Why 'Better' Features Won't Save You: The Innovator's Dilemma in SaaS

The Trap of "Sustaining Innovation"

Most SaaS founders fall into the trap of Sustaining Innovation: they look at a competitor, list their features, and try to build a "better" version. Better UI, slightly faster, one extra integration.

According to Harvard Business School logic, this is a losing battle for an entrant. Incumbents always win sustaining battles because they have more resources to throw at "better". To win, you need Disruptive Innovation.

1. Jobs to be Done (JTBD)

Clay Christensen famously taught: "Customers don't buy products; they hire them to do a job."

When a user signs up for your SaaS, they aren't buying "database management". They are hiring you to "reduce the anxiety of losing customer data" or "impress their boss with a quarterly report".

The Milkshake Example: A fast-food chain tried to improve their milkshakes by making them thicker and sweeter. Sales didn't move. When they analyzed the job, they found people hired milkshakes at 8:00 AM to make their boring commute interesting. The competitor wasn't another milkshake; it was a banana or a bagel.

Applying this to Code:

Don't build features. Build "Resume enhancements" for your users. If your dashboard helps a mid-level manager show ROI to their VP, that is the job. optimize for that output, not just "cleaner charts".

2. Low-End Disruption

Disruption rarely comes from the high end. It comes from the bottom. Disruptive innovations are usually simpler, cheaper, and more accessible than the status quo, appealing to "non-consumers".

Salesforce didn't disrupt Siebel Systems by being more powerful. It disrupted them by being "good enough" for small businesses that couldn't afford a $1M on-premise server. By the time Siebel woke up, Salesforce had moved upmarket.

Conclusion: De-Risking Your Build

At Dazzcode, we don't just take a spec sheet. We ask: "What is the Job to be Done?" and "Are we over-serving or under-serving the market?".

If you build a feature-rich clone of a market leader, you will fail. If you build a simple tool that allows non-consumers to do a job they couldn't do before, you build a monopoly.