The problem
A large auto-parts distributor — spanning manufacturing, imports, repair shops, e-commerce, and physical stores — had run out of obvious moves. Its core service was already best-in-class, so the usual playbook of "improve price and delivery" had nowhere left to go. Supply limits and pricing capped how much happier customers could get on the existing product.
Leadership wanted a growth strategy but had no clear direction. The business floated plenty of ideas — a mobile version, a "garage" feature, a marketplace — but none of them rested on a real reason a customer would care.
The shift: the jobs before and after the sale
Working through Advanced Jobs-To-Be-Done, the product lead mapped the customer's situation as a sequence of jobs rather than a single transaction:
- Before the sale: figure out exactly which parts a given repair needs.
- The sale itself: buy those parts fast and cheap.
- After the sale: actually complete the repair job for the end customer.
The existing product only served the middle step — the purchase — which is precisely where competition was fiercest. The growth was sitting in the jobs on either side, which nobody was serving well.
What changed
The team built a new digital product for a specific, underserved segment: small independent repair shops with one to three bays, little automation, and revenue that depended on parts. The tool helped them manage repair orders end to end — covering the "what do I need?" job up front and the "get the repair done" job after — instead of just selling them parts.
Because it served jobs the competition ignored, the product sidestepped the price war entirely. Roughly 20% of the active business-customer base — about 19,000 shops — adopted it.
The results
Serving the surrounding jobs moved revenue without touching the core price:
- Revenue per customer rose 15% in the first quarter, settling into a durable +5% lift.
- That added on the order of 90 million in monthly revenue.
- Against a build cost of roughly 15 million, the return was, in the team's words, excellent.
The lesson: when you can't make the core product better, look at the jobs that bracket it. That's where a saturated market still has room.