus from product features to customer outcomes, ensuring strategic decisions deliver..
Private equity firms face risks like poor market fit, execution failures, and competitive threats. The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework helps mitigate these risks by focusing on customer needs and..
Private equity firms are focusing less on financial restructuring and more on operational improvements and sustainable, product-led growth. Here’s a quick breakdown of the 6 key strategies driving..
The current economic climate presents significant challenges for private equity firms. With rising interest rates and declining exit multiples, the..
Silicon Valley Bank's sudden downfall from a $40 billion market cap to zero is a cautionary tale for the banking industry. What led to their demise, and can this scenario be avoided in the future? As..
In the world of artificial intelligence, ChatGPT has made a significant impact. As a language model, it can process and respond to a wide range of questions in a matter of milliseconds. While its..
In a down market, it can be challenging for companies to maintain their customer base and keep revenue flowing. In our recent podcast, How Would You Beat the Market Downturn, we cover some insights..
In this post (and our podcast), we look at ESG, which refers to environmental, social and governance for companies. This has been in the news lately, because BlackRock, the largest asset manager in..
Developing a clear product positioning strategy is key to establishing and conveying a unique value proposition to your customers. Strong positioning makes it easier for your customer to see why they..
User journey is popularly defined as the process and experience that a customer goes through when using your product. Companies that are mapping user journeys using this method have taken a..
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and every big company in China has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Across the world, significant capital is being..
For this episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we brought on board a guest speaker: David Subar, CEO of Interna, a firm that helps technology companies make better products faster. David has..
In this latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we looked at how you can beat Steve Jobs or how you and your product team can emulate his approach to product development.
Do you decide..
In this latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we looked at how you can beat Netflix, or how Netflix could beat its current performance. Should Netflix invest in gaming platforms? Is the..
Effective product differentiation starts with everyone on your team focusing on your customer’s unmet needs so that you can build, market, and sell a product that satisfies those unmet needs better..
In this latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we looked at how companies can beat Uber. Do you build another ride-sharing app? Would autonomous cars be the way to beat Uber? Or should..
In this latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we looked at how companies can beat Airbnb. For a little bit of perspective, as of late May 2022, Airbnb has a market cap of about 73 billion
In this latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we looked at how companies might take share from Twitter and more specifically, how could Twitter beat itself in order to grow faster. The..
In this latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we looked at how companies in the fitness industry - or even the larger health industry - can beat Peloton’s highest point of success and..
In this latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we looked at how companies can improve their lead scoring tactics. The conversation opened up other relevant lines of thought, such as “why..
In this latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we looked at how companies can beat their equity value multiple. We explored the connection between the value of a company’s equity and its..
In this latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we looked at how companies and teams can beat their own product ideas. We explored questions like “How can you come up with even better..
In our latest episode of the How Would You Beat podcast, we were joined by UX and product management veteran, Christian Crumlish. Christian has led organizations and been an individual contributor..
In 2014, our CEO, Jay Haynes, analyze Apple using our Jobs-to-be-Done theory to calculate how much Apple's equity value was really worth. At the time, Apple's market cap was $452 billion and, by our..
In our latest episode of How Would You Beat?, we were joined by Steven Johnson. Steven is the best-selling author of 13 books about the history of innovation, including Where Good Ideas Come From..
Jay Haynes, founder and CEO of thrv, recently sat down and spoke with Phil Terry, founder of Collaborative Gain as part of a product talk. The talk was focused on the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework
Welcome to our series, "How Would You Beat?" In each article, we pick a company and talk about how you could use jobs-to-be-done innovation methods to beat that company's product. We discuss..
Welcome to our series, "How Would You Beat?" In each article, we pick a company and talk about how you could use jobs-to-be-done innovation methods to beat that company's product. We discuss..
In each of our "How Would You Beat?" articles, we pick a company and talk about how you could use jobs-to-be-done innovation methods to beat that company's product. We discuss innovation theory and..
Welcome to our series, "How Would You Beat?" In each article, we pick a company and talk about how you could use jobs-to-be-done innovation methods to beat that company's product. We'll discuss..
Today, people are asking about jobs-to-be-done because it's a trendy topic. Specifically, they're asking, "What is the job?" If you're on a product, marketing or sales team at a company,..
