Table of Contents

• Introduction: Why Our JTBD Templates Are Critical to How We Drive Growth
• What Are the Core Elements of Our JTBD Templates?
• How Do We Customize Our JTBD Templates for Our Portfolio Companies' Markets?
• What Are the Most Common JTBD Template Mistakes (And How We Help Companies Avoid Them)?
• What Do High-Performing JTBD Templates Look Like in Our Practice?
• Conclusion: How Our JTBD Templates Serve as a Catalyst for Cross-Functional Growth
  

Introduction: Why Our JTBD Templates Are Critical to How We Drive Growth

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is more than a theory—it's a methodology that helps our portfolio companies understand the true motivations behind their customers' behavior. Our approach clarifies the difference between what a product does and what customers are trying to achieve. While many organizations claim to be customer-centric, few have a structured, reliable way to uncover and act on real customer needs. This is where our JTBD templates at thrv make all the difference.

Our JTBD templates aren't just research formats or workshop tools. They're repeatable systems we've developed for capturing customer goals, breaking them into manageable parts, and aligning teams around objective, measurable progress indicators. The best JTBD templates we create clarify strategy, prioritize roadmap decisions, guide marketing messages, and create consensus across product, engineering, design, and go-to-market teams.

As guides in this process, we at thrv have designed this resource to help business leaders understand how we build, customize, and apply JTBD templates that become the foundation for smarter, faster, customer-led growth. We'll share:

• The key components we include in every JTBD template
• How we adapt templates to fit different industries and customer types
• Common mistakes we help companies avoid to ensure template effectiveness
• Real-world examples of our templates in action

Let's see how we turn theory into action—and insights into revenue.

What Are the Core Elements of Our JTBD Templates?

At thrv, we create JTBD templates that provide the structure for understanding and prioritizing customer jobs. Here are the must-have elements that make our templates effective:

1. Job Statement

The job statement defines the core functional goal a customer is trying to achieve—not with a product, but in their life or work. We write it in a simple "verb + object" format, like "Get to a destination on time," or "Ensure aircraft airworthiness."

This phrasing strips away solutions and zeros in on the goal. When we create a good job statement, it is:

• Solution-agnostic
• Measurable in speed and accuracy
• Stable over time
  
  

We avoid vague aspirations or emotional desires ("feel secure," "be happy"). These may matter, but they're not functional enough to drive product decisions that create equity value.

2. Job Steps

We break down each job into smaller, sequential steps. We see these as the customer's process for getting the job done. The job steps in our templates help portfolio companies:

• Understand the flow of the job from beginning to end
• Identify pain points where customers struggle
• Spot opportunities for innovation and efficiency

For example, in the job "Get to a destination on time," steps we might include:

• Plan the route
• Check traffic conditions
• Estimate travel time
• Choose transportation mode
• Park the vehicle

By mapping these steps, we provide a job blueprint for our portfolio companies. It's essential for finding unmet needs.

3. Customer Needs

Within our templates, each job step contains several customer needs. These are not features or wants—they're metrics customers use to judge success. A well-formed need we would include looks like: "Minimize the time it takes to determine the optimal route."

Every need we document is:

• Actionable (uses a verb)
• Quantifiable (based on time, accuracy, or effort)
• Product-agnostic
  
  

Needs are where our JTBD work gets powerful. They quantify value from the customer's point of view, which is crucial for our work with portfolio companies.

4. Unmet Needs

We recognize that not all needs are equal. Some are already well-satisfied by the market; others are underserved. Unmet needs represent the best opportunities for our portfolio companies.

At thrv, we find them using:

• Surveys to get effort scores (how difficult a need is to satisfy)
• Interviews to add context to those scores
• Segmentation by struggle, not demographics
  
  

We help companies prioritize needs with high importance and low satisfaction: innovation sweet spots that create equity value.

5. Customer Segments (by Struggle)

Rather than traditional persona-based segments ("marketing manager, age 35"), we use struggle-based segmentation. We group customers by shared unmet needs. This lets our portfolio companies:

• Target the customers who need them most
• Justify pricing based on urgency
• Focus product development on high-value use cases
  
  

Our segmentation is dynamic and rooted in real behavior, not assumptions, giving our portfolio companies a competitive advantage.

