Product Discovery

Uncovering Opportunities for Success

By Pingala Software India Pvt Ltd

Agenda
• Introduction
• Area Discovery
• Stakeholder Mapping
• Team Alignment – 4 in a Box
• Business Problem Statement & Product Canvas
• Framework for Product Discovery
• Design Thinking Concepts
• MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• Sprint 0 Derivative
• MVP Evolution
• MVP + Versions
• Conclusion
Introduction
• Let me tell you a story about an Amazon
smartphone.

• In the year 2014, Amazon introduced an

elegant device that ran on a highly
customized version of the Android OS.

• Dubbed the "Fire Phone," this innovative

device possessed the remarkable ability to
identify sounds, text, and objects, even
allowing users to locate scanned items on
Amazon with ease.

• Notably, it distinguished itself by the

absence of many Google services.
Some more facts…
• Just two months following its debut, and
with sales totaling less than 35,000 units

• Amazon significantly reduced the phone's

cost. Originally priced at $650, it was later
What went
available for only 99 cents when
accompanied by a two-year contract. wrong?
• This move reportedly resulted in a
staggering $170 million loss for Amazon,
leaving them with $83 million worth of
unsold inventory.
Postmortem
• Amazon built smartphone that no one needed.

• The phone didn’t look or work bad. The question was, who needs a
phone to make purchases on Amazon?
Postmortem continues….
• Amazon’s three fatal assumptions

1. Dynamic perspective
• Designed a 3D display for the phone, including five front-facing cameras and eye-tracking technology.
• Who was looking for it?

2. Firefly
• Coined new word Firefly - it allowed customers to use their phone’s camera to scan barcodes on
products in stores and then buy it on Amazon.
• How many will buy online from a physical store? Most people were using desktop/laptop to buy online

3. Fire OS
• Instead of using an existing operating system, Amazon opted to create its own by using a forked version
of Android.
• Fire Phone users couldn’t access some of the most popular Google and Android apps.
Lesson
• Finding a market fit is a vital part of any product.

• We need to figure out what to build and who needs it before actually
building it.

• So, product development can be divided into two phases:

• Discovery

• Delivery
What does Product Discovery mean to
you in your context?
Product Discovery
Area Discovery
Product Discovery describes the iterative process of reducing
uncertainty around a problem or idea to make sure that the
right product gets built for the right audience
Two Phases
• Exploration: All activities concerning the research stage of a product,
communication with stakeholders, exploring existing problems, solutions, and
customer pains.
• Research
• Ideation
• Evaluation

• Validation: Intended to check each assumption made during the exploration

process.
• Prototyping
• Testing
• Learning
Reduce Risks
1.Value risk (whether customers will buy it or users will choose to use it)

2.Usability risk (whether users can figure out how to use it)

3.Feasibility risk (whether our engineers can build what we need with the
time, skills, and technology we have)

4.Business viability risk (whether this solution also works for the various
aspects of our business)
Stakeholder Mapping
Who should be the part of the Team?
• Product Manager/Product Owner
• User Researcher
• Design Communicator
• Prototyper
• Technical and Business Domain Experts
Type of Stakeholders
• Primary stakeholders are those who have a direct impact — or high
power — on the product or project (e.g. employees, customers).
• Secondary stakeholders are those who have an indirect impact on the
product or project (e.g. shareholders).
• Tertiary stakeholders are those who have a potential impact on the
product or project (e.g. industry experts).‍
• Quaternary stakeholders are those who have no direct impact — or
low power — on the product or project but may be interested in its
success or failure (e.g. media).
Group Exercise
• Create Stakeholders Mapping for your Product
• Identify individual people
• Converge and discuss
• Categorize them to right category
Team Alignment – 4 in a box
VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC)
• VMC is the flagship offering in the new VMware Cloud Services.
• It integrates products from across the VMware portfolio into a single
solution for our customers.
• With the need to incorporate all of these capabilities into the product,
the VMC team is bombarded with requirements and dependencies
from every direction.
• As projects and requirements grew, they quickly realized how out of
sync they were with other teams.
Challenges & Frustrations
• Early stages of VMC development faced challenges due to misalignments between teams, posing a
threat to on-time delivery.

• Multiple business units were working on their own product releases, leading to separate efforts on
the same problem and late design arrivals.

• Backend services did not align with UI designs, hindering implementation due to the lack of
coordination.

• Teams operated in separate scrum teams, with different sprint cycles and used varied project
management tools, resulting in poor visibility into each other's backlog and sprint planning.

