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, elated even, but your stomach is in knots. Why?
Because, despite all your efforts, you're not sure if it's going to be a success. You've seen this movie before. A big investment in all the best ideas from all the most talented people results in a lackluster response from your customers. The stakes are high so you tightened up your sprints and got more ruthless with your prioritization. Maybe this time will be different?
I've been there and know the feeling well. Excitement, fear, hope and trepidation all swirling around inside your heart, head and stomach. I've optimized design and engineering processes until my team is a well-oiled machine, but it had no effect growth. It's an experience I kept coming back to when thinking about the next challenge to take on in my career. The more thought I gave to it, the more it became clear: I was passionate about the product launch, or more specifically, helping organizations launch products with more confidence, less risk, and in ways that not only brought business success but also led to happy and focused teams.
The turning point for me occurred when I learned and adopted the Jobs-to-be-Done framework. JTBD clarified my thinking and reoriented my perspective on product management. After years with a product-centric point of view, JTBD asked me to take a customer-centric view. It made all the difference in the world. I realized that the tightest sprints in the world won't fix a broken product strategy that doesn't focus on customer needs. I'll admit, it was challenging at first. I had to break the way I had been thinking and speaking about products for years.
Eventually, I understood Jobs-to-be-Done was more than a buzzword and more than a mindset. It's also a process that brings science to the art of product management and increases the product launch hit rate and efficiency for those willing to put in the effort. When it came time for me to venture out on my own, I knew that helping others reap the benefits from this approach was not only what I wanted to do, but was also something that the product community needed.
thrv helps companies and product teams understand that successful launches aren't about innovative features (though that can help) or user tests saying your product is "cool" but rather about satisfying unmet customer needs. People buy products, people switch from other products, not just because something new comes along, but because it helps them do something they are already trying to do faster or with greater accuracy. With thrv, we are building the only platform for product managers based on understanding and quantifying the unmet needs of the customer's job-to-be-done.
Nothing gets me more excited than working with an organization and being there for the "lightbulb moment" when the customer-centric approach kicks in. thrv helps people understand and leverage the Jobs-to-be-Done process in a way that makes adoption faster and keeps the entire team focused on the customer throughout product development. While the theory of JTBD has a growing influence within the product management field, little has been done to help teams implement the practice. And as product managers, we all know a great idea doesn't launch a successful product--it's all about implementation and execution. thrv's tools and services are here to support you every step of the way.
