In today's competitive landscape, many companies struggle with fragmented customer experiences. Disconnected touchpoints across product, marketing, and sales often lead to increased customer effort and missed growth opportunities. Traditional customer journey mapping offers a starting point, but to truly drive equity value, a deeper, more fundamental understanding of customer motivation is required. This is where our proprietary and patented Jobs to be Done (JTBD) method transforms customer journey mapping. By focusing on the "job" your customers are trying to get done, we help our portfolio companies optimize customer touchpoints with precision, ensuring every interaction contributes to a unified customer journey and accelerates growth.

This article details how we apply our proprietary JTBD method to customer journey mapping. We will show you how this approach moves beyond surface-level process mapping to identify unmet customer needs, reduce customer effort, and ultimately create equity value. You will learn how we build a journey map centered on the customer's core job, identify critical touchpoints, and implement strategies for their effective optimization.

Table of Contents

• Understanding Our Foundations
• Traditional Customer Journey Maps: A Starting Point
• Our Approach: Jobs to be Done Method
• Synergy: Our JTBD and Customer Journey Mapping for Value Creation
• Our Unified JTBD-Journey Mapping Framework: A Step-by-Step Guide
• Step 1: Identify the Core Job to be Done
• Step 2: Detail the Job Steps (The Job Map)
• Step 3: Integrate Customer Journey Touchpoints with the Job Map
• Step 4: Define Customer Needs for Each Job Step
• Using Our JTBD Insights for Strategic Touchpoint Optimization
• Pinpoint Critical Touchpoints for Maximum Impact
• Redesign Touchpoints to Help Customers Execute the Job
• Personalize Engagement with JTBD-Informed Segmentation
• Develop Customer Journey Analytics Centered on Job Execution
• Our Methodology and Platform Advantages
• Addressing Common Hurdles in Value Creation
• From Journey Mapping to Equity Value Creation
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Understanding Our Foundations

To effectively optimize customer touchpoints, we must first establish a clear understanding of both traditional customer journey maps and our powerful Jobs to be Done method.

Traditional Customer Journey Maps: A Starting Point

A Customer Journey Map (CJM) is a visual representation of the process a customer goes through when interacting with a company or brand. Typically, these maps include:

• Stages: Key phases in the customer's interaction lifecycle
• Actions: What the customer does at each stage
• Thoughts & Feelings: The customer's internal state
• Pain Points: Areas of frustration or difficulty
• Touchpoints: Specific points of interaction (e.g., website, email, ad, sales call, product interface)
  
  

Traditional CJMs are useful for visualizing existing processes and identifying obvious points of friction. However, they often remain product-centric, focusing on how customers interact with current solutions rather than why they are interacting in the first place. This can limit the scope of innovation to incremental improvements.

Our Approach: Jobs to be Done Method

Our equity value creation platform is built upon our proprietary and patented Jobs to be Done (JTBD) method. Our JTBD approach posits that customers "hire" products or services to get a specific "job" done. This job can have functional, emotional, and social dimensions. Our focus is to identify these underlying jobs and the customer needs associated with successfully completing them.

Key elements of our JTBD approach include:

• Job: The fundamental progress a customer is trying to make in a particular circumstance
• Job Executor: The individual or group trying to get the job done
• Customer Needs: Defined as action/variable pairs that measure how quickly and accurately customers can execute their job (e.g., "Determine available appointment times," "Verify insurance coverage"). These are solution-agnostic and focus on the core requirements of the job
• Circumstances: The context in which the job arises, influencing how it's prioritized and what solutions are considered

Our JTBD method provides profound insights into customer motivations and, crucially, identifies unmet needs where customers struggle to get their job done effectively.

Synergy: Our JTBD and Customer Journey Mapping for Value Creation

Integrating our JTBD method with customer journey mapping creates a powerful synergy. While traditional journey maps show what customers do and how they interact, our JTBD method provides the critical why. Using our JTBD approach expands the focus from product optimizations to satisfying unmet customer needs, independent of the product itself.

This combined approach allows us to:

• Shift from a product-centric to a customer-need-centric view
• Understand the customer's goals independent of any specific solution
• Identify high-effort points in the journey that directly correlate to unmet needs in getting the job done
• Uncover opportunities for breakthrough innovation rather than just incremental fixes

By understanding the job, we can design a unified customer journey where every touchpoint is purposefully engineered to help the customer make progress.

Our Unified JTBD-Journey Mapping Framework: A Step-by-Step Guide

We implement a structured process for JTBD customer journey mapping within our portfolio companies. This framework ensures that all product, marketing, and sales strategies are aligned with fundamental customer needs.

Step 1: Identify the Core Job to be Done

The first step is to precisely identify the core Job to be Done. This involves qualitative research methods such as JTBD interviews and contextual analysis to understand the customer's real goals and motivations.