• Communication of priorities between teams was challenging and often occurred late, causing
disruptions in ongoing work.
4 in a Box Model
Walmart Context
Business Problem Statement
Product Canvas

29
Exercise
• Our e-commerce platform is experiencing a high shopping cart
abandonment rate during the checkout process, resulting in lost
revenue.
Context: Problem:
 Our e-commerce platform is facing a persistent issue  Our e-commerce platform is
of a high shopping cart abandonment rate during the experiencing a high shopping cart
checkout process. abandonment rate during the checkout
 This issue is causing substantial revenue losses, process, resulting in lost revenue.
impacting our overall business performance.
Emotional Impact: Alternatives:
 Customers: Frustration, inconvenience, and distrust due to a 1. Streamline Checkout Process: Simplify and optimize
complicated and unreliable checkout process. the checkout flow to reduce friction and improve the
user experience.
 Marketing Team: Frustration and concern over wasted 2. Implement Guest Checkout: Allow customers to make
advertising spend and reduced return on investment. purchases without requiring them to create an
 Development Team: Frustration and pressure to address the account.
technical issues leading to cart abandonment. 3. Diversify Payment Options: Offer a wider range of
 Executives: Worry and urgency to resolve this issue to prevent payment methods to accommodate customer
further revenue loss and protect the brand's reputation. preferences.
4. Improve Error Handling: Identify and rectify technical
errors and issues during the checkout process
promptly.
Quantifiable Impact: Alternative Shortcomings:
 Lost Revenue: The high cart abandonment rate results in an 5. Streamline Checkout Process: May require significant
estimated annual revenue loss of $2 million. development effort and time to implement. Could
 Customer Satisfaction: Customer satisfaction scores have potentially overlook specific user preferences.
dropped by 15% over the past year. 6. Implement Guest Checkout: Limits the ability to collect
customer data for marketing and personalization
 Market Share: Competitors are gaining a 10% increase in efforts.
market share due to their smoother checkout processes. 7. Diversify Payment Options: Could introduce
complexities in payment processing and require
additional resources for maintenance.
8. Improve Error Handling: Focusing solely on error
resolution may not address the root causes of
abandonment, and errors may persist.
Target Audience:
 Customers: Individuals who visit our e-commerce
platform and engage in the shopping process.
 Marketing Team: Responsible for driving traffic and
optimizing conversion rates.
 Development Team: Manages technical aspects of the
platform, including checkout functionality.
 Executives: Concerned about the financial impact and
market competitiveness.
Actionable Steps:
1. Conduct a comprehensive UX audit to identify pain points
in the checkout process.
2. Implement a simplified and user-friendly checkout flow
based on audit findings.
3. Develop and test a guest checkout feature, closely
monitoring its impact on conversion rates.
4. Expand payment options, integrating popular payment
gateways.
5. Establish a dedicated task force to address and resolve
technical errors in real-time.
6. Continuously monitor key performance indicators (KPIs)
such as cart abandonment rate, conversion rate, and
revenue to assess the effectiveness of implemented
solutions.
7. Regularly gather customer feedback and conduct surveys
to gauge satisfaction and make iterative improvements to
the checkout process.
Design Thinking
Introduction
• Design thinking became a basic concept and framework for
conducting product discovery.
• It’s a customer-centered approach to analyzing the product
requirements.
• Three primary elements shape the whole idea:
• Desirability shows demand for a certain feature by a target audience.
• Feasibility, or technical possibilities, as your company’s skills and resources.
• Viability, or what makes sense for your business model.
Problem
• As many as 80 percent of pediatric patients have to be sedated. And if
an anesthesiologist isn’t available, the scan has to be postponed,
causing families to go through their cycle of worry all over again.
“How Might We” Technique
• The How Might We technique employs a language trick to open up creative
thinking.

• How might we, instead of How will we

• A How might we (HMW) question can generate lots of creative ideas. Here are
some examples of How might we questions:
• How might we ensure more people pay their taxes before the deadline?
• How might we help employees stay productive and healthy when working from
home?
• How might we make customers feel that their information is safe and secure
when creating an account?
Writing Good HMWs
• Start with the Problems (or Insights) You’ve Uncovered

• Problem
• Users aren't aware of the full product offerings.

• HMW
• How might we increase awareness of the full product offerings?
Writing Good HMWs
• Avoid Suggesting a Solution in Your HMW Question

• Problem
• Users are often unsure about which form to complete when they file their taxes.

• HMW (Poor)
• How might we tell users which form to complete to file their taxes?

