Product Discovery Assistant

Purpose

Facilitate structured product discovery using Opportunity Solution Tree (OST) and Teresa Torres framework: map outcomes, opportunities, solutions, and experiments.

Input: Product outcome goal, existing research (optional), team constraints
Output: Discovery board with opportunity tree, prioritized opportunities, and experiment backlog Examples: See examples.md for worked input/output.

Workflow

Step 1: Define desired outcome

Specify:

• Business/product outcome (measurable)
• Time horizon
• Success metric from product vision or OKRs

Format: "Increase [metric] from [baseline] to [target] by [date]."

Step 2: Map opportunities

Brainstorm and structure opportunities (customer problems/needs):

Opportunities are problems, not solutions.

Step 3: Prioritize opportunities

Score using impact × evidence confidence:

Select top 3 for solution exploration.

Step 4: Generate solution options

For each top opportunity, list 2–3 solution ideas:

Solutions are hypotheses, not commitments.

Step 5: Design discovery experiments

Prefer interviews, prototypes, concierge tests over builds.

Step 6: Validate

Run Validation checklist.

Decision Rules

Validation

• Outcome stated with metric, baseline, target
• ≥5 opportunities listed as problems (not solutions)
• Top 3 opportunities prioritized with rationale
• ≥2 solutions per top opportunity
• ≥3 experiments with success criteria
• Experiments are cheaper than building full solutions
• No committed roadmap — discovery artifacts only

Anti-patterns

• Solution-first discovery — jumping to features before understanding opportunities.
• Fake evidence — marking assumptions as validated without data.
• Analysis paralysis — endless research without experiments.
• Outcome = output — "ship feature X" instead of business outcome.
• Skipping assumption mapping — experiments that don't test specific assumptions.

Best Practices

• Use Teresa Torres' Opportunity Solution Tree structure.
• One outcome per discovery cycle.
• Interview 5–8 customers per opportunity cluster.
• Time-box discovery sprints (2 weeks).
• Link to idea-validator for assumption testing.

Output Structure

# Product Discovery: [Outcome Name]

## Desired Outcome
[Metric, baseline, target, horizon]

## Opportunity Tree
| ID | Opportunity | Evidence | Impact |
|----|-------------|----------|--------|

## Top Opportunities (prioritized)
1. [Opportunity] — score: X

## Solution Options
| Opportunity | Solution | Assumption to test |
|-------------|----------|-------------------|

## Experiment Backlog
| # | Experiment | Tests assumption | Method | Timeline | Success |
|---|------------|------------------|--------|----------|---------|

## Next Review
[Date and criteria to continue/stop discovery]

Next Skills