Get better at Product Discovery by defining your starting point
Differentiate between two types of discovery in order to approach them more effectively
Product Discovery — its meaning, purpose, and toolkits — has consumed my life as a User Research Lead recently as my team has been rethinking how to take our practice to the next level.
In the first of three articles on the topic, I’ll propose that we approach product discovery by categorising it in one of two buckets and that we stop throwing the word around interchangeably.
There comes a time in every product person’s life when everything around them seems to revolve around how to do more discovery — better, faster, stronger discovery (nods to Daft Punk are completely intentional).
However, taking a closer look at the things you and your colleagues are in the process of discovering can reveal categorical differences in the types of questions being posed, the scope of opportunities being looked at and the tools and frameworks applied to them — to varying degrees of success.
This is why, while supporting a recent organisational review of practices and ways of working, my researcher’s instinct was to go back to the what before jumping to the always much sexier how. Here’s how I broke it down for my colleagues across product and tech.
💪 Opportunity Space Discovery vs Solution Space Discovery
At its very foundation, the process of product discovery is about derisking the four big product risks, which I expect we can all recite in our sleep by now:
- Customer value — do users have a need for it, will they choose to use it or buy it
- Usability — can users actually use it
- Technical feasibility — can we build what we need with the time, skills and technology at hand
- Business viability — can it work for the various aspects of our business
But is this enough to give you structure when you may be wondering what the user problems are for a brand new audience or you may be looking at opportunities around providing new products to your existing type of customer?
For this reason, I proposed that we differentiate between what I’m calling Opportunity Space Discovery and Solution Space Discovery.
Opportunity Space Discovery
In Opportunity Space Discovery we are discovering which user problem, or opportunity, is worth pursuing. We are testing whether a user problem…
a) really exists the way we think it does
b) is big enough
c) is a good opportunity for us to go after as a business (i.e. is viable and feasible)
d) achieves the outcome we are after
… and — and this is very important! — we are pitting these opportunities against each other and at pace.
- This is discovery in an unknown and, as such, unstructured space
- The outcome of Opportunity Space Discovery is evidence that solving for a particular user problem, or opportunity, hits the sweet spot between customer value, business viability and technical feasibility against the success outcome we set out with in the beginning
Solution Space Discovery
- In Solution Space Discovery we have evidence about a user problem being worth pursuing so we are discovering the best solution for it
- We are testing between and/or refining solutions for a user problem that has been identified as a good opportunity
- This discovery can either be the next step of Opportunity Space Discovery, when an opportunity has made the cut, or this is also where we may be adding to or improving on our existing products, experiences and services
- This is discovery in a more known space that we have some existing knowledge of or experience with
- The outcome of Solution Space Discovery is a usable solution which performs the way we set out for it to perform
(I owe a lot of my approach to Opportunity Space Discovery to Teresa Torres — do read her bestselling book “Continuous Discovery Habits: How to Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value” if you haven’t already. I had the honour of being coached by her in 2019 and base a lot of my daily thinking around product discovery on the learnings from this experience. I do veer away from it in separating the two types of discovery and in my approach to Solution Discovery, where I still use to an extent the double diamond framework, but I will expand on the whats and hows of that in the next two articles.)
📦 Let’s unpack
Define what you’re really looking to discover
The main reason why I started making a distinction between the two types of discovery is because categorising the challenge you’re being faced with properly is what can make or break your subsequent discovery effort, and especially the expectations that are put on it by your stakeholders. In other words, I started doing this because I’ve been, um, broken on more than one occasion.
Depending on where your organisation is with its product and strategy, you may be working on one type of challenge more than another or you may have a mix of both on the table. What’s more, oftentimes a challenge will be presented to you and your team packaged as one type of challenge when it really is the other. Being able to approach it with a critical eye is your first job.
Oftentimes a discovery challenge will be presented to you and your team packaged as one type of challenge when it really is the other. Being able to approach it with a critical eye is your first job.