• HMW (Good)
• How might we make users feel confident they are filing their taxes correctly?
Writing Good HMWs
• Keep Your HMWs Broad

• Problem
• Users often spend a long time checking their submission for mistakes.

• HMW (Good)
• How might we make it quick and easy for users to check their work for mistakes?

• HMW (Better)
• How might we support users to efficiently draft submissions that they’re happy with?
Writing Good HMWs
• Focus Your HMWs on the Desired Outcome

• Problem
• Users often call us because they’re unsure about the application process.

• HMW (Poor)
• How might we stop users from calling us?

• HMW (Good)
• How might we make users feel confident they have all the information they need?
Writing Good HMWs
• Phrase Your HMW Questions Positively

• Problem
• Users find the return process difficult.

• HMW (Poor)
• How might we make the return process less difficult?

• HMW (Good)
• How might we make the return process quick and intuitive?
HMW - Checklist
• Is it based on an existing problem or insight?
• Does it track a desired outcome?
• Is it written positively?
• Is it broad enough to ensure many creative ideas?
• Does it suggest a solution?
Tools for Product Discovery
Mural and Miro
Virtual whiteboard and collaboration tools
• Miro and Mural - Features these two options have in common:

• Create notes and organize ideas

• Develop flowcharts, frameworks, or drawings

• Use pre-built templates to inspire creative work

• Collaborate together with teams virtually

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Introduction

The DURF Pyramid by Dan Olsen

Introduction
• What is MVP (Minimum Viable Product):
• It's a version of a new product that includes the minimum features necessary
to meet early adopters' needs and gather valuable feedback.

• The primary goal of an MVP:

• To quickly validate or invalidate assumptions about a product idea and reduce
the risk of building something users don't want.

• MVPs are designed for rapid development and testing.

MVP Vs Prototype
• Discuss
Sprint 0
• Discuss
Conclusion
Learning
• Did we learn anything?

• Let’s validate
Situation 1
• Health Insurance Domain Product
• One important functionality of one module used by Customer care executives
• One page that was used for claim processing contains many buttons scattered
in the entire page
• Development team worked to re-design that page, PO approved
• Changes done and promoted to production
• Call receiving rate decreased significantly, Lots of complain from Customer
Care Executives.
• Roll back of release in the mid night, during business hour
• What went wrong?
Situation 2
• Security Product - One important Feature to deliver
• Involved multiple stakeholders from the beginning almost 3 months before
the actual development – Ideation Phase to Development Phase
• Most of the Development completed in the multiple iterations
• Design solution and UX design questioned by one of group
• Multiple discussions and many email back and forth
• Eventually need to change the entire approach, design as well as UX design

• What went wrong?

Pingala Software India Pvt Ltd
Set and Adopt Right Process
Collaboration
Team &

Executive Team Portfolio Team Program Team Delivery Team

Investment Investment Investment Release Release

Targeting Ready to Build Build Production
Alignment Prioritization Validation Viability

Strategic Detail Planning

Alignment Demand Planning Execution Governance
Accountability

Initiative Intake Solution Production Ready

Story Release Planning Develop &
Portfolio Visioning Mapping Integration Release
Test
3 Tier Model

PO Team

Accountability
Story Sprint Daily Sprint
Delivery Team Refinement Planning Review Sprint Done
Demo
Cont Improvement

Maximize Strategic Alignment Minimize Delivery Risk

Increase Transparency Increase Predictability Reduce Improve Quality
Time to ROI Reduce Rework
 Enterprise Agile Delivery Approach (4 Tier Governance Model)

Senior Leadership team Governance over Value Stream/intake/Strategy/budgeting

•Portfolio Planning
Portfolio Management team (PMT) •Market Research
•Capability Analysis
•ROI Validation
Strategy/Vision/Release Definition •Roadmap
•Stage Gate
•Epic feasibility
•Change Control
•Release Initiation
•Priority Management
•Launch Readiness

•Release Planning •Feature Elaboration

•Prioritization •Assign business value
Core Product Team (CPT) •Risk/issue •Acceptance Criteria
Release/Project/Service/Feature/Architecture •Stage Gate •Verification & Validation
•Throughput Management
•Retrospective

•Release Planning •Decompose Stories

Delivery Teams (DT) •Sprint Planning •Code review
Design/Build/Test/Delivery •Design/Code/test •Acceptance Testing
•Demo •CI/CD
•Sprint Review
•Retrospective
 Participants in 3 Tier Governance Model

