Product Discovery Philosophy

Why Discovery

Building the right thing matters more than building the thing right. Product discovery is the process of understanding what users actually need, not what we assume they need.

Principles

Pain Points Drive Priority

Every feature traces back to a user pain point. The severity and frequency of that pain point determines priority. High impact × high frequency = build it first.

User Stories Are Jobs

A user story is not a specification — it's a description of a job the user wants to accomplish and the benefit they expect. The format encodes this: "As a {persona}, I want {job to do}, so that {benefit}".

Requirements Are Contracts

Discovery produces requirements — see Requirements Philosophy and Rules for the format and conventions.

Continuous Discovery

Discovery is not a phase that ends — it continues throughout development. Every sprint, every conversation with users, every support ticket is an opportunity to discover new pain points and refine requirements.