Question 1

Understand the Opportunity

Accepted Answer

Opportunity Assessment Review Review the Product Opportunity Assessment with the team and stakeholders to ensure that everyone understands the problem, the context, and how we will measure success.⏰ 1 hour and moreRead moreBusiness Model Canvas Visualize a new business model idea—or rethink your company’s current business model—to highlight key drivers and create a shared understanding.⏰ 15 minutes to several daysRead moreLightning Demos Take a look at how competitors’ products are solving similar problems.⏰ 10 minutesRead moreReview Industry & Macro Research Know your markets, competitors, customer wants and needs, and what it takes to be competitive in your market.⏰ 10 minutesRead more

Question 2

Understand the User

Accepted Answer

Proto-Personas Develop a set of quick, ad hoc personas that depict your customers (or those who are encountering this situation or problem).⏰ 1 hourRead moreEmpathy Map Understand your customers within a given context by creating their profile based on what they think and feel, see and hear, and say and do.⏰ 15-20 minutesRead morePain-Gain Map Capture your users’ pains and gains to understand what motivates and influences their decisions.⏰ 10-15 minutesRead moreValue Proposition Canvas Map, think though, and discuss your value propositions and how they match your customers’ needs.⏰ 45-90 minutesRead moreCustomer Journey Map Illustrate the steps your customers go through when engaging with your product or the company, and how they feel at various points along the way.⏰ 10-15 minutesRead moreJob Stories Identify opportunities for growth by deconstructing a job that customers are trying to get done. ⏰ 1 hourRead moreEthnographic Field Studies Sit back and silently observe customers use your product in their natural environment. ⏰ weeksRead moreContextual Inquiry Interviews Observe users interacting with your product or prototype, asking probing questions into the how and why of their actions. ⏰ weeksRead moreDiary Studies Ask customers to keep a daily diary of not just how they use your product, but also their digital lives and habits.⏰ weeksRead more Focus Groups Have a conversation between you and a group of your customers to understand their attitudes toward your product. ⏰ daysRead moreSite Intercept Surveys Present customers in the midst of using your product with a short, engaging survey.⏰ hoursRead moreOn-the-Street Surveys Hit the streets as a team and ask passers-by to take a moment out of their day to fill out a short survey.⏰ hoursRead moreModerated Usability Study Pose tasks and questions to your users to see how successfully they can interact with your product or prototype.⏰ daysRead moreUnmoderated Usability Study Record users interacting with your product or prototype through webcam or screen recording to see how well they can perform tasks.⏰ daysRead more

Question 3

Understand the Problem

Accepted Answer

Problem Hypotheses Determine and state your most important assumptions about the user problem.⏰ 45-60 minutesRead more5 W’s Answer the key questions of who, what, where, when, and why to understand the context of the problem you’re trying to solve.⏰ 30- 90 minutesRead moreDraw the Problem Do quick drawings to define the problem in a simple, clear, and compelling way. ⏰ 20-30 minutesRead moreFishbowl Focus on listening to have a more meaningful conversation—one group discusses the problem, while the other group listens and observes. ⏰ 40-45 minutesRead moreThe Five Whys Discover the root cause of a problem by drilling down below the surface to relate it to its context. ⏰ 1 hour and moreRead moreChallenge Cards Identify and think through challenges, problems, and potential pitfalls in a product, service, or strategy, then match them with solutions. ⏰ 30-60 minutesRead morePoster Session Communicate ideas and core concepts using images in a poster format to summarize a challenge or larger topic for further discussion. ⏰ 20 minutesRead moreSWOT Analysis Evaluate your team’s likelihood of success relative to an objective by examining strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, dangers, and conditions that may affect your future. ⏰ 1-2 hoursRead morePost the Path Define your group’s existing process at a high level and get a better understanding of the current process. ⏰ 30-60 minutesRead moreValue Proposition Canvas Map, think though, and discuss your value propositions and how they match your customers’ needs.⏰ 45-90 minutesRead more

Question 4

Confirm the Problem

Accepted Answer

Tree Testing Find gaps between your product’s current navigation and what your users actually expect.⏰ daysRead moreStakeholder Interviews Reach out to stakeholders to uncover the varied business needs and motivations involving your product.⏰ daysRead moreGo/No-Go Decision Discuss and decide whether the problem is a valid one to pursue further.⏰ 1 hourRead more

Question 5

Identify Possible Solutions

Accepted Answer

Mind Mapping Take your ideas, mix them with notes you’ve taken, and loosely organize them on paper. ⏰ 10-15 minutesRead morePost-Up Generate ideas individually about a given topic on sticky notes, then quickly present them to the group.⏰ 10-60 minutesRead more6-8-5 Sketching Create 6 to 8 sketches in 5 minutes to get down initial ideas, generate many ideas, and iterate on the best ones.⏰ 30-60 minutesRead moreBrainwriting Generate multiple ideas individually, share them with each other, and then build on them together.⏰ 30-45 minutesRead moreStart, Stop, Continue Examine the current situation, goal, or product by brainstorming what you want to start doing, what should be stopped, and what works well now.⏰ 10-60 minutesRead moreThe Anti-Problem When the team is running out of ideas for solutions for a problem, get unstuck by identifying ways to solve the opposite problem.⏰ 30-45 minutesRead moreStoryboarding Take the ideas you’ve generated so far, and sketch how a user would move through part of a user story.⏰ 10-20 minutesRead moreElevator Pitch Use mad libs to create a compelling elevator pitch for your product, service, or idea.⏰ 90 minutesRead moreThe VC Pitch Imagine you’re entrepreneurs pitching your idea to venture capitalists—present your key selling points, how the idea can make money, and why people will buy it.⏰ 30-90 minutesRead moreParticipatory Design Bring your customers into the building to collaboratively build their perfect product with the team.⏰ weeksRead more