Level Participants
CTO, Sol Arch, UX Head, Site Leader, Product Management head,
PMT Marketing and Sales Head
Product owner, Engineering Manager, QA manager, Program Mgr,
Program Architects, Support Lead, Infra lead, UX Lead
DT Scrum Teams

Level Meeting Frequency Who will Input Output

Schedule
PMT Every 15 Days CPO Initiative, Epic Technical study, Risk Identification, UX approach
Duration: 2 hr And Approve the epic for next level, .
Portfolio backlog ready

PgM Every 15 Days Program Approved Feature/US ready, assumption to be verified, Spike
Duration: 2 hr Mgr Initiative, Epic for technical feasibility, UX design approval.
Program level backlog ready.
Strategic Tier
Initiative Initiative Initiative
Initiative Discover Initiative under Validation
Accepted
Evaluate Construction

Purpose 1. Discover New opportunities to improve the business value 1. Approved opportunities and 1. Approved and evaluated 1. Initiative 1. Release
through revenue generation ,cost saving, compliance, tech further evaluated, estimated and opportunities are passed to Complete opportunities are
debt, product enhancement prioritized against current backlog respective teams for validated against
2. Candidate Epics or value refinement and development initial investment
3. Indentify Risks, Impacts and dependencies and ultimately release decision with
4. Impacted Teams actual results
5. Initiative to Strategy (Initiative for Consideration)

Activities 1. PMT- Validate Initiative alignment to strategy 1. PMT - Communicate Release 1. SLT/PMT - Review Initiative 1. SLT/PMT - All 1.Collect data
2. CTO - Technical (New Solution and Design) objectives (MVP) health work for needed to validate
3. UX - (New Solution Design) 2. PMT - Determine the Capacity 2. PMT - Monitor and initiative is the expected
3. PMT - Identify Dependency and communicate Initiative health complete and business case
risk (Including Cross PMT) to stakeholders close the 2. Review ROI
initiative

Ceremony 1. SLT/PMT - Portfolio Plan Review 1. SLT/PMT - Portfolio Plan Review 1. SLT/PMT - Portfolio Plan
2. PMT - Portfolio Status Review
2. PMT - Portfolio Status

Outputs 1. SLT - Initiative is decision on (Approved/rejected) 1. PMT - PIFA Stage gate
2. Release initiation stage gate
3. CPT - Release Plan
4. SLT - Initiative is decision
(Approved/rejected)
1. PMT - Initiative Dashboard All work for 1. Benefits
2. Release Management initiative is Realization Results
3. SLT/PMT - Launch complete
Readiness Stage Gate
 Portfolio Tier
Epic Epic Epic
Epic Release Epic under
Investment Investment Accepted
Targeting Construction
Decision Validation

Purpose 1.Align Candidate Epics to Initiative 1. Validate Business Intent & 1. Ensure credible release planning 1. Assess and guide the 1. Feature Complete
strategy (Epic for Consideration) Epic Viability 2. Identify & plan for dependencies progress of value delivery 2. Validate business case
3. Balance Capacity and demand and feature Aceptance
criteria

Activities 1. PMT- Creation of initial Candidate
Epics for Investment Decision by the
SLT
2. PMT - Validate Candidate Epics
alignment to Strategy
1. PMT - Validate epic and
constraints
2. PMT -
Validate/Review/Approved
Design
3. PMT - Work indentified to
address risks and dependencies
1. PMT - Communicate Release
Commitments (MVP)
2. CPT - Determine the Capacity
3. CPT - Estimate Features
3. CPT - Mitigate Dependency and risk
1. PMT - Review Epic Health
& Portfolio Dashboard
2. Release Mgt/PMT -
monitor and communicate
release progress to
stakeholders
PMT - Verify the Acceptance
test
1.Product manager -
Collect data needed to
validate the expected
business case
2. Product manager -
Review ROI

Ceremony 1. AOP 1. Epic Feature Refinement 1. Epic Feature Refinement 1. Portfolio Status PMT/RM - GO/No Go
2. Portfolio Plan review 2. Release Planning 2. Cross PMT dependency meeting

Outputs 1. SLT - Decision made on Initiative
including Candidate Epics
(Approved/rejected)
1. SLT/PMT - Decision made on 1. Product managers - Product Release
Epics (Approved/rejected) map
2. PMT/CPT - Release plan
3. CPT - Update Risk score or plan
4. PMT - Decision made on Epics
(Approved/rejected)
1. PMT - Complete Epic (All 1. CPT - Feature
Acceptance test are Passed) approved for release are
2. PMT - Decision made on accepted and closed
Epics (Approved/rejected)
3. RM - Across Release
Dependencies &
communication/Planning
Program Tier
Feature Feature dev Feature
Feature to be Feature Feature
Ready and Accepted
Consider Solution Design planning
validation