6. Growth Strategy Summary

We bring it all together with a strategic summary for our portfolio companies:

• Who they are targeting
• What job their customers are trying to get done
• Which unmet needs they will address
  
  

This becomes their north star for product, marketing, and positioning that we help implement.

7. Competitive Benchmarking

In our templates, we analyze how current solutions (including our portfolio companies) perform against each need. We look for areas where competitors are slow, inaccurate, or hard to use. These are the wedge opportunities we identify for our portfolio companies.

This ensures our portfolio companies aren't just different—they're better at helping their customers succeed.

8. Idea Generation Space

Our templates end with a space for brainstorming ideas that:

• Directly address a specific unmet need
• Improve speed, accuracy, or ease of a job step
• Can be tested, prioritized, and validated
  
  

This structure turns research into execution. Our portfolio companies can go from insight to solution with clarity and focus, with our guidance throughout the process.

How Do We Customize Our JTBD Templates for Our Portfolio Companies' Markets?

JTBD is flexible by design—but we ensure our templates reflect the specifics of each market, product category, and customer environment. Here's how we adapt our templates for maximum relevance.

We Tailor the Job Beneficiary

We identify the job beneficiary—the person who benefits from the job being done, regardless of who executes it. In consumer markets, these are usually the end users. In B2B or healthcare, the job beneficiary may be a stakeholder whose progress matters most.

For example:

• A navigation app: the driver is both executor and beneficiary
• A cybersecurity tool: IT executes, but the CIO is the job beneficiary
• A diagnostic test: clinicians perform the test, but patients benefit from early detection
  
  

We focus our templates on the beneficiary's goal—not the executor's workflow—to create the most equity value for our portfolio companies.

We Adjust Job Step Detail by Context

The complexity of our job maps depends on the stakes and frequency of the job. For low-stakes, high-frequency tasks (e.g. "Find a recipe"), we might only need 5–8 steps. For high-stakes, regulated jobs (e.g. "Ensure aircraft airworthiness"), we may include 20+ steps.

We capture enough detail to:

• Reveal risk areas
• Find workflow inefficiencies
• Guide compliance and regulatory thinking
  
  

We Include Consumption Jobs

In addition to functional jobs, we include related consumption jobs in our templates, such as:

• Learn how to use the solution
• Set up or configure the solution
• Get support or troubleshoot issues
  
  

These influence adoption and long-term satisfaction. They're often where churn happens—so our templates capture and prioritize them too.

We Reflect Market Language

We use terminology customers use. This improves research accuracy and internal alignment. If we're mapping the job of a pilot, "perform preflight inspection" is clearer than "check before flying."

We customize job steps and needs to fit how customers think and talk, making our templates more effective for our portfolio companies.

We Integrate JTBD with Existing Frameworks

We don't require companies to abandon OKRs, agile epics, or design sprints. Instead, we align them to JTBD language:

• Link backlog items to specific unmet needs
• Tie OKRs to improving satisfaction scores for top needs
• Use job steps to map and test customer journeys
  
  

JTBD becomes the strategy layer for our portfolio companies—and their existing tools become more focused and effective with our guidance.

What Are the Most Common JTBD Template Mistakes (And How We Help Companies Avoid Them)?

Even with good intentions, teams often undermine their JTBD work through preventable missteps. Here are the top traps we help companies avoid:

Mistake #1: Using Features Instead of Needs

Bad example: "Customer wants in-app chat support" Better: "Minimize the time it takes to resolve an issue."

Fix: We always phrase needs in terms of progress indicators. We stay solution-agnostic to find the best opportunities.

Mistake #2: Skipping the Research

Guessing at job steps or needs leads to bias. Companies might solve problems their customers don't actually have.

Fix: We start with qualitative interviews. Then we use quantitative surveys to validate unmet needs.

Mistake #3: Over-Segmenting with Personas

We know personas can distract from the real driver of behavior: the job. Two users with different demographics may have identical needs.

Fix: We segment based on shared struggles. We group by unmet needs, not traits.

Mistake #4: Ignoring Consumption Jobs

A product may excel at the core job but fail at onboarding, installation, or billing—leading to churn.

