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product-discovery skill

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This skill guides you through product discovery from interviews and JTBD to opportunity sizing and synthesis, helping validate problems and prioritize bets.

npx playbooks add skill ncklrs/startup-os-skills --skill product-discovery

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SKILL.md

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---
name: product-discovery
description: Expert product discovery guidance for user research and problem validation. Use when conducting user interviews, validating problems, applying jobs-to-be-done framework, sizing opportunities, customer segmentation, competitive analysis, prototype testing, usability testing, designing surveys, or synthesizing research insights. Covers discovery sprints, continuous discovery, and research operations.
---

# Product Discovery

Strategic user research and problem validation expertise — from interview techniques and JTBD to opportunity sizing and insight synthesis.

## Philosophy

Great products start with great problems. Discovery is how you find problems worth solving for people who will pay.

The best product discovery:
1. **Talk to users, not stakeholders** — Customers know their problems, not solutions
2. **Validate problems before solutions** — Build the right thing, then build it right
3. **Quantify and qualify** — Numbers tell you what, conversations tell you why
4. **Continuous over batched** — Weekly habits beat quarterly projects

## How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in `rules/` organized by:

- `research-*` — User interview techniques, survey design, research ops
- `discovery-*` — Problem discovery, JTBD framework, validation
- `analysis-*` — Synthesis, segmentation, competitive analysis
- `testing-*` — Prototype testing, usability testing

## Core Frameworks

### Discovery Process

| Phase | Activities | Outputs |
|-------|------------|---------|
| **Explore** | Interviews, observation, data mining | Problem space map |
| **Validate** | Problem interviews, surveys, experiments | Validated problems |
| **Prioritize** | Opportunity scoring, segmentation | Prioritized roadmap |
| **Test** | Prototype testing, usability studies | Solution validation |

### Jobs-to-be-Done Framework

```
                    ┌─────────────────────┐
                    │    FUNCTIONAL JOB   │
                    │   (What they do)    │
                    └──────────┬──────────┘
                               │
              ┌────────────────┼────────────────┐
              │                │                │
              ▼                ▼                ▼
       ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐     ┌──────────┐
       │ EMOTIONAL│     │  SOCIAL  │     │ CONTEXT  │
       │   JOB    │     │   JOB    │     │ (When/   │
       │ (Feel)   │     │ (Appear) │     │  Where)  │
       └──────────┘     └──────────┘     └──────────┘
```

### Opportunity Scoring (OST)

| Factor | Weight | Description |
|--------|--------|-------------|
| **Importance** | 40% | How important is this job to the customer? |
| **Satisfaction** | 30% | How satisfied are they with current solutions? |
| **Frequency** | 20% | How often do they encounter this problem? |
| **Willingness to Pay** | 10% | Will they pay to solve this? |

**Opportunity Score = Importance + max(Importance - Satisfaction, 0)**

### Research Method Selection

```
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   GENERATIVE RESEARCH                       │
│              (Discover unknown unknowns)                    │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌───────────┐  ┌───────────┐               │
│  │Contextual │  │ Discovery │  │ Diary    │               │
│  │ Inquiry   │  │ Interviews│  │ Studies  │               │
│  └───────────┘  └───────────┘  └───────────┘               │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                   EVALUATIVE RESEARCH                       │
│              (Validate known hypotheses)                    │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌───────────┐  ┌───────────┐               │
│  │ Usability │  │  A/B      │  │ Prototype │               │
│  │ Testing   │  │  Testing  │  │ Testing   │               │
│  └───────────┘  └───────────┘  └───────────┘               │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                   QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH                     │
│              (Measure and prioritize)                       │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌───────────┐  ┌───────────┐               │
│  │  Surveys  │  │ Analytics │  │ Card      │               │
│  │           │  │  Review   │  │ Sorting   │               │
│  └───────────┘  └───────────┘  └───────────┘               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```

### Customer Segmentation Matrix

| Dimension | Consumer (B2C) | Business (B2B) |
|-----------|----------------|----------------|
| **Demographics** | Age, income, location | Company size, industry, revenue |
| **Behavior** | Usage patterns, purchase history | Buying process, tech stack |
| **Psychographics** | Values, lifestyle, attitudes | Company culture, risk tolerance |
| **Needs** | Problems, goals, aspirations | Business outcomes, KPIs |

### Continuous Discovery Cadence