Question 6

Narrow the Field

Accepted Answer

Silent/3-Min Critique Converge on the most promising storyboards using an individual critique followed by voting. ⏰ 5-10 minutesRead moreIdentify Conflicts Comb through your storyboards and look for conflicts—where there are two or more different approaches to solving the same problem. ⏰ 30-60 minutesRead moreDesign the Box Make focused decisions to design the package for an idea, which communicates information about its important features. ⏰ 1 hour plusRead moreAffinity Map Discover embedded patterns of thinking by sorting and clustering information into relationships and similar categories. ⏰ 45-90 minutesRead moreImpact & Effort Matrix Map and evaluate possible actions based on: 1) effort and cost required to implement, 2) potential impact (long-term vs. short-term payoff). ⏰ 30-60 minutesRead morePlanning Poker Planning Poker is an estimating technique to quickly gain team-consensus as to which possible solutions to prototype and which to toss out. ⏰ 15-30 minutesRead moreForced Ranking Make decisions as a group to determine a prioritized list, by ranking items relative to each other. ⏰ 30-60 minutesRead more20/20 Vision Get clarity around which projects or initiatives should have higher priority based on their perceived benefits. ⏰ 30-90 minutesRead moreDot Voting Agree on ideas that resonate most within the group to narrow down and prioritize a large amount of possibilities. ⏰ 15-30 minutesRead moreFists-to-Five Voting Quickly determine what each person’s opinion is when a group is discussing a possible solution. ⏰ 15-30 minutesRead moreNew-Useful-Feasible Test Evaluate the reality of proposed ideas by having everyone rate them on how New, Useful, and Feasible they are. ⏰ 15-30 minutesRead moreStakeholder Interviews Reach out to stakeholders to uncover the varied business needs and motivations involving your product. ⏰ DaysRead moreContextual Inquiry Interviews Observe users interacting with your product or prototype, asking probing questions into the how and why of their actions. ⏰ WeeksRead more

Question 7

Create Tests

Accepted Answer

Define Assumptions The solution to be tested contains implicit assumptions about users that must be accounted for before testing commences.⏰ 45-60 minutesRead moreOperational Definition After defining assumptions about your solution or your users, quantify how your team will prove or disprove those assumptions.⏰ 45-60 minutesRead moreLive-Data Prototypes Create a prototype to test with live users at a statistically significant scale.⏰ 30 minutes or daysRead more

Question 8

Validate with Users

Accepted Answer

Contextual Inquiry Interviews Observe users interacting with your product or prototype, asking probing questions into the how and why of their actions.⏰ weeksRead moreConcierge Testing Guide potential customers through a proposed product and determine their willingness to adopt it.⏰ daysRead moreConcept Testing Leverage concept sketches and interface designs to judge how well a product direction attracts your potential users.⏰ daysRead moreDesirability Study Put your prototype’s visual design and layout to the test with potential users and their preferences.⏰ daysRead moreCard Sorting Let your potential users group and organise the building blocks of your product to validate navigation and taxonomy.⏰ daysRead moreA/B Testing Test different solutions against each other in your product’s production environment to see which performs the best.⏰ weeksRead moreDemand Validation Tests Determine whether there is a desire among users for your feature or product.⏰ weeksRead moreWizard-of-Oz Tests User test a complicated product or feature without actually building it by pulling strings behind the curtain.⏰ 1-2 hoursRead moreModerated Usability Study Pose tasks and questions to your users to see how successfully they can interact with your product or prototype.⏰ daysRead moreUnmoderated Usability Study Record users interacting with your product or prototype through webcam or screen recording to see how well they can perform tasks.⏰ daysRead more

Question 9

Pivot on Learnings

Accepted Answer

Synthesize Results Synthesise your user testing results to draw conclusions about the prototype you tested.⏰ 1 hour plusRead moreThe Five Whys Discover the root cause of a problem by drilling down below the surface to relate it to its context.⏰ 1 hour plusRead moreDot Voting Agree on ideas that resonate most within the group to narrow down and prioritise a large amount of possibilities.⏰ 15-30 minutesRead morePain-Gain Map Capture your users’ pains and gains to understand what motivates and influences their decisions.⏰ 10-15 minutesRead moreBrown Bag Sharing Session A short, informal group discussion designed to promote learnings and shared understanding among other teams and colleagues.⏰ 30-60 minutesRead moreGo/No-Go Decision Discuss and decide whether to move a solution to production, pivot, or scrap the idea altogether.⏰ 1 hourRead more

Question 10

Create MVP & Stories

Accepted Answer

Product Discovery Activity Guide

The New York Times Product Discovery Activity Guide

Pick the goal you would like to achieve:

What is Initial Product Discovery?

Why is the Initial Discovery Essential?

The Benefits of Initial Product Discovery are: