product-discovery

Start by assessing four risks: value, usability, feasibility, and viability. Frame the problem as an opportunity, interview 5-8 target users about current behavior, test a prototype with 5 users, run a one-hour feasibility spike with your tech lead, then decide to persevere, pivot, or kill.

The four risks are value risk (will users buy it), usability risk (can users figure it out), feasibility risk (can we build it), and business viability risk (does it work for the business). Discovery focuses effort on whichever risks rate High.

Interview 5-8 users in the target segment, asking about current behavior rather than hypothetical preferences. For usability testing, 5 users reveal roughly 85% of issues according to Nielsen's law. Look for patterns across interviews, not individual quotes.

Common anti-patterns include validating solutions instead of discovering problems, treating discovery as a one-time phase, having the PM do discovery alone instead of with the product trio, and skipping feasibility checks until after the spec is written.

Kill an idea when discovery shows the problem is smaller than assumed or the solution is not viable. Pivot when the problem is real but the solution needs rethinking, and persevere when the four risks are manageable enough to move to shaping.