continuous-discovery-habits
Continuous Discovery Habits
A structured, repeatable approach to product discovery that helps teams make better product decisions through weekly customer touchpoints, opportunity mapping, and rapid assumption testing. Based on Teresa Torres' "Continuous Discovery Habits."
Core Principle
Good product teams don't debate opinions — they test assumptions. The goal of discovery is not to validate ideas, but to discover opportunities and find the best path to a desired outcome. Discovery is not a phase; it is a continuous, weekly habit embedded into how teams work.
The foundation: most product teams skip discovery entirely, jumping from a business outcome directly to a solution. The Opportunity Solution Tree (OST) provides the missing structure — it forces teams to explore the problem space before committing to solutions, and to compare multiple solutions against clear criteria before building anything.
Scoring
Goal: 10/10. When reviewing product discovery work, rate it 0-10:
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| 0-2 | No discovery. Team builds what stakeholders request or what feels right. No customer contact. |
| 3-4 | Sporadic discovery. Occasional user research, but not connected to decisions. Ideas come from inside the building. |
| 5-6 | Some structure. Team talks to customers but lacks a systematic way to prioritize opportunities or test assumptions. |
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