"Change is exciting, but too much change can feel chaotic." 🎢 Learn how to set up pilot teams for success when adopting a product operating model. Product leaders Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion share insights from working with hundreds of teams going through this transformation.
Teresa Torres
@producttalk.bsky.social
Author, Speaker, Product Discovery Coach I write (words and code), teach, and make things at ProductTalk.org.
This will be my last Bluesky post. if you'd like to continue to follow my work, please do so at ProductTalk.org.
Welcome | Product Talk
Product Discovery Basics: Everything You Need to Know Product discovery is the work that we do when making decisions about what to build. It’s often contrasted with product delivery—the work […]
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"When you try to require change before people are ready, you're much more likely to encounter resistance." - Hope Gurion & Teresa Torres Want to set up successful pilot teams for your product operating model transformation?
"Good discovery drives outcomes. In a perfect world, a high-performing discovery team would hit their product outcomes quarter over quarter." 📈 Want to measure the success of your continuous discovery practice? This article breaks down practical ways to track and improve your discovery outcomes.
Worthy Read: The Highest Paid Person's Opinion by Jeff Gothelf "Because Jeff wants it" - A cautionary tale of what happens when even the most successful leaders prioritize opinion over customer value. 📱
"When we suddenly all work from home, our regular office norms disappear. That's why it's important to establish ground rules with our teams." 📱 Working remotely doesn't mean sacrificing collaboration. Here's how to maintain strong discovery practices while working from home:
Worthy Read: Ask Women in Product: What Does Great Product Vision Look Like? by Karmel Elshinnawi, Katerina Suchkova, and Hope Gurion "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up somewhere else." - Yogi Berra
"We can’t possibly interview or observe everyone, but we can get a deep understanding and a rich description of the experiences of the people we do interview and observe." 📊 Want to better understand how to choose research participants for your customer interviews?
Worthy Read: How Do You Create Accountability for Product Teams? by Hope Gurion "People who commit their goal to someone have a 65% probability of achieving it. With accountability appointments, that success rate increases to 95%" 📈
"It's rare for a startup founder to start with a customer segment and a value proposition. Instead, most founders start with an idea." 💡 Wondering how continuous discovery works in early-stage startups?
Worthy Read: You Don’t Need Permission by Steve Blank "Having real data turns conversations from faith-based to evidence-based." 💡 Learn how a medical device company's head of sales navigated the challenge of entering the U.S. market and why customer discovery matters more than methodology. 🏥
"The hardest part about continuous interviews is finding people to talk to. In order to make continuous interviewing sustainable, we need to automate the recruiting process."
Opportunities vs. Problems Learn more about discovery: buff.ly/rQCOn66 How do you make sure you aren't stuck in problem-solving mode and remember to also look for unmet desires? Share your best tip in the comments below. #ContinuousDiscoveryHabits #prodmgmt #ux #engineering
Worthy Read: Don’t Confuse Strategy with Lofty Goals by Constantinos C. Markides "Most companies communicate strategy as a set of aspirations or good sounding platitudes." 📢 Tired of vague corporate strategy statements?
"When we don't stop to examine our biases, we end up building them into our products." 💡 Learn how to create more just and equitable products through continuous discovery. This article explores: 🤝 Why design justice matters in product development 🎯 How to design WITH customers, not FOR them
Combatting confirmation bias in customer interviews Learn more about customers interviews: buff.ly/80xMI1z #ContinuousDiscoveryHabits #CustomerInterviews #ConfirmationBias
Worthy Read: Creativity Is Not an Accident by Scott Berkun "We love stories that make creativity seem easy and fun, regardless of how misleading they are." 🤔 Think accidents lead to great inventions? Think again.
Worthy Read: Remote Discovery – Teresa Torres on The Product Experience by Mind the Product I broke one of my own rules for 2020 and appeared as a guest on Mind the Product's podcast, The Product Experience. (What can I say—it's been a crazy year!)
Every interview is a test of your opportunity space. Learn more about customers interviews: buff.ly/PUfV5q9 #ContinuousDiscoveryHabits #CustomerInterviews #OpportunityMapping #OpportunitySolutionTree
Worthy Read: The visual language of comic books can improve brain function by Mary Widdicks "The human brain is actually structured more like comics than traditional language, because we first understand the world around us by mapping spatial and relational information onto our own bodies" 🧠
How do I know when I’ve interviewed enough customers? Learn more about customers interviews: buff.ly/Osx8qJc #ContinuousDiscoveryHabits #CustomerInterviews #UserInterviews
"If you’ve never talked to a customer, I don’t want you to worry about optimizing who to talk to. I want you to talk to whoever it’s easiest to talk to. But with time, I want you to start to think about how to increase the variation.”
Feelings aren’t opportunities. Learn more about opportunity mapping: buff.ly/cboBZeE #ContinuousDiscoveryHabits #OpportunityMapping #OpportunitySolutionTree #prodmgm #ux #engineering
Worthy Read: Hiten Shah on How to Avoid Common Pitfalls of Product Development by Anna Savina "Nobody wants to give another person feedback, but everyone is willing to share their opinion." - Hiten Shah
"When we use the same artifacts to do the work, communicate the work, and archive the work, all three purposes get the attention they deserve." 📈 Struggling with managing all your discovery artifacts?
"Product development is a team sport. While we each bring a unique set of skills and expertise to the team, we'll only win by working together." 🎯 Learn six key principles for effective product discovery: 1. Building genuine empathy for your audience 2. Continuously exploring the problem space
Worthy Read: How We Introduced Product Discovery Methods at Overleaf in 3 Steps by Roberta Cucuzza "We didn't write any code and yet we were able to see 2 ideas fail and 1 succeed!" 💡 Learn how Overleaf integrated continuous product discovery into their development process in three key steps:
Worthy Read: The Trust-Communication Trade-Off: A Tool for Building Innovative Teams by Emily Levada "To accomplish any goal with two or more people, the amount of trust between the team members and the amount of communication required are inversely related." 💡
"The product trio concept isn't designed to exclude. Everyone plays a role in discovery." 🎯 Want to understand how to structure your product discovery team? This article addresses the common question of who should be included in your product trio.
"Find any format where people can get curiously interested. Find your biggest, most important stakeholders and ask them if you're sharing what they want to know or if they want to know anything else." 💡