Continuous Discovery

What is continuous discovery?

Continuous discovery focuses on constantly incorporating user feedback to make sure that customers are always satisfied with the newest iteration of your product.

It helps you to focus on outcomes over outputs by giving you information about your users’ desired results. The processes followed ensure that you’re kept aware of user needs, and able to be innovative in how you solve market problems.

Putting in place a continuous discovery process will help you to ensure that your company stays current, instead of being left behind by more progressive companies who can sometimes work more quickly than larger companies can.

Teresa Torres, friend of ProdPad and author of Continuous Discovery Habits, emphasizes that continuous discovery should be a sustained practice, informing product development decisions at every stage. This requires a shift in mindset from seeing product discovery as a single, one-off activity to making it an embedded habit within your team’s day-to-day activities​.

Teresa joined our CEO and Co-Founder Janna Bastow for a webinar on this very topic – you can watch our Continuous Discovery webinar here.

This approach contrasts with traditional product discovery, where most of your research is concentrated at the beginning of your product’s journey. Failing to keep up your discovery efforts can often lead to your assumptions and data becoming outdated as market and user needs evolve.

Why is continuous discovery important in product management?

Continuous discovery is an important aspect of modern Product Management because it pushes you to align your product more closely with your users’ evolving needs and market demands.

This approach is particularly important as it changes the focus from conducting occasional, large-scale research projects to doing ongoing, integrated, and smaller-scale experiments. This ensures that your product decisions are informed by fresh, relevant insights.

One of the primary reasons continuous discovery is important for Product Managers is that it will provide you with faster answers to emerging questions and challenges. By integrating discovery activities into your day-to-day, you can act on the feedback you’re gathering quicker, and find solutions to customer problems faster.

This means you’ll be verifying your assumptions and refining your hypotheses at a much faster rate, making sure your product development process is agile and more responsive to user needs​.

Continuous discovery builds a stronger sense of empathy for your users through regular interactions with them. Whether through interviews, surveys, or usability tests, your team will gain a deeper understanding of user experiences, challenges, and desires.

This continuous engagement helps to keep in touch with how people actually use your product, and you’ll have less of a problem with the “curse of knowledge”. It will make it easier to create a product that genuinely resonates with your users and meets their needs effectively​.

Is continuous discovery just for new products?

It’s often assumed that continuous discovery should be used when building a new product, but it’s arguably more effective when used throughout the lifetime of a product – the clue is in the word ‘continuous’. After all, it’s rare that the first release of a product completely meets the needs of the market.

By starting with a minimum viable product (MVP) and learning from its usage, you can glean enough to identify the next set of changes – i.e., build, measure, learn!

Continuous discovery has been adopted most extensively within technology fields like app development where software needs frequent updates. While it can apply to almost any type of product, software products are the common candidates for this kind of development process. Especially SaaS products that need to retain subscribers by staying relevant.

How does continuous discovery work in practice?

Continuous discovery in practice is a systematic approach designed to integrate the process of learning from your customers throughout the entire product development cycle. It goes beyond traditional project-based discovery phases, ensuring that your Product teams stay aligned with user needs and market demands.

Here’s how it works:

Regularly interacting with customers

Continuous engagement with your users is central to continuous discovery. Each interaction is an opportunity to glean insights about customer needs, validate assumptions, and explore new opportunities​.

This includes a variety of methods such as: 

• Interviews
• Surveys
• User recordings
• Usability tests

Embedding discovery into your agile processes

Continuous discovery can be seamlessly integrated into agile methodologies, such as Scrum. Instead of treating it as a separate phase, you conduct discovery activities in parallel with development sprints.

This dual-track approach ensures that discovery feeds into delivery and vice versa, blurring the lines between discovering what to build and building the product itself​.

Collaborating with cross-functional teams

The process requires regular collaboration among all members of the Product team, especially Developers, Designers, and Product Managers. This team, often referred to as the “Product Trio,” works closely to synthesize customer feedback, analyze data, and turn the results of your experiments into actionable ideas and initiatives.

This collaboration will help you to build a comprehensive understanding of your Product from multiple perspectives, and foster a culture of shared ownership and responsibility for the success of your product.

Validating high-risk assumptions

A significant aspect of continuous discovery is constantly testing and validating assumptions regarding product desirability, feasibility, usability, and business viability. This ongoing validation process helps mitigate risks associated with building the wrong product or features, thus saving time and resources while increasing the chances of product success​.

Fostering a continuous mindset

At the heart of continuous discovery is a shift in mindset from focusing on outputs to focusing on outcomes. This means moving away from just completing tasks and shipping features to actively seeking feedback and insights that will boost customer satisfaction and lead to positive business outcomes

It takes work, as you’ll need to set up systems and processes that support frequent and systematic discovery activities​.

A great method to help you manage continuous discovery is Teresa Torres’ Opportunity Solution Tree. The OST allows you to consider all possible routes to the best outcome and makes it easier to tell your stakeholders why you’ve chosen a specific solution to the problem being solved.

