Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value

by Teresa Torres

Rather than obsessing about features (outputs), we are shifting our focus to the impact those features have on both our customers and our business (outcomes).

I encourage teams to visualize it using an opportunity solution tree (OST).

Chip and Dan Heath, in their book Decisive, outline four villains of decision-making

In Decisive, the Heath brothers outline many tactics for overcoming the four villains of decision-making, which is why it is the first book (after this one) that I recommend all product managers read.

that shifting from dictating outputs to managing by outcomes is critical to a company’s success.

When we manage by outcomes, we give our teams the autonomy, responsibility, and ownership to chart their own path. Instead of asking them to deliver a fixed roadmap full of features by a specific date in time, we are asking them to solve a customer problem or to address a business need.

A business outcome measures how well the business is progressing. A product outcome measures how well the product is moving the business forward. A traction metric measures usage of a specific feature or workflow in the product.

Many business outcomes, however, are lagging indicators. They measure something after it has happened. It’s hard for lagging indicators to guide a team’s work because it puts them in react mode, rather than empowers them to proactively drive results.

want to identify leading indicators that predict the direction of the lagging indicator.

Setting a team’s outcome should be a two-way negotiation between the product leader (e.g., Chief Product Officer, Vice President of Product, etc.) and the product trio.

This research suggests that product trios, when faced with a new outcome, should first start with a learning goal (e.g., discover the opportunities that will drive engagement) before being tasked with a performance goal (e.g., increase engagement by 10%).

To make sense of the opportunity space, we first need to take an inventory of what we already know. This is especially critical on cross-functional teams, where each member brings a diverse set of knowledge and experiences.