continuous-discovery

Start with a measurable outcome at the top, then populate the opportunity layer with customer needs discovered through interviews, framed from the customer's perspective. Add multiple solutions per opportunity and design small experiments to test each solution's riskiest assumption before building.

Use story-based interviewing: ask "Tell me about the last time you..." to capture specific past behavior rather than opinions or predictions. Follow up with sequence, emotion, and context questions, then synthesize each interview into a one-page snapshot with key quotes and opportunities.

Assumption testing identifies the desirability, viability, feasibility, and usability beliefs a solution depends on, maps them by importance and evidence, and tests the high-importance, low-evidence ones first. Tests like painted-door experiments or Wizard of Oz prototypes should take days, not weeks.

The benchmark is at least one customer touchpoint per week, every week, with the full product trio participating. Automate recruitment through in-app intercepts and scheduling tools so the cadence sustains itself without heroic effort.

An experience map captures the customer's entire experience of accomplishing a goal, including competitor tools and manual workarounds, while a journey map covers only interactions with your product. Use experience maps in discovery to find unmet needs and journey maps later to optimize existing flows.

Pivot when assumption tests consistently fail, new interviews reveal a bigger opportunity, or shipped solutions are not moving the target outcome. Before pivoting, verify you actually tested assumptions and gave solutions enough time to show results.