Have you considered Lean Product Discovery? Have you been wondering if the product you’re working on really provides value to your customers?
What is Lean Product Discovery?
Lean Product Discovery answers the big question: “Should we build the product?” In other words, it helps us know the uncertainties and risks of our project.
Also, it increases our team’s productivity. How? Lean Product Discovery reduces waste efforts. Then, it allows us to build the right things first.
Moreover, it checks the value of the product. And it will be based on the customers’ feedback.
What are the best practices of Lean Product Discovery?
The Golden Rule: You are not the user, so never assume.
We should never assume that you know what your users really want. And that’s where Lean Product Discovery enters the picture. How?
Well, it relies heavily on the Build, Measure, and Learn loop. This loop will validate your assumptions. Also, it will help you understand your customers’ feedback.
Additionally, we can’t simply ask them what they want. It doesn’t paint a complete picture of what they truly need. So, we use an MVP or the Minimum Viable Product.
This MVP is like the sample product that we can show our customers. So, we will be able to get real feedback. And we will know if it gives value to our users.
Accept uncertainty.
Sadly, we can never get a complete understanding of our customers’ wants and needs. So, we have to challenge our assumptions and accept risks. That is still better than predicting their expectations.
Lean Product Discovery will help you identify assumptions that will cause failure to your product. It might be about the profitability of the product. Also, it could be technical aspects like performance.
By accepting uncertainty and testing it, you can avoid worse scenarios. Like experiencing a bankruptcy or product fail.
Focus on giving the highest value to your customers.
As mentioned in the previous part, Lean Discovery emphasizes validating your assumptions. By doing this, you’ll know that you are delivering the right product to your audience.
So, define your exact scope from the beginning. You can also work hard to stay inside the “iron triangle.” This triangle refers to:
- Cost
- Schedule
- Scope
Thus, focus on making a product that gives the highest value. In that way, you can avoid building a product that has little value to anyone.
What are the differences between Agile, Scrum, and Lean Discovery?
Lean Product discover focuses on building the right product for your user. But, Agile and Scrum focus on faster development.
Moreover, Lean Product Discovery ensures that you built a product that validates your business value. It also shows the effects of your latest product or changes.
On the other hand, Agile and Scrum help you collect fast and cheap insights. These insights come from the actual users who used your product.
So, if you want to create a product efficiently, it requires working software like Agile or Scrum. And if you want to ensure the value of your product, apply the Lean Product Discovery.