In my experience, Opportunity Discovery challenges get packaged as Solution Discovery challenges a lot more than vice versa. You’re often given a presented-as-validated opportunity space and set off on a journey of discovering the best solution for it… but there’s nothing validated about the opportunity to begin with, that is the assumption that there’s a real user problem is still just an assumption. The very foundational intersection between value, viability and feasibility has not been found, not to mention that it hasn’t been compared to other potential opportunities that may be much better at achieving the ultimate strategic goal. But you’re being asked to solve it, stat.
A few years ago, my former teammate and Product Data Analyst extraordinaire Rosie Kipling created this matrix, now a classic running joke between friends:
I’m sure we all have plenty of experience with stakeholders expecting “quick wins” but starting from the wrong definition of your discovery challenge is a surefire way to set yourself on the path to a slow, slow lose.
Risk focus
Once more for those in the back, all four product risks don’t have the same weight in the two types of discovery.
In Opportunity Discovery, your biggest problems are in the realm of customer value, business viability and technical feasibility and they are very big problems. The three risks are in a constant state of flux, while also functioning as levers-from-hell against each other.
De-risking a crucial assumption in the value bucket may throw off the viability assumption bucket in its entirety but it may also point you in a new viability direction. But how does the new direction interact with the technical feasibility and investment on the table? Exactly, hell (but fun nonetheless).
Usability only enters the picture in Solution Discovery because why would you care if a customer can use something if it’s a costly technical nightmare to build which doesn’t work with our business model and, oh, users have no need for it to begin with?
Outcomes
The outcome of Opportunity Discovery is having an opportunity, i.e. a user problem, that is worth us pursuing instead of aaall the other ones we could be going after because we got solid evidence that it has strong customer value, can be built within our technical landscape and makes the money that it needs to make.
The alternative but just as important outcome of Opportunity Discovery is the decision to scrap this area of opportunity altogether before investing any more in it because the sweet spot simply does not exist. Yes, finding out there’s no sweet spot is also a success because it spares you the slow lose down the line.
The outcome of Solution Discovery is, well, a usable solution. The solution is of course still feasible and viable but the latter are ongoing considerations in the solution’s discovery rather than headache-inducing dealbreakers.
The distinction is important also because some discovery frameworks and toolkits are more appropriate for achieving the Opportunity Discovery outcome, while others will make your life easier in Solution Discovery.
I’m saying this as someone who’s personally suffered the bruised ego of using the wrong approach, insisting that it’s a good approach that’s led me to success before and wondering why this time is any different.
In Opportunity Discovery, the mountain of untested risky assumptions you’re starting from means analysis paralysis can get very real, very quickly. Traditional user research approaches are clunky and ineffective here. A second ago I used the phrase “just enough evidence” on purpose because in this space experimenting for validation will throw you off course.
As my former product team reported to continuous discovery guru Teresa Torres back in 2020, the mindset of “just enough evidence” and making “two-way door decisions” were a game-changer when it came to building our Opportunity Discovery muscle and a great shift in critical thinking (I’ll expand on that in the next article).
In contrast, Solution Discovery is where you may still find yourself using the iconic-for-a-reason double diamond approach. Blasphemy, I hear you say! The double diamond is a framework specifically designed for innovation, you tell me. Sure, but in my experience it’s been a workable innovation vehicle when some variable of the equation was already known or already existed. Once the question was more along the lines of “uh, is there an equation here or what?”, I’ve found the framework falling short (more on this in the third and final article).
In summary, Opportunity Discovery is a juggle between user problems. Solution Discovery is a journey to a successfully solved user problem.
So far, so good — but not enough.
In the next two parts in the series I’ll spend time putting more individual focus on Opportunity and Solution Discovery — my favourite discovery techniques to apply to them and lessons learned the hard way.
Hit the follow button if you don’t want to miss them and tell me more about how you approach your discovery problems in the comments.
Edit with links to the rest of the articles:
