Product Discovery Guide Series : Intro

In this guide, I share my experience leading real product discoveries and explain how to combine various techniques to successfully conduct product discovery.

This article is part of Product Discovery Guide Series:

Topic • Overloaded Customer Care

1. Product Discovery Guide Series : Intro
2. Product Discovery Guide: Identify the problem
3. Product Discovery Guide : Desk research and goals
4. Product discovery guide : Brainstorm and Prioritise
5. Product discovery guide : Plan, Deliver and Evaluate

In my experience, the most effective way to approach product discovery is through hands-on experimentation and self-guided learning. However, this can be challenging, as there is a risk that the chosen technique may not be suitable for your specific purpose, and it can be difficult to know how to facilitate or select the most appropriate technique.

In this series I will introduce you to my discoveries I was leading and show you which techniques I tried, how I facilitated the workshops and what are the learnings I took from them.

What is product discovery?

Product discovery is process where you start with problem / opportunity, get to the bottom of it, understand the root causes, user needs, ideate the possible solutions, validate the ideas and prioritise them. Outcome from product discovery is solution which has the best chance to solve the problem or challenge and is ready to be delivered to users.

From problem to solution | Product discovery process

From my experience product discovery never ends, it's not just about delivering one solution for one problem and then jump to another topic. We do small product discoveries every day as product managers, as long as you have the right mindset, every day is product discovery day.

Product discovery stages:

1. Discover: frame and understand the problem
2. Define: identify the opportunities and goals
3. Develop: explore the solutions
4. Deliver: validate and learn

Sounds familiar? These are the main stages of Double Diamond. I won’t go in detail Double Diamond, this series is not about explaining the theory of Double diamond and there are already hundreds of articles which explain the process at its best. But it’s important to understand the basics before we move to how to use them in real life.

How to get the most out of product discovery?

1. Experiment and be ready to fail
   My first and the most important advice is Don’t be afraid to experiment with new techniques, whole discovery process is about finding not just the right solution but also finding blind branches including techniques which might not work for you.
2. Get the right people
   Product discovery isn't one (wo)man show, quite the opposite. More people, better results. Core participants of product discovery should be Product manager, UX Designer, UX Researcher. Depending on the type of problem / opportunity I bring more specialist for certain part of discovery: BI Analyst, Representant from Customer Care, UX Writer, Developers. For any workshop I recommend to have maximum 7–8 people, otherwise it gets too complicated and hard to facilitate.
3. Reserve the time
   Product discovery requires time and focus. If you are doing it as “side job”, it's gonna drag on forever which goes against the purpose of product discovery “Fail fast, learn fast”. Make sure you have planned the capacities for all participants and they all are committed to it.
4. Get the right attitude
   Be ready that it can get wrong, you may stuck for a while. Make sure the whole team understand the purpose, the goal and they are ready to find the ways with you. If you have people who don't believe in the process, you'll have hard time through the whole discovery and it can ruin the outcome and the enthusiasm.
5. Do not overcomplicate it
   Product discovery may sound like complicated and time consuming process but you can do small discovery within one week with few techniques. Start small, try something simple, you don't have to do extensive product discovery for everything with dozens techniques and researches. Keep reading and I'll show the easiest discovery everybody can do, even the beginners.
6. Have fun!
   Product discovery can be frustrating, long, full of uncertainty and blind spots but with the right attitude is fun. Don't forget to include some fun stuff into your workshops, games, if people are having fun while working, it leads to best outcomes.

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Product Discovery Guide: Identify the problem