Exploratory vs. Focused Discovery: Which is the best for each product stage?
As PMs, one of the most common pieces of advice we encounter in books and courses is the importance of engaging with customers for product discovery. Continuous Discovery, championed by Teresa Torres, emphasizes in her book, the need for regular customer interviews to stay on top of customer demands, discover new opportunities, areas for improvements, and market dynamics.
Although I'm a huge promoter of continuous discovery, I believe that in order to benefit from all customer conversations you are having, you must tailor those based on your needs at each given stage. There are two main discovery approaches:
🔭 Exploratory Discovery: Use it to gather broader feedback from customers and users without targeting any specific problem or opportunity. Encompasses open customer interviews, community input, and internal feedback from field teams (customer success, sales, support). The goal here is to be closer to what customers are asking for, being proactive in getting broader feedback allows you to make better informed decisions.
🔍 Focused Discovery: Use it when a problem or opportunity has been identified, and the goal is to gain clarity and definition over it. To get more knowledge on a specific problem, you should engage with customers and users, ideally observing users doing it. Hearing from the first person. At this point, both qualitative and quantitative data are key. Seek within your product telemetry to help you have a better sense of what needs to be improved or to gather more data if required. This method provides clarity on the underlying problem and helps engineering teams develop the most suitable solution.
Exploratory Discovery Pitfalls
In particular, on the exploratory discovery or continuous discovery, there are some considerations that you should have in mind before you start scheduling customer interviews on a weekly basis.
Overwhelming amount of feedback: Without a clear product strategy, the influx of insights can lead to challenging prioritization decisions. A vital aspect of your product strategy should define what you won't be pursuing, making it easier to triage what is worth paying attention to or not.
Unintentionally setting customer expectations: Whenever any customer speaks to product leaders, expect their demands to be somehow addressed in the future. Although expectations are set at the beginning of the interview, the simple fact that they are talking to a PM puts them in different expectations.
My key advice is to use the right discovery strategy according to your needs at each moment. Spend time on exploratory discovery when starting a new product or taking charge of one. It helps in becoming familiar with the problem space, understanding customer perspectives, and learning the lingo. Use focused discovery when you already have a rough idea of the problem but need to dig deeper into the opportunity to refine your solution.
Differences Exploratory vs. Focused Discovery
Scope and Purpose:
Exploratory Discovery: It is broad in scope and primarily aims to uncover new opportunities, potential markets, or emerging trends.
Focused Discovery: It is narrow in scope and focuses on specific problems, features, or user needs within an existing product or project.
Level of Uncertainty:
Exploratory Discovery: Involves a higher level of uncertainty as it often deals with unknown or undefined aspects of a product or market.
Focused Discovery: Typically deals with a lower level of uncertainty since it builds upon existing knowledge and goals.
Research Methods:
Exploratory Discovery: Often involves qualitative research methods like customer interviews, surveys, and ethnographic studies to gain a deeper understanding of the problem space.
Focused Discovery: May rely on quantitative research methods, A/B testing, and data analysis to refine specific product features or enhancements.
Timeframe and Resources:
Exploratory Discovery: Tends to have a longer timeframe and may require more resources due to the extensive exploration and experimentation involved.
Focused Discovery: Generally has a shorter timeframe and requires fewer resources as it addresses a well-defined problem or feature.
Outcome and Deliverables:
Exploratory Discovery: The outcome may include a range of insights, potential opportunities, and a better understanding of the broader market landscape.
Focused Discovery: The outcome typically includes concrete recommendations, feature specifications, or design prototypes directly applicable to the product's development.