Continuous Discovery Overview

The continuous discovery mindset is one that acknowledges that digital products are never “done” and can always be made better. The “discovery” aspect is that those working on the product should empathize with those who use it and operate with those people in mind, both for finding the most impactful areas of work and in how to measure impact.

Teammates choose work with impact in mind and develop solutions with an expectation that people will use what is built and we can measure a positive change.

Some key activities that are common in such a process are:

1. Starting with a clear desired outcome.
2. All teammates actively engaged in talking directly with people who use the software.
3. Solutions designed with users in mind, with an understanding of their environment.
4. Desire to deploy solutions quickly, measure the change, and work with partners to make further improvements.

This quote from Teresa Torres sums up the process nicely:

Good product discovery has a simple underlying structure: Start with an outcome, discover opportunities, discover solutions.