What Is Product Discovery and How Do You Run It?

In the vast majority of cases, 9 out of 10 new products fail the initial test with the actual users. Why is it? Based on the boldness of the very bright idea, the developers study the competitors on the spot, and following a pair of focus groups with the target audience, they design the prototype. When companies have enough funds, they introduce a product to the market and it is not long before they realize that something is amiss. This is because they failed to focus on one crucial step even prior to development of the product. The process of testing an idea regarding the market and its future users is called product discovery, and Product discovery process in the Agile team is the most widely used one in the software product team.

Product discovery is one of the approaches of having a profound insight into the customers so that you can come up with products that would satisfy their needs in total. It assists the team to recognize possible opportunities, come up with valuable and feasible products and also assists the company to stop spending valuable resources in projects which nobody is interested in. The discovery process, which led to the creation of the product, began in the early 2000s in response to the conventional product development process. In simple terms, the product discovery process consists of two separate elements:

• Exploration - exploration is a procedure that encompasses different activities including the identification of possible problems, communication with stakeholder as well as assessment of the existing products or services.
• Validation - prior to designing of the product, validation is a series of exercises, which scrutinize the assumptions taken in the exploratory phase. These are activities that are carried out through the aid of data and customer feedback.

In order to be effective the discovery should be broad and not technology or solution specific. In situations where the teams are working on a product that they have already determined to build, it is no longer a discovery, rather it has turned into a requirement gathering process or a inspection process in which teams want to know that their solution is the best.

The Three Spaces of Product Discovery

Preferably, the product discovery process operates in 3 spaces, problem, solution and business. It assists in addressing critical issues that will have a great impact on the future success of the product.

Product discovery is required where the team does not possess a clear picture on what the product is supposed to be constructed to do. That may result into creation of a defective product. The implementation of this process can be conducted under several situations:

• In case you are going to introduce a new product or service in another country, it is likely to have to find the proper audience and compete with the industry leaders
• You should first determine the ideal customer and the ideal product design before you embark on creating one new product
• In terms of product upgrading, one should consider inquiring what the new feature will be solving to your customers, and the product experience in general
• In some cases, organizations put together their different systems and tools to form one that is more efficient and effective

Misconceptions before product discovery

The problem with product development teams is that they are used to the idea of discovery as a process, and may fail to understand the role of discovery. It needs a humanistic, analytical and constantly changing attitude to create products that address real-world issues.

Although an outsourced company might assist in product discovery, it is still notable that the entire process is still inclusive of all the people involved. This way, it will aid in ensuring that the findings can be acted upon and the appropriate solutions are found.

A product team is generally made up of cross-functional members of the team. Product management, marketing and user experience are some of these duties.

Above are just some of the most popular product team organization structures. However, one should bear in mind that there is no one-size-all formula of product teams. Rather, members of the team can be organized around some product or some line of business.

The process of product discovery is developed into phases, and this structure is used by the majority of startups. In so doing, teams are able to internalize the process and ensure that they do not have to repeat the same steps over and over again.

1. Identifying the objectives and values of developing a product

It may consist of the following:

• Personal goals of the Founders
• Goals of a business or organisation
• Product principles

A business may begin by opening up to an opportunity or a business problem that the Founders desire to solve. This is a good starting point. Nonetheless, it is even more crucial to ensure that the solution provides desired result, is of value to the users, and is deliverable.

2. Evaluation of the capabilities of the product

It is possible to evaluate the capabilities of the product by answering the questions:

• What specific problem does the product solve? (value proposition)
• Who are we solving this problem for? (target market)
• How will we measure success? (business metrics)
• How big are the opportunities? (market size)
• What are the alternatives? (current competitors)
• Why is our product better than the rest in solving the problem? (our differences)
• Why is now the right time? (market window)
• How will we launch the product? (exit strategy)
• What factors are critical to success? (requirements and risks)

3. Select the critical issue to be addressed

The discovery process will help uncover several validated user issues and dismiss many other issues. Each of these problems is capable of creating value to the user and the business, but the value will not be realized until we find a solution.

