McKinsey data reveals a stark reality: over 80% of companies fail when attempting to scale, even after finding product-market fit. This failure isn't due to a lack of ambition or funding. It stems from a fundamental breakdown in operational alignment, where product, marketing, and sales teams work in silos, chasing conflicting metrics. The result is wasted effort, stalled momentum, and a failure to create durable equity value. The solution requires a new system for growth—one grounded in a stable, empirical understanding of the customer. For scaling operations effectively, companies need a unifying language and a single source of truth.

This is where we use our proprietary and patented Jobs to be Done (JTBD) method to provide a clear path forward. Our JTBD approach shifts the focus from internal assumptions and product features to the one thing that never changes: the customer's motivation. By defining, measuring, and building around the "job" a customer is trying to accomplish, we help organizations align every function toward a common goal. This guide details our approach to embedding our JTBD method across our portfolio companies to build a foundation for predictable, scalable growth and create equity value.

Table of Contents

• What is Our Jobs to be Done Method?
• Why Our JTBD Method is the Key to Scaling
• Our Playbook for Scaling Operations
  
• Step 1: Define Your Market Around the Job
• Step 2: Map the Customer's Job
• Step 3: Uncover and Prioritize Customer Needs
• Step 4: Choose Your Growth Strategy
• Embedding Our JTBD Method Across Portfolio Companies
• For Product Teams
• For Marketing Teams
• For Sales Teams
• For Executive Leadership
• Making Growth Systematic
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is Our Jobs to be Done Method?

Our proprietary and patented Jobs to be Done method is built on a simple but powerful premise: customers don't buy products; they "hire" them to get a job done. A person doesn't buy a quarter-inch drill bit because they want the bit itself. They hire the drill bit to create a quarter-inch hole. This perspective changes everything. We reframe competition, innovation, and value creation around the customer's objective, not the product's features.

These "jobs" have three core dimensions:

Functional Jobs: The practical, objective task the customer is trying to accomplish. Example: Prepare a monthly financial report.

Emotional Jobs: How the customer wants to feel as a result of executing the job. Example: Feel confident and prepared for the board meeting.

Social Jobs: How the customer wants to be perceived by others. Example: Be seen as competent and detail-oriented by colleagues.

By focusing on the job, our portfolio companies gain a stable point of reference. While technologies and solutions change, the customer's core job remains remarkably consistent over time.

Why Our JTBD Method is the Key to Scaling

Achieving product-market fit is a significant milestone, but it doesn't guarantee a company can scale. Scaling introduces complexity that breaks informal processes. Our JTBD method provides the operating system to manage this complexity and drive efficient growth.

Creates a Common Language: When product, marketing, and sales all focus on the customer's job, they can finally align their efforts. Our job map and customer needs become the single source of truth, eliminating the friction caused by departmental silos. This alignment is critical for operational efficiency.

Makes Innovation Predictable: Instead of guessing what features to build next, our JTBD method reveals exactly where customers are struggling. By identifying the steps in the job that are slow or inaccurate, innovation becomes a systematic process of addressing specific, unmet needs.

Reduces Risk: Building products based on a deep understanding of the customer's job drastically reduces the risk of creating something no one will use. This is especially true when scaling, as the cost of a failed product launch is magnified.

Provides a Stable Focus for Value Creation: Markets defined by demographics or product categories are volatile. A market defined by a Job to be Done is stable. This stability allows our portfolio companies to build long-term strategies for creating equity value.

Our Playbook for Scaling Operations

We use our proprietary JTBD platform and process to embed this methodology across our portfolio companies. This is not a one-time consulting project; it is a fundamental change to the company's operating model.

Step 1: Define Your Market Around the Job

The first step is to redefine the market. Instead of viewing the market as "people who buy CRM software," we define it as "professionals who need to manage customer relationships to grow revenue." This problem-centric view immediately clarifies who the customer is and what they are trying to achieve, independent of any current solution.

Step 2: Map the Customer's Job

Every job, from making coffee to managing a global supply chain, can be broken down into a series of process steps. We use our AI-powered platform to map the customer's job across eight universal stages: define, locate, prepare, confirm, execute, monitor, modify, and conclude. This job map serves as the architectural blueprint for the entire growth strategy.

Step 3: Uncover and Prioritize Customer Needs

For each step in the job map, we identify the metrics customers use to measure success. These are the customer's needs. Following our strict methodology, these needs are always stated as an action and a variable.

For example, when a sales manager is executing the job of creating a sales forecast, their needs might include:

• Determine close date for each opportunity
• Calculate weighted value of pipeline
• Identify at-risk deals
  
  

We then use our Customer Effort Score (CES) to quantify how difficult it is for customers to accomplish each need with their current solutions. A high CES—meaning a high percentage of customers report difficulty with speed or accuracy—pinpoints a significant growth opportunity.

