7 Product Discovery Books That Teach What You Should Know
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text] In product development, so many of our ideas will not work. With product discovery, product teams can limit waste and rebuilds by up to 50%. It is much cheaper to build the right thing the first time by having a clear understanding of the problem and co-creating the solution with customers. Product teams are able to go faster and build greater products by following the right product discovery processes. Here are seven product discovery books that teach you everything you need to know. 7 Must-Read Product Discovery Books 1. Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan In this book, Marty Cagan provides a framework for creating successful products, which involves understanding the customer, identifying a market opportunity, and building a great team to execute on the opportunity. Cagan’s book is essential reading for anyone in the technology industry who wants to create products that customers will love. This book is an essential read for every product manager. Some people call it the product management bible. 2. Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres In her book, Teresa Torres shares a framework for developing habits that lead to building successful products. According to Torres, there are four main habits that every product development team should adopt: focus on the customer, embrace change, fail fast, and learn constantly. By following these habits, teams can continuously improve their product development process and better meet the needs of their customers. She offers as structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery and opportunity mapping. She also points out that it is essential to interview your customers regularly (ideally weekly). 3. The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers & Learn If Your Business Is a Good Idea When Everyone Is Lying to You by Rob Fitzpatrick In this book, Rob Fitzpatrick shares a set of simple rules for crafting good customer interview questions that even a person’s mom can’t lie to them about. The measure of usefulness of an early customer conversation is whether it provides concrete facts about their lives and world views. These facts, in turn, allow us to improve our business. Eventually you do need to mention what you’re building and take people’s money for it. However, the big mistake is almost always to mention your idea too soon rather than too late. The book advises that you shouldn’t ask your mom whether your business is a good idea because she loves you and will lie to you. It is the ultimate guide for interviewing your customers. 4. Jobs to be Done: Theory to Practice by Tony Ulwick In his book, “Jobs to be Done: Theory to Practice,” Tony Ulwick lays out a framework for understanding customer behavior and designing products that meet customer needs. Ulwick’s framework is based on the idea that customers don’t just purchase products, they “hire” them to do a job. By understanding the “job” that a customer is trying to get done, companies can design products that are more likely to be successful. In summary, he shares in the book that people don’t buy products. They “hire” them to do jobs. He also provides insights on how to define and prioritize customer needs. 5. Sprint: How to solve complex problems and test ideas in just 5 days by Jake Knapp This book by Jake Knapp that lays out a framework for solving complex problems and testing ideas in just five days. The sprint process includes four main steps: brainstorming, sketching, deciding, and prototyping. By following this process, companies can quickly and efficiently come up with solutions to complex problems. The book describes a specific Product Discovery technique invented in Google. It is recommended that the ideas in it are compared with Teressa Torres’s approach, particularly interviewing your customers before ideating. You may want to combine those approaches. 6. The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback by Dan Olsen This book by Dan Olsen that lays out a framework for designing and developing successful products. Olsen’s framework is based on the Lean Startup methodology, and it emphasises the importance of validated learning, customer feedback, and continual iteration. By following Olsen’s framework, companies can increase their chances of developing successful products. Key insights from the book include the complete Lean Product Process – discovering and creating products while minimising waste and rework. The author also shares insights around Business Model, Value Proposition, MVP, Product-Market Fit, Product Discovery, and more. 7. Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation by Alex Osterwalder In this book, Alex Osterwalder provides a framework for testing business ideas quickly and efficiently. Osterwalder’s framework is based on the Lean Startup methodology, and it emphasizes the importance of validated learning, customer feedback, and continual iteration. By following Osterwalder’s framework, companies can increase their chances of developing successful products. Some lessons from the book include, starting from an idea, then using the design loop to improve it, using discovery experiments to examine your assumptions and information about dozens of tools and techniques anyone can easily apply. Conclusion: What Next After Reading These Product Discovery Books? As you go through these books, you will gain a deeper understanding on how to perform effective product discovery, but your next question might be, what next? [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Product Discovery Basics For Building Better Products
What is product discovery? Product discovery is the process by which product teams learn about a problem and opportunity space in which they are trying to create a solution for. The goal of product discovery is to generate a shared understanding within the team about the problem and potential solutions. This understanding is then used to inform the product roadmap and help prioritize product features. Why is product discovery important? Product discovery reduces the time to value of a product or feature as it helps product teams focus on the right problems and build the right solutions. Without a good understanding of the problem and opportunity space, it is easy for teams to build features that no one wants. Who is responsible for product discovery? Product discovery is typically run by a trifecta or triad including the product manager, product designer and engineer. In some cases it could also involved a user research and data scientist who bring in qualitative and quantitative insights and perspectives to the discovery process What are the steps involved in product discovery? Product discovery emerged in the early 2000s as a better way for product teams to build compared to the then method of lengthy, requirements-steeped product development process. What makes for good product discovery is the collaboration with users or customers through the conceptualisation process. The main steps involved in product discovery are: 1. Understand the problem 2. Define the problem 3. Ideate potential solutions 4. Iterate and validate solutions Read more about Essential Customer Discovery Process for B2B Startups What are the techniques used in product discovery? There are several tactics and frameworks associated with product discovery today. There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to tools but popular ones used in product discovery process include: Customer interviews: involves asking questions from customers or users via offline and offline communication to understand their needs, pain points and desires. User story maps: Help teams to visualize the user flow and track progress on features Journey maps: Help teams to understand the user experience and identify areas for improvement User or usability testing: allows product teams to assess whether the proposed solution actually solves Prototyping: prototypes are used to communicate and validate proposed solutions with users. They can be used to test different user flows and understand how users interact with the proposed solution. A/B tests: A/B tests are used to quickly validate whether a solution actually solves the problem it was created to solve. Customer journey mapping: is a technique used to define and organize product features. It involves creating a map of the user journey, which helps to identify areas where the product could be improved. Assumption tests: is used to validate assumptions about the product and its features. This usually involves conducting user research and testing the product with real users. Opportunity solution trees: This technique involves creating a tree-like diagram of the potential solutions for a problem, which can help to identify the best course of action. Ethnographic studies: are used to understand the behavior of users. This usually involves observing users in their natural environment and conducting interviews. Jobs to be done: is a technique used in product discovery to help organize product features based on the users goals or objectives. This technique involves understanding the user’s needs and wants, and then designing the product accordingly. Why is user research important during product discovery User research is important during product discovery as it allows product teams to validate their assumptions about the product and its features. This usually involves conducting user research and testing the product with real users. User research can take many forms but some common ones include interviews, surveys, focus groups, usability testing and A/B testing. User research is important as it provides insights into how users interact with the product and what their needs and pain points are. Read more about The Power of User Interviews in Building Successful Products Why is it important to do product discovery continuously? Product discovery should be seen as a continuous process, rather than something that is only done at the beginning of a product development cycle. This is because the problem and opportunity space is constantly changing and product teams need to be agile in their approach in order to build the right solutions. Continuous product discovery also allows product teams to validate their assumptions and learnings from previous discovery processes to build better products.
