thrv & Jobs-To-Be-Done

I am proud to announce thrv publicly. thrv is the first and only product management application based on jobs-to-be-done innovation theory. We have been developing thrv over the past two years, but it is really the culmination of my 25 years of working with Fortune 500 companies, private-equity sponsored companies, and start-ups. 

Over two decades, I have repeatedly seen the same growth problem: launching successful products that satisfy customer needs and accelerate revenue growth is exceptionally hard. 

Jobs-to-be-done is the most effective and proven way to satisfy needs and grow. It has been used to successfully launch new software applications, hardware products, and medical devices that have generated billions of dollars in new revenue (with much lower risk). JTBD has an exceptional track record across B2B, B2C and medical markets. 

So why isn't every company using JTBD? Because historically it has been very hard to use. Customer jobs are very complex. Using the customer's job to identify competitor weakness, create a product roadmap, and launch a product is very difficult.

Until thrv, the best JTBD tools were Excel and PowerPoint. This made aligning a team around the customer's job very hard. Using modern software and cloud tools, we built thrv from the ground up to make the customer's job the central focus for your product team. thrv makes using JTBD easier, faster, and more effective. 

The benefits of JTBD are profound because getting a customer's job done better positively impacts every key business metric from top line revenue growth to profitability to return on invested capital.

Using thrv and JTBD, your product team can (I) reduce your risk of product failure, (ii) exploit competitor weaknesses to accelerate your revenue growth, (iii) get to market faster by focusing on the top unmet needs first, (iv) save development costs by avoiding the wrong features, (v) lower your customer acquisition costs with better messaging, and (vi) increase customer retention by increasing your customer satisfaction. 

JTBD almost sounds too good to be true. And I have seen CEOs, executives, and product teams use JTBD poorly in ways that still result in horrific failure. When Excel and PowerPoint are the only JTBD tools, the HiPPO (the “highest paid person’s opinion") wins. And if that person isn't Steve Jobs, even with JTBD, the risk of product failure is still very high.

Jobs-to-be-done is an instrument, like a guitar, and it takes practice to play like Jimi Hendrix.  

This was our goal with thrv: to make a JTBD instrument that is much easier to learn and play. Ultimately your team is like a band, and they each have a role to play. thrv helps them make hit music. And launch very successful products. 

Click here to see a demo of thrv with a complete set of customer needs in a job-to-be-done, a full competitive analysis, and a complete product roadmap designed to win by getting the customer's job done better.