What makes product discovery truly effective for your customers? How can you ensure your team stays focused on creating genuine value instead of just adding features?
Product teams often lose sight of their core mission while building new features. In Continuous Discovery Habits, Teresa Torres introduces a powerful visual framework called the opportunity solution tree that maps out the journey from customer opportunities to tested solutions.
Keep reading to learn how Teresa Torres’s opportunity solution tree can transform your product discovery process.
Teresa Torres’s Opportunity Solution Tree
Teresa Torres’s opportunity solution tree (OST) is a visual tool designed to help you plan out what you want to achieve in the product discovery process. Torres explains that you need to go about discovery with your end goal in mind—that is, what it is you hope to accomplish to better serve your customers. The OST serves as a roadmap for discovery work, helping teams navigate the complex process of creating both customer and business value.
To use this tree, you’ll need to define your desired outcome, which is the value you want to create for your customers. This is different from outputs, which are the features of your product. Outputs help get you to your outcome, but they’re not the end goal. Torres argues that focusing on outputs as your goal instead of outcomes is a shortcut that creates a disconnect between your product team’s activities and the value (outcome) they’re providing to customers.
For example, an online coaching service might seek to improve customer satisfaction with their coaching work. This is an outcome, as it refers to a value being provided to the consumer. The company might work toward this outcome by implementing certain outputs, like more specialized coaching or group sessions.
The opportunity solution tree starts with your outcome at the top. Then it branches into opportunities (what your customers want or need), then into potential solutions, and finally into assumption tests. You can fill in these various pieces as you go through the steps we describe below, but you should start with the top bubble filled out so you know what you’re working toward.
(Shortform note: The advice to pursue discovery with your end goal in mind aligns with goal-setting theory, developed by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham. Research shows that setting goals can enhance your team’s performance and motivation. This is especially true when you set goals that are specific, challenging, and attainable, so make sure the outcome you identify meets these criteria. However, you should avoid setting goals that are too complex, as these can be de-motivating. This may be why Torres advises that you focus on creating customer value by pursuing one outcome instead of multiple outputs: Since outputs don’t necessarily lead to the outcomes you desire, the latter approach can become counterproductively complex.)
Torres writes that this tree will serve as a living document throughout your discovery process: As your customers’ needs shift, so will your potential solutions and the assumptions that go into them. When solutions fail, teams must reflect on what they misunderstood about their customers and revise the opportunities they’ve identified before moving forward. The OST helps make this learning process explicit and visible.
(Shortform note: You can further enhance the usefulness of your opportunity solution tree by incorporating another planning framework into it, such as the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework: Establish your desired outcome by laying out your objective and identifying how you’ll measure progress toward that objective (key results), and then use your OST to outline the specific steps you’ll take to achieve that objective. As you alter your OST to accommodate changing customer needs, you can use your OKRs to keep track of your original goals and measurements.)
According to Torres, this map will also be useful when your team needs to show other members of the company what they’re working on and how. Rather than overwhelming stakeholders with raw data or only sharing conclusions, the tree structure allows teams to show their work in a digestible way. This enables stakeholders to truly evaluate the team’s thinking and contribute meaningful feedback.
(Shortform note: The reason visual representations are so important in keeping stakeholders in the loop is because they tap into many people’s natural learning style. Research shows that 65% of people are visual learners, making visual communication one of the most effective means of communicating for the majority of people. Visual representations can also help make information more understandable or digestible and can be more engaging than information presented verbally or in writing.)
Use the Opportunity Solution Tree
Think about a product or service your team is currently working on. Using Teresa Torres’s opportunity solution tree (OST) framework, write down your desired outcome—the value you want to create for your customers. Remember to focus on the outcome rather than specific outputs or features.
