Make SaaS Products That Actually Sell

The way to get clarity on why customers will want to buy your SaaS software or your service packages is by understanding the job they're trying to get done. Your customers are stuck, and they need an expert like you to get them unstuck. By unlocking the mystery of what's making/keeping them stuck, you'll make better decisions, especially pricing decisions.

what is JTBD and How DOES IT RELATE TO SAAS?

"Jobs to be Done" (JTBD) is a customer discovery framework developed by Clayton Christensen, a professor who taught at Harvard Business School. This framework is based on the idea that people don’t “buy” products or services, but instead “hire” them. Thinking about your business from a "Jobs to be Done" perspective helps SaaS founders and service-focused entrepreneurs in particular understand the underlying motivations and goals of their customers. Your customers buy or 'hire" your SaaS product or expertise to help them overcome an obstacle they haven't been able to navigate on their own.

HOW JTBD differs from demographic info

For startup founders, it shifts the focus away from the traditional demographic or psychographic customer segments to identifying the common thread between all your customers from more of a functional, social, and emotional lens. What is actually driving a customer to hire your product? What does that decision-making process look like in their head? In doing so, you can better understand how your SaaS products and service offerings fit into their lives, and get “hired” for the job.

Your customers are stuck. This job to be done is the thing that's keeping them stuck. It can be anything that customers are trying to achieve, solve, or improve upon. The framework also suggests that customers don't necessarily buy products or services for their features, but because they help them make progress in their lives and address specific needs they have. Hear it from the man himself in this 4-minute video:

the key elements of the Jobs to be Done framework FOR SAAS Founders:

The job:

A job refers to the main task or goal that customers are trying to accomplish or the problem they are trying to solve. It represents the functional, social, or emotional progress they seek in their lives. For example, a job might be "figuring out prices for my product," "getting my house painted" or "finding a babysitter".

Needs and constraints:

Customer context:

Functional, emotional, and social dimensions:

By applying the Jobs to be Done framework, startup founders can gain insights into their customers' motivations, pain points, and unmet needs which allows them to design and position their products or services to better address the specific jobs customers want to be done. It also helps identify opportunities for innovation and uncover new market segments or under-served customer groups.

Overall, the Jobs to be Done framework provides a customer-focused approach that allows SaaS founders to go beyond the traditional demographics or product attributes and it enables you to understand and meet customers' underlying needs to be able to create SaaS products or coaching and consulting services that sell because they are aligned with the job their customers need to get done.