As ProdPad’s CTIO and Co-Founder Simon Cast points out:

“For every change, new feature, improvement, or rework, you should be doing product discovery so that you can constantly validate that there is a real problem to solve, that it is a real problem, and that solving it is worthwhile. Most importantly, you can see that solving this problem fits within the product vision and strategy.”

What are the benefits of continuous discovery?

Adopting a continuous discovery approach will help to bring about a holistic enhancement of your product development process. It will ensure that your product is in constant alignment with user needs and market dynamics but also fosters a culture of learning, empathy, and agility within product teams. This can significantly increase the chances of product success in the market.

Here’s a closer look at the benefits of continuous discovery:

Faster answers and iteration

Continuous discovery enables you to respond to changes quickly, testing your assumptions and hypotheses on the fly. This allows for rapid iteration, ensuring that your product evolves in step with user needs and market conditions.

Having a structure in place that encourages regular check-ins with your users will enable you to pivot or iterate more agilely, reducing the development cycle for new features or products​.

Stronger user empathy

Regularly interacting with your users cultivates a deeper understanding of their experiences, challenges, and desires. This continuous engagement will both help you to build a product that is more aligned with your user needs, and will foster a stronger sense of empathy within your team as they get to grips with what your users want, and where they are struggling.

Having a more user-centered decision-making process is vital for creating products that resonate on a deeper level with your target audience.

Reduced risk of building the wrong thing

One of the biggest benefits of continuous discovery is its capacity to reduce wasted time and effort. It mitigates risk by ensuring that what you’re building is what your users actually need and will use.

By constantly validating your assumptions throughout the development process, you’ll avoid costly mistakes and missteps, and can focus your resources on the initiatives that offer the highest return on investment​, and the biggest impact for your users.

More captured opportunities

The landscape in which products exist is constantly shifting, with new user needs, technological advancements, and competitive dynamics emerging all the time. Continuous discovery helps you to stay ahead of these changes, and you’ll be able to identify and capitalize on new opportunities as they appear.

Taking a proactive stance on market and user research can be a key differentiator, keeping your product relevant and competitive over time​.

Alignment of customer and business goals

Continuous discovery can help you balance the needs and goals of your business with those of your customers. This balance is critical for creating products that not only meet user expectations but also drive business growth.

Having an ongoing dialogue with your users ensures that your product development isn’t happening in a vacuum, aligning product outcomes with business objectives​.

Avoiding assumption-based development

Every team member brings their own biases and assumptions to the table. Continuous discovery provides you with a mechanism for challenging and validating these assumptions regularly, ensuring that your product decisions are based on accurate data and user feedback rather than conjecture.

This empirical, data-led approach to product development can help you to create more innovative and successful products​​.

What are the challenges of continuous discovery, and how can you solve them?

Implementing continuous discovery within your product development teams can present several challenges, ranging from cultural shifts to operational adjustments. However, with each challenge, there’s always something you can do to make the transition smoother and more effective.

Shifting mindset

Moving from being project-based to a continuous discovery approach requires a significant shift in mindset for most people and organizations. Teams are often accustomed to working within defined scopes rather than engaging in ongoing discovery activities.

Solution: Invest in training and workshops that emphasize the value of continuous learning and adaptation. Highlighting successful case studies from within your company or from other organizations can also help to illustrate how this approach​​ works and can help.

Cross-functional collaboration

Continuous discovery requires close collaboration across different functions, primarily Product, Design, and Development, which can be difficult in siloed organizations.

Solution: Establish cross-functional teams or “product trios” and define clear roles and responsibilities within these teams to enhance collaboration. Regular team-building activities and shared goals can also help in fostering a collaborative culture​​.

Integrating discovery with agile processes

Integrating continuous discovery activities into existing agile development processes can be challenging, especially in terms of scheduling and resource allocation.

Solution: Adopting a dual-track agile framework, where discovery and delivery run in parallel, can help integrate these processes. Teams can dedicate a certain percentage of each sprint to discovery activities, ensuring a balance between exploring new ideas and working on existing ones​​.

Frequently engaging with users

Maintaining frequent and meaningful engagement with your users can be resource-intensive and challenging to scale, especially for smaller teams or those with limited access to their user base.

Leveraging digital tools for gathering customer feedback. remote interviews, surveys, and usability testing can make user engagement more manageable. Establishing a user panel or community can also provide a ready pool of participants for continuous feedback​.

Overcoming assumption-based development

Moving away from assumptions and towards data-driven development takes a systematic approach to collecting and analyzing user feedback, which can be daunting for teams not used to working like that.

Solution: Implementing a structured framework for hypothesis testing, such as the Opportunity Solution Tree, can help you to systematically address your assumptions. Training in qualitative and quantitative research methods can also equip you and your teams with the skills you’ll need to gather and interpret user data effectively​​.

Balancing speed and depth of research

There’s often a tension between the need to move quickly and the desire to conduct thorough research. You might struggle to find the right balance, leading to either superficial insights or analysis paralysis.

