The magic of product discovery

For me there is magic in the ominous phrase “product discovery.” I discovered it 14 years ago, and I’m rediscovering it almost every time I do product work.

The magic of product discovery is the relativity of time.

You can discover whether you have a product idea that will sell by building the product for three months and then selling it to customers. A customer that might not buy it.

You can discover the same insights by building a prototype 1/3rd of the time and putting it in front of customers.

You can discover almost the same insights by talking to customers, by building paper dummies, and by running surveys and test campaigns for a couple of days.

Almost the same insights can be generated in days, weeks, or months. Don’t default to months. Try to get the magic.