I have spoken with multiple early stage product founders in the last 3 years

Here are top 5 learnings why their product discovery failed miserably at delivering Positive ROI

We discuss this and more on our upcoming session. https://lu.ma/2cgaz1ql?tk=iy4p58

1. It was a one dimensional effort

Product discovery requires a variety of inputs to create a validatable hypothesis.

Many early stage founders are driven by hustle and learning on the go mindset.

Importance and value of prior knowledge in shaping the cognitive elasticity doesn’t entice.

Learning velocity and critical processing at the moment is lost in translation

you end up having a tunnel vision that is primarily driven by what you can resonate and reciprocate.

Utilizing any of your strength in vision, research, process, function, methods, models, design and product to create a hypothesis only leads to partial grasp.

while it seems like task complete and valuable output, the real outcome you deliver is half baked mapping of customer situations to solution opportunities

2.It was a one person effort

product discovery is accomplished by a cross functional team consisting of researchers, designers, engineers and business stakeholders.

Entrepreneurship is a lonely journey

Early Stage entrepreneurs are typically introverted loners with a high self esteem and strong belief in their ideas.

While belief, hunch, instinct are necessary conditions to survive, they are insufficient to sustain and grow.

It is proved from multiple instances that simultaneously thinking and doing, constant context switching is fraught with risks of cognitive drain and burnout

the help, support and collaboration of subject matter experts, functional leaders, mentors, coaches and community is essential criteria for balanced thought and action.

when you execute product discovery alone, you are overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of disciplines to be covered.

inspite of your superior cognition and consciousness, you allow for a lot of biases to kick in leading to selective absorbption, interpretation and wrong insights.

to explore and interpret a conversation, an observation, a request, a signal from various angles you require people with multiple specialities

A cross functional team of engineers, researchers, designers and other business stakeholders as appropriate can add disproportionate value

3.It was a one technique effort

product discovery is a collection of techniques to explore and evaluate options that can eventually become bankable opportunities

As an early stage founder it is impossible and unwise to apply the effort required to gain complete understanding of the portfolio of techniques.

However when we have teams, it becomes easy to brainstorm and select an assortment based on their specific application, the stages in which they are most relevant and the outcomes each deliver.

Given below are some of the techniques applied in product discovery

Customer interviews,Product analytics,Competitor analysis,The five ‘whys’ technique, Brainstorming,Prioritization techniques,Prototyping,Usability testing,Stakeholder Interviews,User Inteviews,Diary Studies,Ethnography,Focus Groups,User Surveys,Persona Development,Card Sorting, Use Case & Workflow,Storyboarding,Process Design Testing,Tree Testing,User Experience Evaluation,

With each we are expected to gain insights on people and their perspectives

while there is no need to apply all at once, it is important to be aware of their existence.

either teams don’t understand the distinction between generation and evaluation or they don’t care enough about the portfolio of qualitative and quantitative tools at our disposal.

A lot of decisions made in the early stage are purely driven by the need for speed and the comfort of engineering minds on the technique.

your usual suspect is running surveys fo quantitative and engaging in a sales coversation for qualitative

It is OK for you to consciously choose what you are comfortable with. Going for these selections in auto pilot mode will dwarf

4.It was a one time effort

product discovery is the process of regular engagement with suspects, prospects and customers.

At the end of Day, Product Discovery is People Discovery

You are building a Life Long Relationship to give and take knowledge.

In a world, where the only exchange that is valued is monetary, product discovery flips the funnel and encourages you to value people and their perspectives so that you can eventually make sustainable money.

During exploration, we are trying to understand the most strategic aspects, starting with context

During evaluation, we are trying to grasp the most tactical aspects, starting with experience

As in any relationship, intimate secrets don’t come as an outpour, rather it drizzles through with trust and attachment

unless we interact more frequently and repeatedly with people we maynot obtain a full dimension of the individuals challenges and potential opportunities

A lot of times, product discovery begins and ends with a single engagement.

5.It was a one way effort

product discovery is to build trusted relationshhip through a process of give and take

We can take 1 of 2 approaches with People. Transactional or Relational.

A lot of product discovery effort goes for the transactional given the presumed need for speed

Instead of focusing on win – win relationship, the attitude is one of transactional focus.

this pursuit of win come what may blinds your ability to grasp nuanced signals of reciproactive expectations.

feeling, acknowledging and paraphrasing what the suspect, prospect and customer wants to gain out of the engagement on an ongoing basis is essential for true co creation.

A consequence of your self centeredness is resistance from participants who decline follow up engagements thus curtailing your momentum in continuous discovery

to deliver an outstanding commercial creation, you require an adaptive mind that can effortless transition between reality of your customer and it’s distortion you envision.

Summary

we can keep exploring the many pitfalls founders and discovery teams of any stage make.

For discovery to work, you need to be thoughtful, critical, optional and relationship driven.

At the end of the day, all the product discovery we are doing is to enhance people lives. our mistakes only serve to derail our mission.