An Article by Bash Bello- Product Manager at Enyata
Product discovery is a critical stage in the life cycle of a product. The research process includes identifying the demands of your clients and creating the essential features.
It’s crucial to conduct the essential inquiry before making any assumptions and to never presume that your initial impression of a product is the best one.
However, getting people to embrace the “discovery mindset” might be difficult. But we must deliberately carry out this step because it presents an opportunity to learn what the clients really desire.
If you fail to make basic inquiries, it would appear that you don’t have a sound understanding of the issue at hand or that you lack a clear understanding of the product and its priorities.
What is a product discovery mindset?
- It is about being open-minded.
- Being curious about the context of the product.
- It is not being afraid of asking questions and testing only the things that matter.
Why is Product Discovery Important?
The product discovery process is important because it helps teams build products that are vital to their customers, not just nice to have. A necessary product is one that solves such a deep and genuine need for the customer that they feel unable to live without it.
How to Implement Product Discovery
Product discovery is a method of getting a deep understanding of your customers in order to develop products that fully meet their needs. It helps the team identify potential opportunities, develop products that are both valuable and feasible, and helps the company avoid wasting valuable resources on projects that nobody wants.
So basically, the product discovery process has two distinct parts that involve identifying the right products (exploration) and building the necessary infrastructure to support them (validation).
Exploration: This process involves various activities, such as identifying potential issues, communicating with stakeholders, and evaluating existing products or services.
Validation: Before the product is designed, validation is a set of activities that check the assumptions made during the exploratory stage. These activities are done with the help of data and customer feedback.
Having product discovery early in the development cycle helps the team select the right direction and vision. So product teams prioritize and build the best possible products.
To be effective, the discovery must be wide and independent of technology or solution. When teams perform on a product they have already decided to build, it is no longer a discovery; instead, it becomes a requirement-gathering exercise or a verification exercise where teams seek to confirm that their solution is the best.
