Have you heard? My new book Continuous Discovery Habits is now available. Get the product trio's guide to a structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery. The opportunity solution tree is a visual representation of your continuous discovery work. It helps you keep track of your high-level outcomes, the unmet needs, desires, and pain points (or what I collectively refer to as “opportunities”) you’re hearing about from customers, the solutions you’re considering, and sometimes the assumptions you’ve identified and tests you’re running to validate those assumptions.
That’s a lot of material to cover! So if you’re feeling lost or overwhelmed by any of it, you’re not alone.
I recently recorded a brief video to take a closer look at one aspect of the opportunity solution tree—opportunity mapping. This will be the first in a series intended to provide quick, simple instruction on fundamental continuous discovery concepts.
You’ll find the video below, along with a lightly edited transcript.
I’ve been hearing from more and more teams who are trying to create one of my opportunity solution trees, but they’ve gotten stuck or given up. If this is you, you aren’t alone. Opportunity mapping is hard. Let’s dig into why.
I’ve been hearing from more and more teams who are trying to create one of my opportunity solution trees, but they’ve gotten stuck or given up. If this is you, you aren’t alone. Opportunity mapping is hard. – Tweet This
To create an opportunity solution tree, we have to do three things. First, we have to identify relevant opportunities. Second, we have to frame those opportunities properly. And finally, we have to uncover the hidden structure of the opportunity space. Only then does the opportunity map start to fall into place.
In this video, I’m going to dive deep on number one. Too many teams generate opportunities from thin air. They capture what they think their customers need, want, or desire. This is easy to do. Every product team has some knowledge about their customers, but it’s a classic garbage in, garbage out kind of situation.
Too many teams generate opportunities from thin air. They capture what they think their customers need, want, or desire. This is easy to do, but it’s a classic garbage in, garbage out kind of situation. – Tweet This
Here’s why: An actionable opportunity is specific. It occurs in a specific moment in time. It occurs in a specific context. It’s experienced by a specific customer. It’s hard to generate these specifics off the top of our head.
Let’s compare a couple of examples:
- I can’t find something to watch.
- I want to watch Avatar, but I don’t know which streaming service it’s available on.
- I like intriguing sci-fi, but not dumb action films. I can’t tell if I’ll like this movie.
Number one is what we get when we try to generate opportunities off the top of our head. Here’s the challenge: We could spend the rest of our lives trying to solve for number one.
Number two and number three, on the other hand, are more specific and much more actionable. I suspect many of you can think of several good solutions for number two and number three.
That’s the power of a well-framed opportunity. It opens up the solution space.
But where do these specific opportunities come from? We can’t simply pull them out of thin air. We can’t make them up.
Instead, we need to collect them. We need to interview our customers. We need to ask the right questions. Opportunities emerge from customer stories.
When we collect stories about specific past behavior, we get context, we get nuance, and most importantly, we get specifics. And those specifics lead to actionable opportunities.
When we collect stories about specific past behavior, we get context, we get nuance, and most importantly, we get specifics. And those specifics lead to actionable opportunities. – Tweet This
But collecting stories isn’t easy. It’s a skill we need to practice and develop.
If I say, “Tell me about the last time you watched TV,” you’ll likely respond, “I watched a show last night after dinner.”
That’s not a very good story.
My job as the interviewer is to help you tell your story. I need to help situate you in that moment. I need to help you remember the details. I need to assure you that I want to hear all the details. I need to excavate the story step by step.
And my reward for doing this is opportunities that emerge from detailed stories about specific past behavior.
If you’re new to story-based interviewing, it will take time and practice to get good at this. But when we get good at story-based interviewing, we solve the garbage in, garbage out challenge with opportunity mapping.
Opportunity mapping gets easier.
If you’re new to story-based interviewing, it will take time and practice to get good at this. But when we get good at story-based interviewing, we solve the garbage in, garbage out challenge. – Tweet This
Do you want to get better at story-based interviewing?
Our Continuous Interviewing course helps students ask the right questions, guiding the interviewee through their story, step by step, and identifying the opportunities that naturally emerge.
Let’s review. Opportunity mapping requires: one, identifying relevant opportunities, which we’ve done a deep dive on. Two, framing those opportunities properly. And three, uncovering the hidden structure of the opportunity space.
We’ve learned opportunities emerge from customer stories. A well-framed opportunity is specific. It occurs during a specific moment in time. It occurs in a specific context. It’s experienced by a specific customer. These specifics emerge from customers’ stories.
In my next video, we’ll dive into how to uncover the hidden structure of the opportunity space. Don’t miss it. Be sure to subscribe below.
