Product Discovery

The work of figuring out what to build and why, through user research, experiments, and validation, before committing to building it. The counterpart to delivery.

Why it matters

Discovery is how teams avoid shipping features nobody wants, the most expensive kind of waste. Balancing discovery with delivery, learning fast and building the right things, is at the heart of good product work.

For example

Before building a requested feature, the team interviews ten users and prototypes two options, discovering the real need was different from the request.

Worth your time

Product Discovery Silicon Valley Product Group · article Cagan draws the line between discovery (figuring out what is worth building) and delivery (building it), and argues most waste comes from skipping the first. Reading this gives you a vocabulary for pausing before you build and testing whether the feature is valuable and usable at all. It is the disciplined version of your rule to write down who asked and what happens if you skip it. Open svpg.com →

Related terms

Jobs to Be Done Design Sprint Feedback Loop

Go deeper

See how founders actually handle this on Building the product, part of the Starting Up hub.

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