Solution: Establishing a cadence for continuous discovery activities can help you to manage this balance. Quick, iterative research methods like minimum viable products (MVPs), guerrilla testing, and lean product practices can provide rapid insights, while more in-depth studies can be scheduled at strategic points in the product life cycle​.

Who is responsible for continuous discovery within a Product team?

Within a product team, the responsibility for continuous discovery isn’t limited to a single role. Instead, it’s a collaborative effort that involves multiple people working in harmony.

The aim is to ensure that your product continually evolves, that everyone is contributing to gaining a deeper understanding of your users, and that they actively participate in the process of discovering what to build next.

Here’s a breakdown of the roles and their responsibilities in continuous discovery:

The “Product Trio”

The “Product Trio” is a collaborative team consisting of a Product Manager, a UX Designer, and a Developer. They work closely together on discovery activities, ensuring a balanced approach that considers business objectives, user needs, and technical feasibility.

The trio is responsible for planning and conducting discovery activities, analyzing results, and determining the next steps​.

Product Managers

You as a Product Manager play a central role in orchestrating the continuous discovery process. You’re responsible for defining the vision, setting the strategic direction, and ensuring that the discovery efforts align with business goals.

You’ll also prioritize the backlog, decide which hypotheses to test, and turn your findings from discovery activities into an actionable plan.

UX Designers

UX Designers focus on understanding your users’ needs, behaviors, and pain points through design thinking and user research methods. They create prototypes and design experiments to test assumptions about user needs and design solutions.

UX Designers are also integral in translating user feedback into design improvements that enhance your product’s user experience​.

Developers

Developers bring their technical perspective to the discovery process, assessing the feasibility of potential solutions. They are involved in building prototypes for experiments and contributing to discussions on technical constraints and opportunities.

Their technical expertise is crucial for understanding what is possible within the given technological framework​, and making it happen.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders, including Senior Management, Marketing, Sales, and Customer teams, can provide additional perspectives based on their direct interactions with the market and customers.

They can offer insights into customer needs, market trends, and competitive landscapes, which are all valuable for informing the discovery process​.

What are some best practices for effectively implementing continuous discovery?

Adopting Continuous Discovery is a transformative approach that ensures product teams can navigate the complexities of modern markets and user expectations effectively.

Here are some tips and advice to ensure your continuous discovery efforts are as productive and impactful as possible:

1. Integrate discovery into daily work: Continuous discovery shouldn’t be an isolated activity but needs to be integrated into the daily routines of the Product team. This means setting aside time each sprint for discovery activities, ensuring that learning and validating are ongoing processes​. 
2. Foster a culture of curiosity and learning: Encourage a team culture that values questions, learning, and adaptability. Promoting an environment where hypotheses are continuously generated and tested fosters innovation and keeps the team aligned with user needs and market dynamics.
3. Establish a Product Trio: The collaboration between PMs, UX Designers, and Developers is crucial. This trio should work closely to conduct interviews, synthesize their findings, and brainstorm solutions, ensuring that their diverse perspectives inform the discovery process​.
4. Engage regularly with users: Frequent engagement with users through interviews, surveys, usability testing, and feedback sessions is vital. This direct interaction helps to uncover user needs, test assumptions, and validate product directions​.
5. Prioritize and focus: Given the vast amount of data and insights that continuous discovery can generate, it’s essential to prioritize which user problems are worth solving. This requires a clear understanding of business goals, user needs, and market opportunities to focus efforts where they can have the most impact​.
6. Adopt the right tools and technologies: Leveraging digital tools for remote interviews, analytics, and prototype testing can streamline the discovery process. Tools like user feedback platforms, session recording software, and rapid prototyping tools can enhance the efficiency and reach of discovery activities​​. ProdPad can help with capturing feedback with a customizable portal, organizing and analyzing that feedback to find the most impactful ideas, and prioritizing and adjusting your product roadmap to incorporate what you’ve learned.
7. Iterate and learn from every cycle: Continuous discovery is inherently iterative. Each cycle of discovery should inform the next, allowing you to build on previous learnings. Documenting ideas, decisions, and outcomes helps in refining the discovery process over time​. Lean Experimentation, where you make a small change to your product and monitor the outcomes, can be a useful process here.
8. Maintain open communication and transparency: Keeping all stakeholders informed about discovery findings, decisions, and the rationale behind product directions ensures buy-in and support across the organization. Regularly sharing updates, insights, and learnings fosters a sense of shared purpose and alignment​.
9. Be adaptable: The needs of your users and the dynamics of the market are continually evolving. You need to stay flexible, be ready to pivot based on new insights, and be open to challenging your existing assumptions. This adaptability is a vital part of continuous discovery, as enables you to stay relevant and competitive​​. 

Implementing these best practices will take commitment and effort from everyone involved, but it will reward that hard work with a product that truly resonates with your users and is much more likely to succeed in the market.

Continuous discovery is a mindset that, when embraced fully, can transform your product development efforts into a dynamic, responsive, and user-centric process.