Product discovery

Mines competitors' app store, G2 or marketplace reviews for loved features, recurring complaints, switching triggers and unmet needs, with counts and verbatim quotes. Use to find openings.

Grades the validation evidence for a product idea from compliments and hypothetical promises up to past behaviour and real commitments, then says what is known and the next test.

Coaches a new or accidental product owner through their first discovery project one question at a time, from framing the problem to who to talk to, what to ask and how to make sense of it.

Writes jobs-to-be-done statements and maps the forces of progress (push, pull, anxiety, habit) and the switching timeline from customer interviews, with evidence for each.

Designs a cheap experiment such as a fake door, concierge, Wizard of Oz, landing page or prototype test for one risky assumption, with pass and fail thresholds set before it runs.

Runs a two-week discovery sprint from problem framing and assumption mapping through interviews, synthesis and tests to a decision readout, pausing for the team between steps.

Runs a ten-round practice game where the user writes one follow-up question to a short customer quote and gets a score for openness, focus on past behaviour and depth, plus a model probe.

Estimates the yearly cost of a customer or operational problem from rough inputs, with every assumption visible, a low-base-high range and cash kept apart from capacity. Use to size a fix.

Compares the people a team has researched with the people its product or service serves, shows who is missing or over-represented and sets quotas and routes for the next round.

Writes a discovery guide and session plan for interviewing frontline staff at their workstation before changing their tools or processes, with anonymity, shift timing and last-real-case questions.

Plans churn interviews for a free or open-source tool without telemetry, with how to find lapsed users,, a switch-interview guide and a synthesis template. Use when you need to know why people stop.

Plans discovery with non-customers who chose a competitor, a DIY workaround or nothing, with where to find them, a choice-story interview guide and a barrier frame for synthesis.

Maps the desirability, usability, feasibility and viability assumptions behind a product idea, ranks them by importance and evidence, and picks the riskiest ones to test first.

Maps everyone in a business customer's buying decision, from users and champion to economic buyer, IT, procurement and blockers, with each one's goal, objection and discovery questions.

Turns staff interview or observation notes into a ranked register of workarounds around an internal tool, each with who does it, how often, the risk it carries and the need behind it.

Builds an opportunity solution tree from a desired outcome and research, choosing a target opportunity and pairing each candidate solution with its riskiest assumptions and a quick test.

Maps a value proposition canvas with ranked customer jobs, pains and gains against the product's pain relievers and gain creators, marks evidence versus assumption, and shows fit gaps and tests.

Takes a physical product idea through gated steps - buyer interviews, a concept and price check, a prototype test, a preorder test and a go, revise or stop call - before money goes into tooling.

Sets up a sustainable weekly customer interview habit for a product trio or solo PM, with automated recruiting, a rota, a 30-minute format, a one-page snapshot and a route from insight to decisions.

Plans a five-day design sprint with a fit check, sprint brief and questions, team roles, pre-sprint recruiting, a timed daily agenda, materials and a customer test plan.

Plans short intercept interviews where a service happens, such as a shop counter, station or clinic waiting room, with permissions, a three-minute script, time-slot sampling and a note grid.

Plans a time-boxed pilot of a new service at one or a few sites, with fair site choice, a comparison site, success and harm criteria set in advance, staff load, data to collect and a decision meeting.

Plans how to test a new service before building it, using desktop walkthroughs, staff role-play and Wizard-of-Oz runs that prototype the backstage too, with pass criteria for both.

Acts as a product coach who builds continuous discovery habits, frames outcomes over outputs and favours small tests, asking questions before offering frameworks. For PMs and product teams.

Runs a public or charity service discovery in gated steps - policy intent, research with offline and assisted users, evidenced needs, the journey, and an alpha, reframe or stop call.

Acts as a product owner for a government, council, health or charity service who starts from user needs and policy intent, designs for people who cannot go online, and measures completion and equity.

Reviews a real discovery interview transcript for interviewer mistakes such as leading questions, pitching and missed follow-ups, with line references, rewrites and what the interview actually proved.

Plans and structures secondary research before talking to anyone, with search terms, source types, a reliability grade, a claims table and the gaps that become interview questions.

Runs outcome-driven opportunity scoring from importance and satisfaction ratings, showing the calculation per outcome, to find underserved and overserved needs and what to do next.

Designs or analyses a willingness-to-pay study (Van Westendorp, Gabor-Granger or interviews) with questions, sample, analysis steps and how to read the result. Use before setting a price.

Plays a realistic customer for discovery interview practice, rewarding open questions about past behaviour and misleading leading ones, then reviews what the interviewer learned versus assumed.

Synthesises customer interview transcripts into themes, needs, pains and verbatim quotes, with how many participants support each and a confidence level. Use after a round of interviews.

Plans an out-of-box test of a physical product's packaging, assembly or setup instructions with first-time users, covering tasks, think-aloud prompts, timing, error logging and a severity scale.

Plans hands-on sessions with a looks-like or works-like prototype of a physical product in a realistic setting, with in-context tasks, safety checks and the limits of what it can show.

Designs a preorder or refundable-deposit test for a physical product before paying for tooling, with a pass threshold tied to the minimum order quantity, honest delivery terms and a refund plan.

Uncovers the problem behind a stakeholder's request for an app, dashboard or form, with questions to ask, a draft problem framing, evidence to gather and non-software alternatives.

Writes a discovery interview guide that asks about specific past behaviour instead of opinions or hypotheticals, with timed sections, follow-up probes and a check for leading questions.

Turns discovery findings into a short readout for decision-makers with the decision on page one, findings graded by strength of evidence, open questions, options and the decision asked for.

Writes a one-page discovery plan linking each learning goal to the decision it informs and the cheapest method that can answer it, with sample, timeline, budget and attendees.

Writes a product opportunity assessment covering the problem, for whom, size, alternatives, why us, why now, success measures, critical risks and a go, explore or stop call.

Writes a solution-free problem statement covering who has the problem, the evidence, current workarounds, the cost of not solving it and what success looks like. Use when starting discovery.

Writes a participant screener for interviews or usability tests with behavioural qualifying questions, disqualifiers that hide the target, quotas and an invite message.