Crafting a Job Statement: We develop a clear, actionable, and solution-agnostic Job Statement. For instance, instead of "customer wants a mortgage," the job might be "Achieve financial security through homeownership." This broader perspective helps avoid myopia and focuses on stable, long-term customer needs.

Identifying Related Jobs: We also identify main and ancillary jobs that surround the core job.

Step 2: Detail the Job Steps (The Job Map)

Once the core job is defined, we deconstruct it into a sequence of discrete steps the customer takes to complete it. This is often called a Job Map. A typical job comprises 8-18 distinct steps.

Focus on Customer Achievement: Each step describes what the customer is trying to achieve, not how they use a particular product or feature.

Example Job Steps: For the job "Achieve financial security through homeownership," job steps might include: "Determine affordability," "Secure financing pre-approval," "Locate suitable properties," "Negotiate purchase terms."

Step 3: Integrate Customer Journey Touchpoints with the Job Map

With the Job Map established, we overlay the customer's current journey and existing touchpoints onto these job steps. For each job step, we identify:

• Current Customer Actions: Specific behaviors and tasks
• Existing Touchpoints: All interactions with the company's marketing, sales, product, and service channels
• Points of High Effort: Where customers struggle, experience delays, or make errors. This is critical for identifying unmet needs
• Customer Effort Scores (CES): We use CES to quantify the difficulty customers experience at each job step. A high CES indicates a significant unmet need and an area ripe for innovation
  
  

Step 4: Define Customer Needs for Each Job Step

For each step in the Job Map, we define the customer needs. These are the specific metrics customers use to judge how well and how quickly they can execute that part of the job.

Action/Variable Format: As per our methodology, these are stated as action/variable pairs (e.g., for "Determine affordability," a need might be "Calculate maximum loan amount" or "Verify income documentation requirements").

Guiding Optimization: These precise customer needs become the north star for optimizing existing touchpoints and developing new product features within our approach to product innovation.

Using Our JTBD Insights for Strategic Touchpoint Optimization

Our JTBD-powered customer journey map doesn't just illustrate the journey; it provides a blueprint to optimize customer touchpoints for maximum impact on job completion and, consequently, equity value.

Pinpoint Critical Touchpoints for Maximum Impact

Not all touchpoints are created equal. Using our JTBD method and Customer Effort Scores (CES), we identify which touchpoints are most critical for successful job completion and where customers experience the most difficulty.

High-Effort = High Opportunity: Touchpoints associated with job steps that have high CES are prime candidates for optimization. Addressing these areas of struggle can significantly reduce customer effort.

Impact on Job Completion: We prioritize touchpoints that, if improved, would most directly help customers achieve their job with greater speed and accuracy.

Redesign Touchpoints to Help Customers Execute the Job

Once critical touchpoints are identified, we redesign them based on core principles aimed at facilitating job execution:

Principle 1: Reduce Effort: How can the touchpoint make the relevant job step faster and require less work from the customer? This might involve streamlining processes, automating tasks, or improving information accessibility.

Principle 2: Improve Accuracy: Does the touchpoint ensure the customer can complete the job step correctly, without errors? This could involve clearer instructions, better validation, or decision support tools.

Principle 3: Provide Clarity: Does the touchpoint clearly communicate how it helps the customer progress in their job? Ambiguity increases effort and frustration.

Practical Examples:

• Website CTA: Change from "Learn More" to "Calculate Your Savings" (if the job step is about understanding financial benefits)
• Email Onboarding: Structure emails around key job steps the customer needs to complete to get value from the product
• Sales Conversation: Equip sales teams to diagnose the customer's Job to be Done and articulate how the solution helps achieve it
• In-App Feature: Design features that directly map to specific customer needs within a job step, ensuring intuitive use
  
  

Personalize Engagement with JTBD-Informed Segmentation

Our JTBD method allows for powerful customer segmentation beyond simple demographics or behaviors. We can segment customers based on:

• The specific Job to be Done they are trying to achieve
• The job steps where they experience the most difficulty (high CES)
• Their circumstances affecting how they approach the job

This allows highly personalized engagement strategies. For example, marketing messages and product onboarding can be tailored to resonate with the specific job a segment is hiring the product for, significantly improving relevance and reducing perceived effort.

Develop Customer Journey Analytics Centered on Job Execution

To measure the effectiveness of our JTBD customer journey mapping initiative and optimized touchpoints, we focus on customer journey analytics that reflect job execution:

• Customer Effort Scores (CES) per Job Step: Tracking changes in CES over time to see if optimizations are reducing difficulty
• Job Completion Rates: The percentage of customers successfully completing the entire job or critical job steps
• Speed and Accuracy of Job Step Execution: Measuring how quickly and accurately customers can move through each job step

Our AI-powered platform helps collect and analyze this data, providing continuous feedback for iterative improvement.