Fix: We include consumption job steps and needs in our templates to create a complete picture.

Mistake #5: Leaving Templates Static

Customer needs change. So should templates.

Fix: We revisit and update templates every 6–12 months with new data to keep them relevant.

By helping companies avoid these mistakes, we keep our JTBD practice credible and useful across functions for our portfolio companies.

What Do High-Performing JTBD Templates Look Like in Our Practice?

Let's look at three real-world examples from our work at thrv.

Example 1: Biscom's Security Information Exchange

• JTBD: Securely send, receive, and act upon private health information
• Segment: Healthcare providers handling sensitive patient data
• Unmet Need: Ensure compliance with healthcare regulations while exchanging information
• Solution: Complete secure information handling platform beyond traditional fax
• Results: Tripled growth rate over two years, achieving successful exit with expanded valuation multiple
  
  

Biscom, a 30-year-old fax services company, worked with us at thrv to transform its business model. By shifting focus from "fax services" to the broader job of secure information handling, we identified 17 critical steps and over 100 customer needs. This thorough template guided their pivot toward solving more significant problems for healthcare clients, particularly around regulatory compliance. As their guide in this process, we helped them identify opportunities they might have otherwise missed.

Example 2: AutoQuotes Foodservice Equipment Marketplace

• JTBD: Efficiently select, price, and purchase foodservice equipment that meets specific operational needs
• Segment: Foodservice professionals in mature markets seeking better selection processes
• Unmet Need: Reduce time to evaluate and compare equipment options across multiple vendors
• Solution: Improved marketplace platform with comparative analysis tools
• Results: New products contributed to 30% of new bookings despite challenging market conditions
  
  

AutoQuotes used our thrv templates to identify growth opportunities in a mature market where they already had deep penetration. Our templates helped align the operating team, board, and employees around the customer's complete job, not just the quoting process. This alignment led to product innovations that addressed previously unseen market opportunities. Our role as their guide was to help them see beyond their current market definition.

Example 3: Target's Registry Platform

• JTBD: Prepare for life's major milestones by acquiring necessary items with help from friends and family
• Segment: First-time registry creators overwhelmed by the selection process
• Unmet Need: Simplify the process of determining which items are most necessary
• Solution: Curated registry recommendations and simplified management tools
• Results: Reversed declining revenue trend, achieving 25% annual growth and 20% NPS increase
  
  

Target's Registry team transformed their approach by working with us to use JTBD templates to move beyond feature parity with Amazon. Instead of reactively matching competitive features, we helped them focus on the deeper job customers were trying to accomplish. Our templates helped identify unmet needs in the registry creation and management process, leading to innovative features that Amazon eventually copied, demonstrating Target's shift from follower to market leader with our guidance.

These examples demonstrate how our thoroughly developed JTBD templates create alignment, uncover opportunities, and drive measurable business growth across different industries and contexts.

Conclusion: How Our JTBD Templates Serve as a Catalyst for Cross-Functional Growth

A powerful JTBD template is more than a document—it's a shared framework that connects strategy to execution. At thrv, we create templates that align product, marketing, sales, and customer success teams around what truly matters: helping customers succeed.

With our well-structured templates, we help teams:

• Find hidden opportunities
• Prioritize with confidence
• Differentiate where it counts
  
  

When implemented effectively, our JTBD templates become the foundation for a customer-centered organization. They transform how teams think about product development, moving from feature-driven roadmaps to progress-focused innovations. Marketing messages shift from highlighting capabilities to addressing real customer struggles. Sales conversations focus on customer progress rather than product specifications.

Most importantly, our JTBD templates create a common language across the organization. Everyone from executives to developers understands what customers are trying to achieve and how the company uniquely helps them accomplish their goals.

At thrv, we serve as the guide to help companies build JTBD templates that turn insight into growth. Whether our portfolio companies are in SaaS, healthcare, or retail, our approach adapts to their context and scales with their team. We're not the hero of their story—they are. But we provide the frameworks, expertise, and guidance that help them succeed on their journey to accelerated growth and equity value creation.

Schedule a thrv demo and let us show you how we can help you build what your customers really want—faster and with less risk.