Product Discovery

This is the first in a series to help you execute a process called product discovery that will increase your product’s odds of success. Before we start, please note:  this article and those that follow, present a sequence of steps that a product manager would typically follow. However, every product and team is different so we encourage you to adapt this process as needed. Feel free to choose your own sequence or even skip certain steps if you feel they don’t apply to you.

What is Product Discovery?

Product discovery is a process that increases the odds of product success. It attempts to answer the question: what should we build and for whom? Product discovery starts with the basic assumption that no matter how well you think you know your customer, you still face a number of risks when starting out. In product discovery, we define these risks as follows:

1. Value risk – Will customers choose to pay for your product (or become regular users if the product is free)?

2. Usability risk  – Is your product designed in such a way that customers will be able to use it efficiently and enjoyably?

3. Feasibility risk – Will your team be able to build and maintain the product given your available time and resources?

4. Business viability risk – Does your product support the company’s business goals?

With product discovery you can reduce these risks before you spend money developing or launching your product. Ignoring or shortcutting the discovery process can result in excessively high risks in or more of these areas. This, in turn, increases the likelihood that your product will fail or possibly never even launch.

Problem vs. Solution Space

At the beginning of product discovery, you will be alternating frequently between two modes of thought: what is the problem I am trying to solve and what is the solution to that problem? We call these the problem and solution spaces. As you gain clarity around the problem, you will spend more time in the solution space. That said, it is crucial to make sure you correctly identify the problem or your solution will be worthless.

Hypotheses Validation

One way to think of product discovery is like a laboratory in which you'll be running a series of experiments. As with scientific experiments, you'll use product discovery experiments to test hypotheses about the problem and solution you are working on. In designing these experiments, you must make sure that you are able to capture the necessary data to determine if your hypothesis is true or false. We call this process hypothesis validation. In general, as you move through product discovery, you will want to test your riskiest hypotheses at each stage. This way, you minimize the odds of a high risk issue coming back to bite you later in the process.

Discovery Techniques

Over the years a number of effective discovery techniques have been invented and more are still being created.  In this series we review some of the most popular and effective techniques.

Choosing the right technique depends on the type of product you are building, your market, available resources, and other factors. But no matter which technique you use, product discovery is all about “getting out of the building” and testing your ideas with real customers. The below diagram lays out the basic approaches.

Continuous Discovery

Discovery is a continuous process –  Launching your product doesn’t mean the end of the discovery process. In fact, this is really just a new beginning.  As you receive customer feedback you will uncover even more problems and opportunities that your product can address. Likewise, you will discover adjacent problems that your product can expand into. Take Amazon for example. Amazon started by selling books, then added CDs, then DVDs and ultimately nearly everything. Continous discovery is also a cyclical approach. Each user time a user interacts with your product, sends you feedback or even complains is an opportunity for improvement. This is often called the "Build-Measure-Learn" cycle.

A Never Ending Journey

Discovery is a journey –  As the term “discovery” implies, the product we are seeking already exists and our job is to conceptualize and define it.  But discovery is rarely a straight path. Be prepared for detours, meandering and even going in circles. This can feel unsettling, but rest assured, if you follow these steps, you will always be getting closer to your final destination. 

Collaboration Matters!

Discovery is multi-disciplinary –  Great products result from tight collaboration between engineering, design, marketing and product management. Make sure these team members are an integral part of your discovery process. 

Next Up – Discovery Interviews

We hope you found this article useful. Next in the series we dive into the customer discovery interviews – the best place to start your product discovery journey.