Our Methodology and Platform Advantages

Our unique position as an innovation and value creation team that operates and grows portfolio companies is underpinned by our proprietary JTBD methodology and platform.

Our AI-Powered Platform for JTBD Analysis

Our patented software and AI capabilities are integral to our approach:

Accelerated Insights: Our AI-powered platform significantly speeds up the process of analyzing customer data to identify unmet needs and map job steps, often reducing weeks of work to hours.

Actionable Roadmaps: AI helps translate complex customer need data into clear, prioritized product roadmaps that directly address high-effort areas in the customer's job.

Scaling JTBD: We use AI to scale JTBD analysis across diverse markets and customer segments within our portfolio companies.

Our Implementation Process with Portfolio Companies

We work hands-on with the leadership teams of our portfolio companies:

Cross-Functional Alignment: We ensure product, marketing, and sales teams are aligned around the customer's Job to be Done.

Iterative Improvement: Our process is iterative, using ongoing measurement of Customer Effort Scores and job completion metrics to continuously refine touchpoints and product features.

Addressing Common Hurdles in Value Creation

Successfully implementing our JTBD-centric approach requires overcoming common organizational inertia:

Shifting Mindsets: We help teams shift from a product-centric to a customer-job-centric mindset.

Data-Driven Decisions: Our emphasis on quantitative CES data and demonstrable improvements in job execution helps build conviction and drive change.

From Journey Mapping to Equity Value Creation

Mapping unified customer journeys through the lens of our Jobs to be Done method is more than an academic exercise; it's a fundamental strategy for accelerating growth and building substantial equity value. By focusing on the customer's core job and systematically optimizing every touchpoint to reduce effort and improve the speed and accuracy of job execution, companies can create offerings that customers value and for which they are willing to pay.

Our proprietary JTBD methodology, supercharged by our AI platform, provides a clear path for our portfolio companies to achieve product innovation that truly resonates with customer needs. This disciplined focus on helping customers get their jobs done better is key to creating market-leading products and equity value creation.

Our proprietary JTBD methodology and AI-powered platform are integral to how we accelerate growth and create equity value for our portfolio companies through systematic customer journey optimization.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is JTBD customer journey mapping?

JTBD customer journey mapping is an approach that integrates the Jobs-to-be-Done methodology into the process of creating customer journey maps. Instead of just mapping current interactions, it focuses on understanding the underlying "job" the customer is trying to accomplish and maps the journey based on the steps required to complete that job, providing deeper insights into customer motivations and unmet needs.

How does JTBD differ from traditional customer journey mapping?

Traditional customer journey mapping often focuses on the customer's interactions with a specific product or service. JTBD customer journey mapping starts by defining the customer's goal or "job" independent of any solution. This approach prioritizes the customer's objective and measures success based on how well and efficiently they can get their job done, leading to more fundamental innovation opportunities.

Why is optimizing touchpoints important for business growth?

Optimizing touchpoints is crucial because each interaction a customer has with a company influences their perception and ability to achieve their goals. When touchpoints are optimized using JTBD insights to reduce customer effort and improve the speed and accuracy of job execution, it leads to higher adoption, greater loyalty, and increased willingness to pay, all of which drive business growth and equity value.

How does AI accelerate JTBD customer journey mapping?

AI accelerates JTBD journey mapping by processing large amounts of customer data to identify unmet needs and critical job steps more quickly. AI assists in translating these insights into actionable product roadmaps and predicting the impact of touchpoint optimizations, helping companies innovate faster and with less risk.

What are Customer Effort Scores in journey mapping?

Customer Effort Score (CES) measures the percentage of customers who report difficulty in executing a specific step of their Job-to-be-Done. Difficulty is assessed based on the effort required, speed of execution, and accuracy of execution. A high CES indicates a significant unmet customer need and valuable opportunity for touchpoint optimization.

How do you identify the most critical touchpoints to optimize?

Critical touchpoints are identified by analyzing Customer Effort Scores for each job step and determining which touchpoints have the greatest impact on job completion. Touchpoints associated with high-CES job steps represent the highest optimization opportunities because addressing customer struggle in these areas creates the most value.

Can JTBD journey mapping work for both B2B and B2C companies?

Yes, JTBD journey mapping works for both B2B and B2C companies. All customers, whether businesses or consumers, hire products and services to help them complete jobs. The methodology focuses on understanding what customers are trying to accomplish regardless of the market type, making it universally applicable.

How do you measure the success of JTBD journey mapping optimization?

Success is measured through reduced Customer Effort Scores for optimized job steps, improved job completion rates, faster speed of job execution, and increased accuracy in completing job steps. These metrics directly correlate with customer satisfaction, retention, and willingness to pay, ultimately driving revenue growth and equity value creation.