product discovery

regan davis

VP of Product, Data @Jellyvision

Makers of ALEX, an interactive cartoon for explaining HR & benefits to employees

Inconvenient Truths

—Marty Cagan

(not Marty Cagan)

Truth 1:

Truth 2:

It typically takes several iterations to get to the point where it actually delivers the expected business value.

At least half of our ideas are just not going to work.

Not valuable
Not usable
Not feasible

Building production-quality software

is the most expensive way to test your idea.

Goal: learn fast. and repeatedly.

what do i use when?

—Erika Hall,

Just Enough Research

The Opportunity Solution Tree

—Teresa Torres

Desired Outcome

(OKR)

Opportunity

(Problem)

Opportunity

(Problem)

Solution

(idea)

Solution

(idea)

Experiment

Desired Outcome

(OKR)

Opportunity

(Problem)

Opportunity

(Problem)

Solution

(idea)

Solution

(idea)

Experiment

Double Diamond

Discover

Define

Solutions

Problems

Concepts

Deliver

how to talk to people

people are liars*

*(but like, nice liars)

Ladder by Javi Ayala from the Noun Project

The Ladder of Evidence

Time and Effort

Value of Learning

Ask what they would do.

Ask what they've done in the past.

Ask for specific stories of what they've done in the past.

Ask them to show you what they did.

Simulate a new experience.

–or–

Observe them during a real-life instance.

Live test of a new experience.

–or–

—Teresa Torres

Future

Past

assumptions

actions

Accurate & Predictive

Future

Past

assumptions

actions

Would you be interested in this product?

They overestimate how much money they will have in the future.
They overestimate how much time future them will have to use the product.
And they are genuinely nice people who want to please you.

Future

Past

assumptions

actions

Have you ever paid for a service like this?

When?
For how long?
What were you using before that?
What triggered the switch from a free service to a paid service?
Do you still use that service?
Why did you stop using that service?
What do you pay/what did you pay?

Humans are rarely stumped.

into

Research Questions

Interview Questions

Research Questions	Interview Questions
What we need to learn.	What we ask to elicit stories that illustrate what we want to learn.

Outcome

Drive Engagement

What keeps people engaging today?
What's a return user look like? Even in their first visit?
How is that different than a non-return user?

Opportunity

Research Questions

Tell me about the last time you went to your HSA site.
Tell me about the first time you used your HSA site.

Interview Questions

When / where?
How did it fit in their day?
How much time they did have?
What triggered it?
What interrupted it?

Listen for...

tips and tricks

don't speak

don't explain

bring a friend

let's try it.

Outcome: Increase Engagement

Research Questions	Interview Questions	Listen for...
What keeps people engaging today?
What prevents people from engaging today?

Research Questions	Interview Questions	Listen for...

Learnings from first round of interviews:

People stop watching because they run out of things to watch.

Goal for this round: You want to learn how other people choose what to watch next.

Opportunity

(Problem)

Solution

(idea)

Experiment

Is it valuable?
Is it usable?
Is it feasible?

Is this iteration producing the desired outcome?

Desired Outcome

MVP, solution interviews

Usability testing, prototypes

Engineering scoping, risk analysis

"live prototype", KPIs, A/B testing, analytics

sourcing interviews

ethn.io
Quaraloo
Usabilia
UserInterviews

people are liars

Text

Try to build a funnel
Ask multi-choice questions
Target behaviors, not just demographics

(for more info: userinterviews.com )

upfront, kind, & honest.

develop themes

Recording

Record with consent
Ask to take a photo
Zoom / Webex
Otter app for transcriptions

Rainbow Report

Rose, Thorn, Bud

let's recap

Desired Outcome

(OKR)

Opportunity

(Problem)

Opportunity

(Problem)

Solution

(idea)

Solution

(idea)

Experiment

Ladder by Javi Ayala from the Noun Project

The Ladder of Evidence

Time and Effort

Value of Learning

Ask what they would do.

Ask what they've done in the past.

Ask for specific stories of what they've done in the past.

Ask them to show you what they did.

Simulate a new experience.

–or–

Observe them during a real-life instance.

Live test of a new experience.

–or–

—Teresa Torres

upfront, kind, & honest.

questions?

where to next?

[appendix]

jobs to be done

driving outcomes

Customers do not do what they say they do.

We refocused from what customers were saying they wanted to what they were actually doing.

—Bob Moesta

If you build a product based on your customer’s ideal self, you might get the initial sale...

but you’ll struggle to engage them, and you’ll churn through customer after customer.

Start by describing

The outcome we want -- How we’d measure success
What we believe is the problem we’re solving and for whom
The solution we’d build to solve it

Problem

Reduce Churn

(Reduce dollar churn by 10 points)

Outcome

XXX

Opportunity

XXX

http://www.extendslogic.com/business/jobs-to-be-done-cancel-interviews/

http://jobstobedone.org/radio/the-mattress-interview-part-one/