How do you create a good jobs-to-be-done statement? This is critical because you're using language to define what your customers want and what your market is. We know that people hire products to..
According to Jobs Theory, your customers are not buying your products, they are hiring them to get a job done. Jobs to be done are goals that your customers are trying to achieve independent of any..
Today we're going to talk about adopting a product roadmap framework. This is for teams who are trying to create product roadmaps. If you've ever tried to create one, it can be extremely difficult...
Product Management frameworks are exciting to learn and frustrating to implement. As a product manager myself and a framework teacher, I totally understand the appeal. Being a product manager is a..
By definition, most product, marketing and sales people don’t work at market leading companies. In order to build a business, we need to get people to switch from using some other product or get..
What is targeted messaging? Why is it important to your product, marketing and sales teams? How do you use jobs-to-be-done to deliver effective targeted messages?
Companies frequently make the..
How can you use Jobs-to-be-Done innovation methods to beat your competitors? In this next installment of “How Would You Beat?” we explain how to define markets using JTBD, which is the critical..
As the head of sales, you’ve likely experimented with numerous frameworks for your sales team. There’s also a good chance that you’ve grown tired of the redundant message across all of them:
Let's just say it: working with a terrible team sucks. It really sucks. Whether it’s your leadership team, your colleagues or your peers, working with a team that sucks, absolutely sucks. It’s even..
Jobs-to-be-done is more than just a theory. It also provides a framework for complete product innovation that makes your customer the focal point of your product strategy. The jobs-to-be-done..
Welcome to the next lesson in our online JTBD course. You will learn how to size a market using jobs-to-be-done innovation methods. In this video, we will explain how to avoid lethal market sizing..
Welcome to the next lesson in our online JTBD course. You will learn how to define your market using jobs-to-be-done innovation methods. In this video, we will explain what a market is, types of..
Welcome to the next lesson in our online JTBD course. You will learn how to identify the critical customer in your market. In this video, we will show you how Nest succeeded by targeting a different..
We are excited to launch our #JTBD YouTube channel today to help your product team use Jobs-to-be-Done innovation methods. Our first 15-minute video covers all the basics of JTBD and shows how you..
As recently as three months ago, WeWork was a high-flying startup headed for an IPO with a $47 billion market cap. Since then, they have suspended IPO plans indefinitely, ..
Facebook has been in the news for allowing a Donald Trump ad that makes untrue statements: essentially lies. They have been defending this by claiming (i) protection of “free speech” and (ii) that..
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.”
-- Valery Legasov, chief of the commission investigating the Chernobyl disaster, in HBO’sChernobyl
Here’s a..
Product positioning strategies are key to fostering a unique connection with your customers. When a product or brand is positioned well, it’s easy to point out. There’s no confusion around what the..
Issue: Disagreement on Customer Needs
Your goal as a company is to build, market and sell products that satisfy customer needs better than competitors. Although it may sound oversimplified,..
Your product strategy is everything. It will define your success or failure as a product team. So what is a product strategy? Does your product..
Issue: Miscalculating Your Real Competitors
Creating equity value in your company comes down to one thing - your ability to satisfy customer needs better than competitors in your market. This is why..
Brainstorming can feel like the wild wild west of product planning. The unpredictability of idea generation sessions can derail..
Market sizing is used to determine which markets are worth investing in. Companies use market sizing because they know that even if a..
The goal of market segmentation is to identify a group of customers (a segment) who are different from the whole population. It is a tactic for product, marketing, and sales teams to relate to..
Coming up with the right set of features for an MVP is a pressure-filled task. If your MVP doesn't succeed, convincing anyone to continue investing in your product (or company) is an uphill battle...
In Jobs Theory, there are three types of jobs-to-be-done your customer is trying to get done - functional, emotional and consumption. Knowing the difference between these three jobs is critical in..
How do you define your market? Is it by the customers you serve? The product you’re building? Or perhaps the category everyone else uses to describe your product?
When it comes to defining a market..
Digital transformation has executives salivating at the thought of being innovative, however it’s clear many of them have misunderstood what it requires to execute successfully. Last month, Harvard..
What do you do when you’ve spent the lifetime of your business focusing..
You can use Jobs-to-be-Done to learn from your customers and measure a new product idea before building anything.
The Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop is a core tenet of the lean startup..
Over a year after the publication of Clayton Christensen’s book about Jobs Theory, Competing Against Luck, Jobs-to-be-Done is a much more common topic at companies of all sizes and sectors. As..
If you're looking for ways to improve your Net Promoter Score, Jobs-to-be-Done can help you determine what to do to transform your detractors to promoters.
If you haven't already, take a look at the Cicret Bracelet video. In just over two years, it has over 25 million views on YouTube. It's a water-resistant bracelet that projects your smartphone's..
In 2011, IBM found that drivers in cities around the world spend an average of 20 minutes finding a parking spot. Such studies highlight the need for more efficient parking.
Entrepreneurs and..
Processes and frameworks can get a bad rap. Many companies are proud of having a light-weight or loose process, considering themselves "agile," "fluid," and "intuitive." They may even say their work..
thrv, LLC (thrv.com), the first and only jobs-to-be-done product management software, today announced that Melissa Burghardt has joined the company as a Growth Partner. For thrv's customers, Melissa..
Many people think that only entrepreneurs need to pitch investors and raise money, but the same process is happening every day in big companies. Boards, executives, and stakeholders are trying to..
The latest version Apple's MacBook Pro hit the markets in late 2016, advertised as faster and more powerful than ever. One of its main selling points--the TouchBar--is said to make the device more..
It's the heart of Q4. Product Managers across the land are getting requests for next year's road map as part of a company-wide "annual planning process."
Some of you have talked your way out of an..
Jay Haynes, thrv's CEO, gave a talk on Building High-Growth Products with Jobs-to-be-Done at Product Tank SF, the San Francisco Meetup for Mind The Product. Below is the video of the talk.
The goal..
This is Part 2 of two-part series explaining thrv's process for executing Jobs Theory. Part 1 is about customer research you can do to define the right question that will drive your product..
This is a two part series explaining thrv's process for executing Jobs Theory. Part 1: How to Ask the Right Question is about defining the job of your customer, identifying unmet needs, and..
In 2010, Google Ventures design partner Jake Knapp developed a process that would help product teams go from abstract idea to a testable prototype in five days flat, now known as the Google Ventures..
There has been so much written about Product Management recently that NomNom Insights and DataStories did a study of Product Management Content on Medium. We've been doing our best to keep up and..
Horace Dediu argues that in the mobile phone market, profit share is the key to creating shareholder value, not market share. This makes sense. You don't want to just sell more product than your..
Executive Summary:
With Pokemon Go's explosive growth, product teams around the world are asking, "What are we going to do with Augmented Reality?" Jobs-to-be-Done provides a customer-centric..
thrv works with product teams to help them satisfy their customers' needs. Critical to this effort is alignment among the teams we work with. They need to be aligned around who..
I’ve spoken to quite a few product managers whose teams and companies have recently adopted the Agile Software Development framework. When we discuss Jobs-to-be-Done and thrv, they are often..
Snapchat launched in September of 2011. Just 2 years later, Facebook attempted to acquire them for $3 billion. A year into their stratospheric growth, mainstream media assumed it was a sexting app...
This week features the third and final installment of our JTBD Product Management: An Education Market Example series. If you haven't read them already, check out Part 1, Part 2, and our Cheat Sheet...
Today, we continue our exploration of how Jobs-to-be-Done helps product managers think differently, drive innovation, and develop new products and features based on the needs of the customer. In our..
Last week we posted our Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) cheat sheet. It's a handy guide to help you understand how JTBD differs from traditional thinking, and how you can use the JTBD framework to create..
This is the introduction to a series about how Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) can change your product development mindset. Part 1 explains the first five rows of our Jobs-to-be-Done worksheet using the..
The news of Berkshire Hathway's billion dollar stake in Apple reminded me of a post I wrote in January, 2014 explaining the math behind valuing Apple at over three trillion dollars.
From Matt..
It's one of the toughest moments for any company. You've spent time and money, pushed a great team to their limits, and now you are ready to launch a product into the world. You should be proud,..
Welcome to thrv! We're excited you're here and we can't wait to tell you more about our company, our people and our software. Why are we so excited? Because we believe the discipline of Product..
Learn how we use JTBD to accelerate growth and create equity value faster.
