Continuous Discovery Habits

Highlights

• good problem-solvers try out many framings, exploring how each impacts the solution space.6
• Good discovery doesn’t prevent us from failing; it simply reduces the chance of failures.
• The problem space and the solution space evolve together.
• Product teams often have to do some discovery work to identify the connections between product outcomes (the metrics they can influence) and business outcomes (the metrics that drive the business).
  • Tags: [[product-management]]
• A business outcome measures how well the business is progressing.
• A product outcome measures how well the product is moving the business forward.
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• A traction metric measures usage of a specific feature or workflow in the product.
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• The key is to use traction metrics only when you are optimizing a solution and not when the intent is to discover new solutions. In those instances, a product outcome is a better fit.
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• Limiting our work to only the opportunities that might drive our desired outcome is what ensures that our products are viable over the long run and not just desirable in the moment.
• The hard reality is that product strategy doesn’t happen in the solution space.
  • Tags: [[product-management]]
• Product strategy happens in the opportunity space.
• Depending on the competitive landscape, some opportunities might be table stakes, while others might be strategic differentiators.
• Runa Korde and Paul Paulus, researchers at the University of Texas-Arlington, ran a series of studies that showed alternating between individual ideation and group sharing of ideas can improve the quality of ideas generated in subsequent individual ideation sessions.
  • Tags: [[brainstorming]] [[product-management]]
• This pace is possible only when we step away from the concept of testing ideas and instead focus on testing the assumptions that need to be true in order for our ideas to succeed.
  • Tags: [[product-management]]
• We need to do just enough research to mitigate the risk that our companies cannot bear and no more.