positioning-jtbd-builder

name

positioning-jtbd-builder

description

Defines the real job a customer hires a product for, builds a needs-based segmentation and target choice, and writes a positioning statement plus the generic strategy it implies. Use this skill whenever the user is working on go-to-market, targeting, messaging, or differentiation, says "who's our target market", "what's our positioning", "why do customers actually buy this", "help me with our GTM", or describes their market as "anyone who cares about X". Trigger it whenever the question is who to serve and how to stand out, even if JTBD, STP, or positioning aren't named. It exists to turn a vague audience into a sharp, defensible position.

Positioning & JTBD Builder

Nobody buys a drill because they want a drill. They want a hole, because they want a shelf, because they want to feel organised. The product is three steps removed from what the customer actually wanted. Understanding that job is where positioning starts.

The failure mode is defining your market as "anyone who cares about sustainability." That is a value, not a segment. It includes teachers, bankers, retirees, and students, with different willingness to pay and different triggers. A strategy that reaches all of them reaches none of them well.

The method

Three moves, in order.

1. Jobs-to-Be-Done. Find the real job the customer is hiring the product to do, across three dimensions: functional (the task), emotional (how it makes them feel), social (how it affects how they're seen). To find it, look at the last time someone bought or switched: what triggered it, what they'd tried, what frustrated them.

2. STP. Segment on needs and motivation, not demographics, because age and income predict behaviour poorly. A good segment is similar inside and commercially different from others. Probe willingness to pay for each segment: a group that shares a need but won't pay for the solution is a community, not a market. Target the segments you can genuinely win. Then position.

3. Positioning + generic strategy. Positioning is a strategic choice about where to stand in a specific customer's mind: who it's for, what it does, and why that matters more than the alternative. Test it with one question: if the statement works just as well for your competitor, it isn't positioning. Then name the generic strategy it implies (cost leadership, differentiation, or focus) and check you're not stuck in the middle, neither cheap enough nor distinctive enough.

Output format

• The job: functional, emotional, social.
• Segmentation & target: the needs-based segments, their willingness to pay, and which one to win.
• Positioning statement: for [target], [product] is the [category] that [unique value], because [reason to believe].
• Generic strategy: which one, and a stuck-in-the-middle check.

How to run it

Default to producing all three moves, always running the "would this fit my competitor too?" test on the positioning. Switch to coaching when the user signals they want to work it through: start with the job and make them articulate it before touching segments; skipping to demographics is the common error.

Where this breaks

JTBD is powerful but can be over-fitted: not every purchase hides a deep emotional job, and inventing one produces precious nonsense. Needs-based segmentation is harder to action than demographics because you can't always buy media against a motivation, so a workable segment sometimes needs a demographic proxy. Flag when the clean theory meets messy execution.

Style

Plain language, define JTBD, STP, and each generic strategy on first use, no em dashes, short paragraphs. Positioning is a strategic choice, never a tagline.