Gözde Yeşiltaş's Key Ideas from Continuous Discovery Habits
by Teresa Torres

Summary:

A consistent cadence ensures that discovery is not just reactive but proactive. Set a routine where discovery is part of every sprint, every planning cycle, and every product decision.

Actionable Information:

Integrate discovery tasks into your sprint cycles.

Dedicate time in your weekly or bi-weekly cadence for discovery work (e.g., interviews, testing, gathering feedback).

Encourage team members to split discovery activities among different roles (designers, engineers, marketers).

Advice:

Align your cadence with your team’s workflow, ensuring that discovery work flows seamlessly with your development cycles.

Avoid “discovery fatigue” by varying discovery activities (e.g., one week focus on user interviews, another on usability tests).

Checkpoints:

Have you integrated discovery into your sprint planning?

Are you balancing the discovery workload across your team?

Do you feel your cadence is sustainable and non-disruptive?

Summary:

To build successful products, you must understand the jobs your customers are trying to get done. This is often beyond their immediate task but reflects the core problem they need to solve.

Actionable Information:

Define customer jobs-to-be-done (JTBD).

Identify pain points your customers experience while completing tasks.

Use customer stories to map out these jobs in detail.

Advice:

Focus on the outcomes customers want, not just the tasks they complete.

Constantly test and refine your assumptions about customer jobs by getting feedback during discovery sessions.

Checkpoints:

Have you clearly defined your customer’s core jobs?

Are you collecting feedback about job outcomes, not just task completion?

Have you mapped customer pain points?

Summary:

Assumption mapping is a tool that helps you identify and test the key assumptions in your product development process. By making assumptions explicit, you can prioritize testing them and refine your approach.

Actionable Information:

List out key assumptions about your product (e.g., “Users will find this feature valuable”).

Rank these assumptions by uncertainty and impact.

Test high-impact assumptions first, whether through customer interviews, prototypes, or testing.

Advice:

Use lean experimentation—test assumptions quickly and cheaply, learning from each cycle.

Keep your assumptions transparent with the team, so everyone is aligned on what’s being tested.

Checkpoints:

Have you identified your key assumptions?

Are you testing assumptions with real customers or prototypes?

Have you prioritized assumptions based on uncertainty and impact?

Summary:

Prototypes are a key part of discovery, allowing you to test ideas quickly before committing to full development. They don’t need to be fully functional but should help validate key assumptions.

Actionable Information:

Build low-fidelity prototypes (e.g., wireframes, sketches) to test ideas early.

Share prototypes with users to get feedback before investing in high-cost development.

Use prototypes as a communication tool with stakeholders.

Advice:

Fail fast—don’t wait to build something perfect. Instead, test it as soon as possible.

Prototype in small, manageable iterations. Each iteration should teach you something new.

Checkpoints:

Are you using prototypes to test product ideas early?

Do you iterate quickly based on feedback?

Are prototypes helping with stakeholder alignment?

Summary:

Decisions should be made based on what you learn from discovery activities. Move away from gut feeling decisions and rely on data and insights from users.

Actionable Information:

Base product decisions on user feedback, not assumptions.

Use a decision-making framework (e.g., Opportunity Solution Tree) to visualize the problem, solutions, and assumptions.

Track impact of your decisions and learn from both successful and unsuccessful outcomes.

Advice:

Use a collaborative decision-making process to ensure that multiple perspectives are considered.

Stay flexible and be willing to change direction based on what you learn.

Checkpoints:

Are you using customer insights in your decision-making process?

Do you have a decision framework in place?

Are you measuring the impact of your decisions?

Summary:

Aligning your team on the insights gathered during discovery ensures everyone is working toward the same goals. This collaboration keeps the product development process focused and unified.

Actionable Information:

Hold regular alignment meetings to discuss discovery insights.

Share user stories and feedback openly with all team members.

Involve cross-functional teams in the discovery process—including designers, engineers, marketers, and product managers.

Advice:

Use a collaborative tool (e.g., Notion, Miro) to visualize insights and keep everyone aligned.

Avoid siloing the discovery process; make it a shared responsibility for the entire team.

Checkpoints:

Do you have regular alignment meetings?

Are insights being shared with all team members?

Is your team working collaboratively on discovery activities?

Continuous discovery is a habit, not a project. Start small, iterate often, and make discovery a part of your everyday process. The key is not perfection but consistency in learning, testing, and evolving.