Step 4: Choose Your Growth Strategy

With a prioritized list of unmet needs, we help our portfolio companies select a targeted growth strategy. Based on the competitive landscape and the nature of the opportunity, this could be:

Differentiated: Help customers get the job done significantly better (faster and more accurately).

Dominant: Help customers get the entire job done on a single platform.

Disruptive: Help a new segment of customers get the job done more simply or affordably.

Discrete: Help customers get a single, over-served step of the job done perfectly.

This structured approach connects deep customer understanding directly to a clear, actionable plan for creating equity value.

Embedding Our JTBD Method Across Portfolio Companies

Our methodology is only valuable if it is implemented consistently. We work with our portfolio companies to embed JTBD principles across every key function.

For Product Teams

We help product teams build roadmaps that are no longer based on feature requests or competitor actions. Instead, they are built to address the customer needs with the highest Customer Effort Scores. This ensures that every development sprint is directly tied to creating value the customer will pay for. Our JTBD software and platform help product teams move faster and with more confidence.

For Marketing Teams

We guide marketing teams to shift messaging from talking about product features to communicating how the product helps the customer get their job done better. Content, campaigns, and positioning all speak directly to the customer's struggle and aspirations, which creates a much stronger connection and drives higher-quality leads.

For Sales Teams

We transform sales conversations to become more consultative and effective. Instead of leading with a product demo, sales professionals first work to understand the customer's job and where they are struggling. Our JTBD training programs equip sales teams to position their product as the best solution for the customer's specific job.

For Executive Leadership

We provide leadership with our JTBD method as a unified dashboard for managing the business. By tracking Customer Effort Scores and progress against the job map, executives can make more informed strategic decisions about resource allocation, M&A opportunities, and long-term growth initiatives. This systematic approach is key to creating equity value.

Making Growth Systematic

Scaling is not about moving faster; it's about moving together in the right direction. While only about 18% of first-time founders succeed in scaling their companies, according to research from UpsilonIT, implementing our robust JTBD framework can dramatically change those odds. Our Jobs to be Done method provides the blueprint for sustainable growth by anchoring every decision, process, and strategy to the customer's unchanging goal.

By embedding our JTBD method into the core of an organization, we help our portfolio companies transform their operations from a collection of siloed functions into a finely tuned engine for value creation.

Our proprietary methodology and AI-powered platform represent the most systematic approach to scaling operations while maintaining customer focus and creating sustainable competitive advantages.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the main benefit of using JTBD for scaling operations?

The primary benefit is alignment. Our JTBD method creates a single, customer-centric framework that unifies product, marketing, sales, and leadership. This alignment eliminates wasted effort, reduces organizational friction, and allows companies to direct all resources toward activities that create genuine customer and equity value.

How does thrv's JTBD method differ from traditional market research methods?

Traditional methods like surveys and focus groups often ask customers what they want, which can lead to misleading feedback. Our JTBD method focuses on what customers are trying to do. By observing their process and measuring their struggle (via Customer Effort Scores), our approach uncovers needs that customers themselves may not be able to articulate. It is an empirical, engineering-based approach to understanding markets.

How is a Job to be Done different from a user persona?

A user persona is a fictional character representing a demographic and psychographic group. While useful for empathy, personas are not stable units of analysis—people's attributes change. A Job to be Done is a process a person is trying to execute. It is stable over time and independent of who is performing it, making it a much more reliable foundation for a growth strategy.

How does AI accelerate the scaling process using JTBD?

Our AI-powered platform accelerates the analysis of customer feedback and behavior to identify high-effort job steps and unmet needs at scale. AI can process thousands of customer interactions to pinpoint exactly where customers struggle most, enabling faster scaling decisions and more accurate resource allocation across growing organizations.

What makes thrv's approach to scaling different from traditional consulting?

We don't provide advice from the outside—we work as operators within our portfolio companies to implement our proprietary JTBD method. Our approach includes hands-on implementation, AI-powered analysis tools, and ongoing support to ensure the methodology becomes embedded in the company's operating model rather than remaining a one-time project.

How do you measure success when scaling operations with JTBD?

We measure success through reduced Customer Effort Scores across key job steps, improved cross-functional alignment metrics (faster decision-making, fewer miscommunications), and business outcomes, including revenue growth, customer retention, and ultimately equity value creation. The key indicator is whether teams can systematically identify and capitalize on growth opportunities.

Can this scaling approach work for both B2B and B2C portfolio companies?

Yes, our JTBD-based scaling methodology works for both B2B and B2C companies. The fundamental principle—that customers hire products to get jobs done—applies regardless of market type. We customize the implementation based on the specific customer base and business model of each portfolio company.

How long does it take to see results from implementing JTBD for scaling?

Portfolio companies typically see improved alignment and decision-making within 4-6 weeks of implementation. Measurable business results, including reduced Customer Effort Scores and improved growth metrics, usually appear within 3-6 months. The full transformation to a systematically scalable operation generally takes 6-12 months depending on company size and complexity.