So, what is Product Discovery? Link to heading
Product discovery is a way of deciding whether a product, a service or a feature is worth the effort. After all, you spend your time, money and mental stability to develop a product. You need to choose the product you’ll develop delicately.
There are too many ways to run the product discovery process. Some say there are 4 phases, some say 5, some say 6 or more. I’ll follow Double Diamond phases, which are Discovery, Design, Develop and Delivery.
Phase 1: Discovery
The discovery phase is where you uncover the problem or the need. You may use Journey Mapping, Empathy Map, Persona etc. to discover the problem or the need. I’ll use good old interviewing for this phase. Don’t forget we want to understand the problem, not find a solution. So, ask lots of questions, listen to your stakeholders and observe how they manage the situation in the current system.
Let’s say we want to build a new spaceship that we called Voyager. To decide if it is worth building in the beginning, we need to ask ourselves (in our case we are the product manager, the customer, and all other stakeholders) the ultimate question. WHY? You may say “It’s not the only interrogative”. Yes, but it’s the Ultimate one. What do I mean? You can ask a why question anywhere and reveal the undercover reasons. I’m gonna give you an example.
Answer 0: We want to reach the planet Descartes.
It may look like the need is building a ship but as we see here it’s not. So, keep asking the Ultimate Interrogative.
Q 1: Why do we want to reach the Descartes.
A 1: Because we want to discover the unknown of the Descartes’s desserts and we want to be the first people who went to the Descartes.
We learned that the Descartes is a sandy planet and we want to send a couple of people, not aliens or creatures or walking plants. Don’t we?
Q 2: How long is the distance between the Earth and the Descartes?
A 2: 6 light year.
Q 3: How many people will be in the Voyager and what responsibilities will they have?
A 3: 6 people will be in the ship. One pilot and a co-pilot, a geologist, a botanist, a doctor and a cook.
And here is the Ultimate Interrogative again.
Q 4: Why do we need to send 6 people to the Descartes?
A 4: Pilot will navigate the ship and co-pilot will assist the pilot, geologist will examine the terra, botanist will analyze flora, doctor will do doctoring and someone has to cook.
Q 5: Why do you need an extra person to cook?
A 5: You know… Alright, no cook.
So, we need to build with 5 person capacities and enough space to cover a 6 light year supply spaceship. Wow, 6 light year huh.
Q 6: Wait. Will these people ever come back?
A 6: :)
P.S: You may want to clarify all the details, so dive deeper and ask more questions. After all, aren’t we explorers?
Okay, this was the clips of phase one, but it’s not the only time you ask questions. You may have more questions in the process. It’s important you ask and get answers to all your questions. Because you’re not building this ship only for yourself (if that will be what you develop). You’re building to all your stakeholders.
In some cases, stakeholders don’t involve enough in product discovery phases and this may cause products to fail. So, try to include all your stakeholders, keep them in the game and don’t let them become disinterested about the product.
Before jumping to the next phase, I’d like to answer some questions you may have. If you’re thinking ‘I have an idea. Why would I start with phase one? Can’t I just jump to phase 2?’. The answer is ‘You should’t’. You have an idea ‘cause you think that idea will solve a problem or meet a need. But to validate this thought you need phase 1, you need data. In the example above we start with an idea, building a spaceship. But with product discovery we may find better ideas than your initial idea. Like being beamed up., you’ll never know. But to find better ideas you need insights ergo phase one.
If you’re thinking ‘I don’t have an idea but I want to develop a good product. How can I come up with an idea?’. Look around, ask your friend, family, your barber. There are lots of problems we face or needs we have. Choose one and go with it. You don’t have to have an idea to discover a product.