How can you apply the Scalabl® Methodology to get the job of your dreams?
When we created the methodology in 2016, we had a very specific objective: to teach entrepreneurship and make it possible. Designed to help create innovative, unique and sustainable businesses by managing risk, we learned to convert ideas into viable business models, validating them in the real world before investing time, money and energy.
Over time, we discovered that that same logic of learning, validation, co-creation, and focus on purpose was just as powerful for managing innovation and transformation within companies and large organizations.
And in recent years—especially in volatile and highly uncertain contexts like the current one—the Scalabl® community has also discovered that the same principles allow us to achieve personal and professional goals: looking for a job, reinventing one's career, tackling projects, or advancing individual development.
Therefore, today I share with you how to apply the Scalabl® Methodology step by step to your job search.
Not to look for a job in a traditional way, compete against thousands of applicants and make it impossible to differentiate yourself, but to sell yourself as the real solution to a progress that companies are needing to achieve (and specifically, a person within that company is looking to achieve).
Nothing starts without asking yourself:
Why and why do I want this change?
How much do I want to earn, how many hours do I want to work, how do I want to live?
What strategic role will this work have in my life?
What kind of challenges, problems and people do I want to connect with?
What would I like to learn?
Without clear purpose, all action is scattered. Personal purpose is always your compass in business and career development. Only with that clarity is sustainable value built and the energy and resilience enabled to make it possible.
At Scalabl®, we design business models that serve as an intellectual framework to experiment, learn and adapt quickly to new information. We design them to position ourselves at the lowest level of risk, reducing investments and financing ourselves with clients (until the business is validated).
In essence, the model explains in a graphic and simple way what value the actors involved generate, exchange and receive. The power of the entrepreneur (and the job seeker) is to choose which actors we will incorporate into the model.
The key is to choose and focus on a segment of companies or leaders where you can really contribute something unique, helping to achieve a specific progress (a specific objective, transformation or problem that they need to solve).
Generate hypotheses, analyze alternatives, choose 1:
Who would be my ideal clients as a professional? Which companies, teams or leaders can I bring the most value to?
Who has a greater willingness to pay?
What kind of progress are you looking to achieve? What pains or problems do they face for not achieving it? What is at stake? What opportunities open up if they make that progress?
Where are they located? Who would you contact on LinkedIn?
How to structure my value proposition? How do I solve that problem and why is my solution credible? How do I exceed expectations?
What is the path from point A (dissatisfaction) to point B (expected result) that I can facilitate? How to increase the credibility of that result? How to exceed expectations?
Who do I compete against? What differentiates me from the rest for this segment and problem? (ideal to look for a segment without possible competition, or progress that is not being resolved).
Who do I know in or near the target segment? What network of contacts can I mobilize? Who can validate me, reference me or open doors for me?
The professional career is also built as a dynamic, open and impact-focused business model. The key is to collect insights or new information in the search process and adapt this same model.
Before selling yourself, the first thing is to talk to the actors, ask open questions and listen carefully. Lots of coffees or virtual coffees!
Schedule exploratory talks with leaders, decision-makers, recruiters, employees or representatives of the target companies
Inquire about your true challenges (progress to be made), pains, objectives and blockages.
Don't sell or promote yourself at this stage, don't fill the space, ask, listen with empathy and curiosity. Generate the relationship first.
If they ask you or the topic arises, you can clearly mention your purpose.
This step is the basis of all Scalabl® innovation: validate the problem and learn from others before proposing. Start from a need for real progress.
After understanding the problem in depth, we will work on refining our original value proposition and business model.
Here comes the interesting thing. Instead of "looking for work" we will present ourselves as independent, freelancers or entrepreneurs and we will offer the solution to the problem as a service.
Our MVP (minimum viable product) will be a pdf presenting ourselves and offering timely service, generating credibility of exceeding expectations. It is essential to show that we understand the desired progress and its importance.
We include the price, higher than that of an employee (per project, per hour, per x months).
The focus? Validate if we understood the desired progress, and if our solution is attractive. Ask open questions, refine the proposal later if necessary. Continue developing the relationship from a place of providing value.
That conversation based on the MVP will be the fastest and safest way to demonstrate your value (from a position of power, and not as one of thousands of competitors for a position, where the conditions are established by the company).
Adjust and Validate the Fit (how much the value proposition and the need fit)
As you talk and experiment, adjust your value proposition and target segment. Refine your business model and strategy. The fit happens when the other party asks you to move forward, recommends you or invites you to a formal collaboration.
When you feel confident that you are on the right track, it is time to add a prospecting and sales process.
Build a database with potential employers in the segment.
Design a series of steps (process) that lead to presenting the proposal (Linkedin message x? email with proposal? 1-on-1 meeting?). Iterate these steps until you reach an effective combination.
Start with a base of 300-500 potential employers. Start repeating the process. Learn, measure, improve it. Then scale. The key is quantity, iteration, quality and consistency.
And here comes the beauty! By selling yourself as a supplier and not applying as an employee, two things will happen:
They will offer to hire you as an employee (many more times than you imagine)
He will hire you more than 1 at a higher price (being able to grow as an entrepreneur and eventually delegate to others).
Remember: the roadmap arrives after listening and validation. Never before. But this stage of sales funnels is pure learning. Every new insight feeds back to the business model and your strategy.
Make yourself visible:
Work on your personal brand.
Share learnings, analysis and solutions on LinkedIn (tied to the progress you help enable)
Publish what you know how to do, show how you think and solve problems in your segment. Provide value with reels, articles. Always with confidence, not from the position of vulnerability of "I don't have a job" "I need help." "I know how to do everything for everyone."
Always relate. Virtual coffee and listening is the key tool. Consistency the greatest skill. Lean on your network.
The Scalabl® Methodology was born to undertake and create companies, then it transformed internal innovation in organizations, and today it also enhances your personal and professional development.
Define your purpose before acting (what do you want to achieve and why?)
Listen and learn what progress they need before selling you.
Don't stay in a world with fixed rules (traditional job search, infinite competition, seeking the approval of others) and approach the search entrepreneurially.
Co-create and validate your value with MVPs before offering (with the specific segment, not with friends or people who have nothing to do with it)
Consistency in the sales process (quantity, learning, iteration, courage, confidence and perseverance)
Make yourself visible, differentiate your voice and choose where and how to create impact.
Don't look for work. Be the solution to real progress that companies need today.
I hope it is useful. If you want to learn the methodology step by step, I recommend our Entrepreneurship and Innovation learning community. It's affordable, and if you're looking for a job, mention this article and I'll offer you a 20% discount.