4. Identifying important customers and users

Identification, description, and choose the important customers and users at each stage of development is a significant aspect of the work on the vision and product, and it is helpful to involve all the product team in this process in the case it is already formed.

5. Carrying out user research

Surveys and interviews are the most popular and common strategies of doing user research. One of the methods is an interview, which is conducted to know a potential customer better - beliefs, attitude and experiences.

Popular research techniques:

• Attitudinal research - to interpret or comprehend the attitude of the user. It lays emphasis on action and performance
• Behavioral research - to know how the users behave. Can be done through interviewing people on product
• Quantitative research - this is the process where large quantities of data are gathered using surveys, questionnaires and polling as means of analyzing numerical data to draw a statistical conclusion
• Qualitative research - This type of research involves the gathering and analysis of non-numerical data (e.g., text, video or audio) to gain an understanding of concepts, opinions, or experiences

Objects of this exercise:

• To ensure that there is a problem
• Find out the way that a problem is solved at the moment
• Get ideas on how to solve a problem

6. Creating a map of interaction with the product

Essentially, a requirements model is a high-level, multi-dimensional, requirements model describing product usage scenarios. The tool can be used in feature design brainstorming and release scoping.

7. Prototyping

A prototype is a collection of images that demonstrates how your future application will look. It is used as a visual depiction of the final design and navigation of the product. Although it might seem to be an elementary form, a prototype is not a product and can not be offered to real users.

8. Selecting a minimum viable product (MVP)

At the end of the last step, develop a connotation of the least amount of functionality that will be useful to hand over to the market. The minimum viable product represents a type of end product which lacks numerous features, does not have high code quality and has a small design. Examples of successful MVPs:

• Airbnb - In the case of Airbnb, the founders used their own apartments when they chose to establish a short-term house rental market. They have created a web site and posted pictures of their property
• Foursquare - Foursquare began as a single feature application but gained a following fast. Only when the company started to include some features like recommendations and city guides, it turned into a full-fledged product

9. Testing

Testing assists in establishing whether the solution that is presented is capable of solving the problem. Customer interviews, product beta testing and user testing are some of the popular tools.

The process does not merely entail idea testing. It is also useful in collecting valuable information which will assist you in developing your product. Consequently, you will receive:

• Clarity of problem statement
• Business value
• User personas
• User-needs statements
• User-journey maps
• Functionality features
• Working wireframes

The entire product discovery is focused throughout cross-functional teamwork of product, design and engineering. And these are projected onto Agile principles. The method of Agile is typically used by software product teams.

Tips to effectively integrate product discovery in Agile:

• Begin by co-operating among the product manager, product designer/researcher and engineers
• Establish some discovery time, during which the team would be able to collaborate
• The stakeholders are individuals who are capable of supporting important information that can be employed to shape up an idea or a prospective issue

Engaging stakeholders options:

• Set a discovery demo - demonstration of the progress of the team, problems of investigation, receive feedbacks
• Set asynchronous communication - emails, chat messages can be used at any times each stage to contact the team

These sprints have particular meetings to monitor work process. These are also referred to as Planning, Grooming, demo and Retro. This is one of the ways in which the discovery framework may be integrated in a sprint. Tasks are scheduled on a quarterly basis by the team and particularly by the product manager. It may begin with 5-10 issues leading to the discovery cycle. The team will have those 5-10 features defined and assessed after the first quarter and prior to the planning of the next meeting.

The process of agile product discovery is a challenging experience that entails the identification and cultivation of a profound knowledge about the customers. Its purpose is to create as much value as possible to the customer and your business. In addition, it assists product teams to focus and create great products. In the case of a new product, the product discovery process must begin as soon as it can. In such a way, this will assist in accumulating sufficient data to build a strategy and create a roadmap. A clear goal and a team structure should be established before the process starts. This way, it is possible to avoid time wastage and narrow down the process to several important steps.