Continuous Discovery Habits - my learnings part 3
Hi folks
Here’s the final part of continuous discovery habits. I had a lot of fun writing it, hope it helped you seeing things differently. This is what happens when we talk about things - we “see” new things together. In fact, that’s the only way we see new things, according to Donella Meadows, the author of Thinking in Systems: A Primer:
“[Language] can serve as a medium through which we create new understandings and new realities as we begin to talk about them. In fact, we don’t talk about what we see; we see only what we can talk about”
- Donella Meadows
Moving on, here’s the final part. Hope you enjoy it
Contents
Continuous discovery teams
Continuous discovery stakeholder management
Continuous discovery habits
Part 3
Continuous discovery teams
“Whether actual or virtual, an external representation creates common ground…”
— Barbara Tversky, Mind in Motion
Encouraging teams to do their best is more effective than setting specific, challenging goals
Setting learning goals is more effective that setting performance goals
Most teams will have more of an impact by focusing on one outcome at a time
The key to setting outcome is to have a conversation as a team about the scope to give you room to explore while staying focused on the outcome
One of the drawback of documenting (and not drawing) the customer experience is that it can start to feel like the truth
Continuous discovery stakeholder management
"The more leaders can understand where teams are, the more they'll step back and let teams execute"
- Melissa Peri
When preparing for a meeting with stakeholders, we tend to focus on our conclusions - our roadmap, release plan, backlog, etc. The challenge in this is that stakeholders often have their own conclusions. It's easy to have opinions about outputs
When we anchor our conversations in the solutions space, we encourage our stakeholders to share their own preferences. However, these preferences are not always grounded in good discovery
When we present our conclusions, we aren't talking about the journey we took to reach those conclusions. Instead we are inviting an opinion battle - usually where the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person's Opinions) wins
When presenting your work, slow down and share your work. First set the outcome (read: OST framework) and ask stakeholders if things have changed since last time we set the outcome. It sets scope of conversation
Highlight top-level opportunities and get their opinion. Consider you might have missed something. You might love your solution but remember, "solutions are dime a dozen". The key criteria for your first solution set is diversity
When we show our work, we are inviting our stakeholders to co-create. Share your work along the way, not towards the end
Continuous discovery habits
You have more agency than you think you do
Don’t work alone. The habits in this book are designed to be adopted by a cross-functional trio
Look for people who are good at simplifying complex concepts, have firsthand experience with your customers, and have an abundance of empathy for your customers’ challenges
When product teams engage with their customers week over week, they don’t just get the benefit of interviewing more often—they also start rapid prototyping and experimenting more often
Of all the habits in this book, if you are looking for one place to get started, this is it [continuous interviewing]
“This all sounds great, but my company doesn’t work this way.”
— You, the typical reader
That’s all folks!