Product discovery is the first step in developing a product, but it does more than just start the process. It helps you decide if the product is worth making and guides how you build it. It also affects every decision you make during development.

Creating a new product or feature is hard and expensive. Many companies discover too late that they misunderstood what users actually need, resulting in products and features that are rarely used. The wasted time, resources, and effort on solving a problem that doesn’t exist or a minor problem can cause the product idea, or even the company, to fail completely.

Product discovery is about reducing risks by understanding what users really need before building anything. This helps product managers suggest good solutions and decide if an idea is worth pursuing. Finding problems early on is important because it makes it easier and cheaper to improve solutions or drop bad ideas.

The main goal is to create the right things rather than just making things correctly.

“FIRST, YOU NEED TO DISCOVER WHETHER THERE ARE REAL USERS OUT THERE THAT WANT THIS PRODUCT… SECOND, YOU NEED TO DISCOVER A PRODUCT SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM THAT IS USABLE, USEFUL, AND FEASIBLE.”
                                                                                                                              – Marty Cagan

Where did product discovery come from?

The idea of product discovery started in the 90s. Back then, companies spent lots of money on marketing to convince people to buy their products. But many of these products failed because people didn’t really want or need them. 

As time passed, new customer-focused methods like the Jobs to be done framework encouraged product teams to understand their users better. They started to think from their users’ perspective more often and asked for their opinions more frequently. 

Product discovery isn’t just about adding new features; it’s about creating an environment where we’re always learning. This ongoing learning helps us make small, steady improvements to our products.

MARTY CAGAN SAYS:  THERE ARE ALWAYS TWO MAIN CHALLENGES: FINDING THE RIGHT PRODUCT AND MAKING THE PRODUCT RIGHT.

Today we call this process Product Discovery.

Why Is Product Discovery important?

🎥 The First “New Coke” Commercial 1985 Code Named Kansas

To explain the importance of product discovery, we can learn a lot from the story of the famous “New Coke fiasco”   

In the early 1980s, Coca-Cola was losing market share to Pepsi, leading the company to reformulate its product to be sweeter. This new version, “New Coke,” was launched on April 23, 1985.

However, Coca-Cola failed to consider consumer preferences and loyalty to the original formula. Their focus was on beating Pepsi rather than understanding their customers. The backlash was intense, Many loyal customers were upset about the change.

Just 79 days later, Coca-Cola reintroduced the original formula as “Coca-Cola Classic” due to the overwhelmingly negative response. The episode highlighted the importance of understanding customer needs and effective product discovery in business decisions.

BASICALLY, NEW COKE DIDN’T FAIL BECAUSE OF ISSUES WITH THE PRODUCT ITSELF OR A POOR USER EXPERIENCE—IT FAILED BECAUSE IT WASN’T A SMART PRODUCT CONCEPT. THE WAY TO PREVENT  THIS? PRODUCT DISCOVERY.

So what are the 4 big risks?

Understanding the risks in product development is challenging, but by targeting the most common ones, you can greatly improve your chances of success. Here are some of the most critical risks you should take note of and address right from the start.

Value risk

Will customers buy it / will users use it?

Value risk means wondering if customers will actually buy or use the product. To find out, we do surveys, talk to customers, and run focus groups to understand what they think. Using a product analytics tool can also help test these ideas.

Usability risk

Can users figure out how to use it?

Usability risk is about whether users can easily understand how to use the product. We can address this by creating a detailed mockup of the product (like on Figma) and testing it with target users to see how they react.

Feasibility risk

Can our engineers build what we need with the time, skills, and technology available?

The feasibility risk is all about whether our engineers can make the product with what they have. To know this, we need to check the technology our teams use. It’s important to trust our teams—they’re skilled at figuring out what’s possible with the tools and time available.

Business viability risk

Does this solution also work for the various aspects of our business?

The business viability risk is about whether our solution fits well with our business. To find out, we need to work with other departments to see if the product fits with our sales channel and if there are any legal risks. We also need to check if we can get customers without spending too much and if the product matches our brand promise.

Are You Navigating the Product Discovery Process Effectively?

The product discovery process may have different names, but it generally follows a similar path that most teams use. Understanding this process is important because it stays consistent across different projects. While the time spent on each stage might differ based on your approach or strategy, the stages themselves remain the same.

Product discovery isn’t just a single step; it’s an ongoing process. It helps widen our understanding through regular feedback and improvements during the entire product development journey.

There isn’t only one method or rule for applying product discovery. You have many options, like getting feedback from customers, doing surveys, and interviews, or even using analytics to understand your product better.

No matter how you do product discovery nowadays, the goals are always the same:

GET A CLEAR PICTURE OF WHAT YOUR USERS WANT RIGHT FROM THE START, AND THEN MAKE SURE YOUR SOLUTION MATCHES WHAT THEY’RE ASKING FOR.

That’s why it’s crucial to be open-minded when doing product discovery. You might have a great idea, but it’s possible your users don’t really need it. Sometimes, just making small changes to what you already have is the best way forward. This process of finding out what works and what doesn’t is what makes product discovery exciting and valuable.

Although the exact method is our choice, meeting our product discovery goals means blending this mindset with the basic, step-by-step product discovery framework, 

starting with:

1. Get to Know Your Users Needs

In the beginning of product discovery, your main job is to really get to know your users. Instead of rushing into planning, spend time talking to users to find out what they need and what problems they face. Have customer interviews, group user stories, and create journey maps to identify common themes. This might take some time, but it’s important to figure out exactly what customers need, which will help you come up with good solutions later on.

2. Product Focus: Defining and Prioritizing Core Objectives

After collecting enough data and feedback, your team needs to pause and look at the most important problems users have. As you go through the information, you’ll see certain problems coming up again and again in different user stories. Once you identify these common issues, the next step is to turn them into clear ideas and choose one to focus on for your new product or feature.

3. Creating Solutions: Deciding What Matters

Now that we’ve understood the problem in the first two stages of product discovery, it’s time to come up with practical solutions that will make a real difference.

This stage is when the team gets creative, using techniques like brainstorming, mind mapping, storyboarding, and design sprints. After coming up with ideas, the team checks how doable they are and which ones fit the business plan and will have the biggest impact on important measures. Then, they pick the best ideas to test and show to customers.

4. Prototyping and User Feedback

In the final step of product discovery, it’s time to turn ideas into simple prototypes or Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and get feedback from customers. While earlier stages help narrow down ideas, it’s the users who ultimately decide if they’re good.

This step often requires multiple tries, each aimed at improving ideas and responding to what users say. Once your prototype is ready, it’s time to talk to users again. Test the prototype, listen to what users say, and check if your product matches what they want. If users like it, you can move ahead with development. But if changes are needed, keep improving your prototypes until you’re sure your solution really works for users.

Product discovery isn’t always a must-have.

Product discovery isn’t always needed, but it’s like a toolbox for cutting risks. It helps stop us from putting time and money into products or features that might not work. To see if a product might not work, we check if customers will want it, if it helps the business if we can make it, and if it’s easy to use. But sometimes, we don’t need to do discovery. Here are some examples:

Building well-known features: 

In markets where everyone knows and uses similar products, extensive research may not be necessary. For instance, if we’re creating a webshop in a market flooded with many others, we might not need to dig deep to understand customer preferences for basic features.

Regulatory compliance: 

In certain sectors, such as travel or education, we must adhere to strict regulations. For example, if we’re developing a product for airlines, we need to comply with their regulations. These rules ensure that products meet specific standards and operate within legal frameworks to protect consumers and maintain industry integrity.

Urgent feature implementation: 

During emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, companies must respond quickly. They adapt their services to address urgent needs, leaving little time for in-depth product discovery.

PRODUCT DISCOVERY IS LIKE A TOOL—IT’S NOT RIGHT FOR EVERY SITUATION. UNDERSTANDING CONCEPTS LIKE FAST DELIVERY, PROBLEM-SOLVING, ACHIEVING RESULTS, AND CONSIDERING THE BIG PICTURE CAN HELP DECIDE WHEN TO USE PRODUCT DISCOVERY. IF YOU’RE UNSURE WHETHER TO USE IT, IT’S WISE TO WEIGH THE RISKS AND BENEFITS FIRST.

Conclusion:

In today’s fast-moving startup world, it might seem strange for product teams to spend a long time planning instead of just jumping into the building. There’s often a lot of pressure from stakeholders to release new products fast.

But rushing into development without understanding users well can be a big and expensive mistake. If you only rely on guesses about what users want, you might end up spending a lot of time and money on products that people don’t really need. Product discovery acts as a check to make sure a product is worth pursuing before investing too much in it. It actually helps you move faster by avoiding costly mistakes.