The Strategic Choice: Balancing Jobs to be Done with Industry Focus

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, entrepreneurs face a critical strategic decision: should they organize their go-to-market strategy around industry verticals or embrace the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) framework? Drawing on decades of experience in startup marketing and recent market developments, I've observed that the most successful companies aren't choosing between these approaches—they're masterfully integrating both to create sustainable competitive advantages.

The Evolution of Jobs to be Done Thinking

Tony Ulwick's pioneering work on Jobs to be Done has evolved from a customer-centric philosophy into a sophisticated framework for product strategy. Modern JTBD practitioners have expanded on Ulwick's foundation, recognizing that customers' core needs often transcend traditional industry boundaries. Companies like Slack and Zoom demonstrate this principle perfectly—they didn't just build better communication tools for specific industries; they identified universal "jobs" that cut across sectors: enabling seamless team collaboration and virtual connectivity.

The Hidden Costs of Vertical-First Thinking

While industry verticals remain important, recent market analysis reveals concerning patterns in vertical-focused strategies:

• Innovation Stagnation: Companies that over-index on vertical specialization often miss breakthrough opportunities that emerge from cross-industry insights.
• Technical Debt: Maintaining multiple vertical-specific features leads to exponentially growing maintenance costs and decreased agility.
• Market Vulnerability: Over-specialization in specific verticals can leave companies exposed when industry dynamics shift rapidly.

Consider Salesforce's journey. While they started in sales CRM, their true success came from identifying the universal "job" of managing customer relationships—a need that transcends industries. This insight allowed them to expand horizontally while selectively adding vertical-specific capabilities.

The Modern JTBD Approach: Universal Core, Vertical Extensions

Today's most effective product strategies typically follow a three-layer approach:

1. Universal Core: Build around fundamental jobs that remain consistent across industries
2. Configurable Middle: Create flexible frameworks that can adapt to industry contexts
3. Vertical Overlay: Add specific features and terminology for key verticals without compromising the core

This approach has proven particularly powerful in SaaS businesses. Take Monday.com as an example—their core job is work management. Still, they've created industry-specific templates and workflows that make their platform feel native to each vertical while maintaining a scalable core product.

Strategic Implementation: The Hybrid Framework

Modern implementation of this hybrid approach requires careful orchestration:

Phase 1: Job Discovery and Validation

• Map universal pain points across multiple verticals
• Identify common patterns in customer outcomes
• Validate that solutions can scale beyond initial verticals

Phase 2: Strategic Vertical Selection

Choose entry points based on:

• Job intensity (where is the pain most acute?)
• Market readiness
• Network effects potential
• Revenue opportunity

Phase 3: Balanced Execution

• Build core features that solve universal jobs
• Layer in vertical-specific configurations
• Maintain strict criteria for adding industry-specific features

Measuring Success in the Hybrid Model

Modern metrics for this approach should track both horizontal and vertical success:

• Cross-Vertical Adoption: How well does your core solution translate across industries?
• Vertical Penetration: How deeply are you serving specific industry needs?
• Feature Efficiency: What's the usage-to-maintenance ratio for vertical-specific features?

The Path Forward: Dynamic Balance

The future belongs to companies that can maintain this dynamic balance—solving universal jobs while speaking the language of specific verticals. This approach allows for:

• Rapid Scale: Core solutions that work across industries
• Defendable Positions: Deep understanding of vertical-specific needs
• Efficient Growth: Focused resource allocation to high-impact features

Strategic Clarity in a Complex Market

The choice between JTBD and industry verticals is no longer binary. Success comes from understanding how to layer these approaches effectively:

1. Start with clear job definitions that transcend industries
2. Build a robust, scalable core solution
3. Add vertical-specific elements strategically
4. Maintain balance through data-driven decision-making

By embracing this refined approach, companies can build products that are both broadly appealing and deeply relevant to specific industry needs—creating sustainable competitive advantages in increasingly crowded markets.