Discovery kickstarter
The concept of Product Discovery is not new, but few companies these days are doing it, or are doing Discovery in a sufficiently structured way. A common question that I get is if I can help kickstart their Product Discovery process or structure their existing one. That usually starts with training to get the right mindset for Discovery, but often you can apply a plug-and-play process, a so-called playbook, to get things started.
The word playbook is most closely associated with American sports. It’s essentially a book full of plays, or tactics and scenarios, that the coach uses to direct the team during the game. Out on the field there are tactics, but you can never fully plan what’s going to happen. In Product Discovery, you can’t plan all the details up-front because Product Discovery is about learning. You will need to re-adjust the process as you progress. But using a playbook to get started can be useful, especially when tailored for the specific team and context.
For examples of playbooks, see our book about Product Discovery.
