The discipline of product discovery: identifying breakthrough business opportunities

This paper aims to cover the authors' experience with applying the latest methodologies in identifying and articulating product opportunities within a large, global corporation and dynamic marketplace.

The study conducts a course of multiple explorations in identifying and articulating product opportunities within a large, global corporation and dynamic marketplace.

The paper finds that identifying product opportunities is a large and at times fuzzy activity. As experts bring insights and improvements to light, the application of those within a large corporate context can be daunting. Over the course of multiple explorations key lessons emerge to improve the reliability of such endeavors. Building a repeatable process to identify new product opportunities requires the use of multiple methods from a range of fields to minimize blind spots that each inevitably have. The process also requires a non‐linear approach to allow the company's context and data at hand to shape the exploration. And finally, the process requires discipline and follow through from managing bias to “actionable” documentation to ensure effectiveness.

By reflecting on the application of theory to practice, this paper articulates improvements and field tested techniques that can make the activity of identifying product opportunities more reliable and ultimately more valuable.