A Guide to Product Discovery

What this guide contains

Product Discovery: Initial design phase to understand and define the problem.

• Double Diamond Method
• Continuous Discovery
• When to Do Discovery
• Framing Problems
• How Might We’s
• Research & Mapping
• Timeline - What to do and in what order
• Concluding Discovery

BONUS: A template with great resources, MIRO boards, templates, and other links for you to use. User Research methodologies & best practices, MIRO boards to organize workshops and map the work you need to do.

The PDF course explains the strategies and the theory, giving you the know-how, while the template contains everything you need to get started with Product Discovery having everything you need in the same place!

“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said.

This makes me wonder: are we truly solving anything, or are we so delusional that we switch into solutioneering and act without any prior discovery or definition of what we’re aiming to achieve? Do we blindly rush into a desperate race to always have an answer to everything without taking a moment to think about what we’re struggling with?

This phase is often skipped by most companies, but the advantages of discoveries are remarkable. Projects that have a discovery are more likely to be successful. It cuts the risk of failure by 75% and increases the chance of success by 59%.

What is Product Discovery?

Product discovery is the initial phase of the design process dedicated to understanding the problem at hand and identifying who is affected by it. It uncovers insights that weren’t previously known, not just validating assumptions or rushing into design sprints. Discovery becomes essential when the project is shrouded in unknowns.

This guide will help you learn what is a Product Discovery and how to execute it, step by step. It has methodologies, best practices, and all you need to know to organize your first Discovery project!

This applies to software product management but is a useful mindset in UX, marketing, and any other field where you have a lot of uncertainties regarding your project. It applies to almost any real-life situation as we should always start with the problem rather than with a solution!

Photography credit: theperspective.pro