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If you’re building or marketing a SaaS product, you’ve likely grappled with how to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Features are important, but they’re no longer enough. That’s where Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) can become a foundational tool for strategic SaaS positioning. This customer-centric framework helps you uncover the deeper motivations behind why users are choosing — or switching — to your software. It’s not just about what they are using; it’s about what job they are hiring your product to do.
What Is Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD)?
The JTBD framework is a way of understanding customer behavior that goes beyond demographic data or usage stats. At its core, JTBD argues that customers “hire” a product or service to get a specific job done. That “job” might be functional, like streamlining a payroll process, or emotional, like impressing a new boss. Understanding the job — not just the user — allows companies to build and position solutions that fit actual needs instead of superficial assumptions.
As Clayton Christensen, one of the key evangelists of JTBD, demonstrated in his famous “milkshake” example, it’s not always the most obvious features that drive customer choices. People buy milkshakes not just for taste, but for the functional job of making a long commute bearable. Likewise, your SaaS product might not just be a project management tool — it might be the missing piece in someone’s quest to reduce email chaos or regain control of their day.
Why Traditional SaaS Positioning Often Fails
SaaS marketers often default to positioning based on:
- Competitive comparisons (“We’re like Slack but with smarter automation”)
- Feature sets (“Real-time dashboards, customizable workflows, etc.”)
- Target personas (“Designed for digital marketing managers in mid-sized agencies”)
While these methods can help in the short term, they frequently fail to resonate emotionally or practically with end-users. The problem isn’t that they’re wrong — it’s that they’re surface-level. Without connecting to the actual job a user wants done, you end up with shallow positioning that can be easily disrupted by the next competitor with shinier features or louder branding.
How JTBD Transforms SaaS Positioning
By shifting your positioning framework to JTBD, you focus on what truly matters to users: outcomes. This puts you in a far better place to build messaging and products that solve real problems in meaningful ways.
Let’s explore how JTBD transforms positioning in several key areas:
1. Messaging That Resonates
Traditional messaging often focuses on product capabilities. JTBD-inspired messaging begins with what customers are trying to achieve. For example:
- Traditional: “Collaborate with your team in real-time.”
- JTBD-driven: “Stay in sync with your team — without unnecessary meetings.”
The latter speaks directly to the *desired outcome*, not just the *mechanism*.
2. Better Segmentation
Instead of segmenting by industries or company sizes, JTBD allows you to segment by jobs. For example, multiple personas — a product manager, a founder, or a marketing director — may all be “hiring” your SaaS tool to coordinate product releases. JTBD reveals that they don’t need vastly different products — they need clear workflows, stakeholder visibility, and timely reminders.
3. Reduces Churn
If you know why someone hired your product, you’re in a far better position to make sure they succeed. SaaS companies that build onboarding and success paths around key jobs to be done are far more likely to keep their customers engaged.
4. Informs Roadmap Priorities
Product decisions based on JTBD are more strategic. Instead of building fancy features that only some users exploit, you invest in capabilities that make the core job faster, easier, or more affordable. This results in higher return on effort and better customer loyalty.
Identifying Your Customers’ Jobs
Understanding the real “job” behind customer use cases requires more than intuition. Here are some popular JTBD discovery techniques:
- Customer Interviews: Ask customers when they decided to purchase, what led them to look for a solution, and what problem they were trying to solve.
- Force Field Analysis: Map the forces pushing the customer toward or away from a solution, including anxieties, inertia, and desired gains.
- Job Stories: Instead of personas, write job stories like “When I’m launching a new feature and need to coordinate multiple teams, I want a tool that helps me avoid Slack overload, so I can ship quickly with fewer meetings.”
Real-World Examples of JTBD in SaaS
Let’s look at a few SaaS companies that have used JTBD to sharpen their positioning:
Intercom
Intercom initially started as a user messaging tool, but their real JTBD was about helping SaaS companies “convert, onboard, and support” users. By aligning their marketing around those jobs, they transitioned from a general chat tool to an essential customer lifecycle product.
Calendly
Users don’t hire Calendly just to book meetings. They hire it to eliminate the awkward back-and-forth of scheduling. Calendly’s entire positioning focuses on the job of simplifying and streamlining scheduling, not just managing calendars.
Creating Your JTBD-Based SaaS Positioning
If you’re ready to try JTBD positioning for your SaaS product, here’s a step-by-step checklist to guide the process:
- Conduct Deep Interviews: Start with 10–15 in-depth user interviews. Focus on the purchase decision moment and what triggered them to seek a solution.
- Map Jobs: Identify core functional, emotional, and social jobs. Look for overlaps and common patterns.
- Craft Job Stories: Use the “When…I want to…So I can…” format to clarify user motivations.
- Update Messaging: Reflect those jobs in your homepage headlines, product descriptions, and even pricing page.
- Re-evaluate Product Features: Ask yourself if your current roadmap aligns with enabling the most critical jobs.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Over-Simplifying the Job: Users often have layered motivations. Focusing only on the functional parts can lead to dry messaging and missed opportunities.
- Confusing Jobs with Features: A “job” is not “generate a PDF.” It’s “create a report that impresses my boss.”
- Relying Only on Personas: Combine JTBD with personas, but don’t let demographics override outcome-based insights.
Conclusion: JTBD Is Your Positioning Superpower
Great SaaS products don’t just “do things.” They help people get things done. By aligning your positioning with Jobs-to-Be-Done, you uncover the sharper language, laser-focused user journeys, and smarter growth paths that resonate and differentiate.
Whether you’re launching a new product, repositioning to tackle new verticals, or simply trying to reduce churn, JTBD offers a lens that lets you see what your customers see — and more importantly, why they care. If traditional positioning feels like it’s no longer working, maybe it’s time to ask a better question: “What job are we really being hired to do?”