```
Weekly:
├── 2-3 customer interviews
├── Review analytics/feedback
└── Update opportunity backlog

Monthly:
├── Synthesis session
├── Prioritization review
└── Stakeholder alignment

Quarterly:
├── Deep-dive research sprint
├── Competitive analysis refresh
└── Segment review
```

## Interview Quick Reference

| Interview Type | When to Use | Key Questions |
|---------------|-------------|---------------|
| **Discovery** | Exploring problem space | "Tell me about the last time..." |
| **Problem** | Validating specific pain | "How painful is this 1-10? Why?" |
| **Solution** | Testing concepts | "Would this solve your problem?" |
| **JTBD** | Understanding motivation | "What were you trying to accomplish?" |
| **Usability** | Testing interfaces | "What do you expect to happen?" |

## Anti-Patterns

- **Solution-first discovery** — Falling in love with solutions before validating problems
- **Leading the witness** — Asking questions that suggest desired answers
- **Confirmation bias** — Only hearing what supports your hypothesis
- **Sample of one** — Making decisions from a single interview
- **Proxy research** — Asking salespeople instead of customers
- **Feature requests as research** — Users ask for features, not problems
- **Analysis paralysis** — Researching forever, never deciding
- **HiPPO-driven** — Highest Paid Person's Opinion overriding data

Overview

This skill provides expert product discovery guidance for user research and problem validation. It codifies techniques for interviews, JTBD, opportunity sizing, segmentation, competitive analysis, and prototype testing. Use it to structure discovery sprints, set a continuous discovery cadence, and run repeatable research operations.

How this skill works

When invoked, the skill applies a set of organized rules and frameworks across research, discovery, analysis, and testing phases. It recommends methods (generative, evaluative, quantitative) based on your hypothesis and stage, and produces concrete outputs: problem maps, validated problems, prioritized opportunities, and test results. It also offers templates for interviews, opportunity scoring, segmentation, and a weekly/monthly/quarterly cadence.

When to use it

Planning or running user interviews
Validating problem hypotheses before building solutions
Sizing opportunity and prioritizing roadmap items
Designing surveys and quantitative measures
Running prototype or usability tests
Synthesizing cross-source research into decisions

Best practices

Talk directly to users, not proxies or stakeholders
Validate problems before designing solutions; separate problem and solution interviews
Combine qualitative and quantitative methods to measure and explain opportunity
Run discovery continuously (weekly interviews + monthly synthesis) rather than in long, infrequent batches
Avoid leading questions and confirmation bias; iterate your discussion guide
Score opportunities by importance, satisfaction, frequency, and willingness to pay

Example use cases

Run a 2-week discovery sprint to explore a new market and produce a problem space map
Design and run JTBD interviews to uncover functional, social, and emotional jobs
Use opportunity scoring to prioritize features across segments and build a prioritized roadmap
Set up weekly discovery cadence: 2–3 interviews, analytics review, and backlog updates
Prototype and usability test a flow, then synthesize learnings into actionable design changes

FAQ

How many user interviews are enough?

Aim for weekly 2–3 interviews for continuous discovery; for a focused sprint, 10–15 interviews often reveal consistent themes. Stop when you see repeating patterns.

When should I use surveys vs interviews?

Use interviews for deep, generative insights and understanding motivations; use surveys to measure prevalence, frequency, and to validate hypotheses at scale.

How do I avoid bias in discovery?

Use neutral, behavior-focused questions (e.g., "Tell me about the last time..."). Triangulate across users, analytics, and experiments, and include diverse segments in your sample.