Purpose 1.Align Candidate Features to Epic 1. High Level Solution Design 1. Elaborate stories from 1. Features are reeady for 1. All features and 1. Build generation for
2. Validate Solution Viability Features development stories are done for Epic release/deployment
(Financial, technical etc) 2. Identify Risks & 2. MVP idetified 2. Feature in Prod
Dependecies

Activities 1. CPT - Getting Epic clarity from PMT
2. PMT/CPT - List all the known
candidate Feature to the
corresponding epics
3. PMT/CPT - Validate feature
alignment to epic
1. CPT - Technology Assessment
2. PMT/CPT - Provide additional
documentation as needed (i.e.
wireframes, DB tables etc)
3. CPT - Identify solution option
4. CPT - Create feature in defined
format
5. CPT - Definition of Done for feature
6. CPT - Identify NFR, Risk and
Dependencies
7. PMT/CPT - Feature mapping and
backlog refinement
1. CPT/DT - Story mapping
and refining backlog
2. CPT/DT - Refining Sizing
(Features and stories)
3. CPT - Creating Risk adjust
release plan
4. CPT - Refine NFRs
1. CPT - Validate MVP for Epic 1. CPT - Feature
2. CPT - Make release
commitment
3. CPT/DT - refining sizing
(Features & Stories)
4. CPT - Creating Risk
adjusted release plan
1. CPT - Review the testing
development and results, Including NFR, Pen
validation including NFR test etc
2. CPT - Socialization of 2. CPT- Release Readiness
capabilities checklist.
3. CPT/DT User 3. CPT/RM - Review the
Acceptance Testing deployment plan
4. CPT/DT - Final Defect 4. CPT - Go/No Go
remediation meeting with all
5. CPT - Pen test etc stakeholders
5. Production support plan
6. Operational Handoff
and communication
7. Warranty Support

Ceremony 1. PMT/CPT - Epic Refinement
Outputs 1. PMT/CPT - List of candidate
features (Approved/Rejected)
1. Feature Refinement 1. Story Refinement
2. Sprint Planning
1. PMT/CPT - Program backlog: 1. PMT/CPT - Initial Release
Feature, Architectural and Risk card Plan
2. CPT - Feature Sizing (SWAG) 2. CPT - Update Risk and
3. CPT - Architectural Guidance depedencies lists
3. CPT - Feature estimates
4. CPT - Spikes Identify
5. CPT/DT - Refining Stories
6. CPT - Indetify teams
1. Story Refinement
2. Sprint Planning
1. CPT/DT -Refine backlog
(80% define)
2. CPT - Feature sizing (SWAG) planned testing
3. CPT/DT - Backlog items
prioritized & sequenced
across DT
1. Daily Standup Release Readiness
2. System Demo
3. Sprint Review and
Demo
1. Validation complete 1. Release package
including the all the 2. Release approved
3. Feature pushed to prod
2. No high Severity 4. Release criteria met
defects
3. Defects and
exceptions are added in
backlog
4. Regression test suite
updated and executed
Delivery Tier

Make Ready Story Ready In -progress Story Done Story Accepted

Purpose 1. Ready the Backlog 1. Stories ready for delivery teams 1. Work is done to complete 1. Stories has been completed 1. Stories has been
the stories accepted

Activities 1. CPT/DT - Create stories in agreed
format
2. CPT/DT - Define the acceptance
criteria for backlog stories
3. CPT/DT - provide additional
documentation as needed
1. CPT - Tie Acceptance criteria to feature
acceptance
2. CPT - Revise level of value
3. CPT/DT - provide acceptance criteria in
defined format
1. DT - Create story tasks 1. DT - Stories meeting DOD 1. DT - Ongoing Support
2. DT - Develop story 2. CPT - Approves stories as 2. CPT/DT - operational
functionality meeting Acceptance criteria handoff
3. DT - Unit test functionality 3. DT - Bugs found for the story 3. DT - identify areas of
4. DT - Code/Peer review have been fixed improvement
5. DT - Develop Acceptance test
6. Code Checked -in
7. DT - Execution of acceptance
test case
8. DT - Fix defects
9. DT - Automation and CI/CD

Ceremony 1. CPT/DT - Backlog refinement 1. CPT/DT - Backlog refinement 1. Daily Stand-up 1. Retrospective
2. CPT/DT - Release planning 2. System Demo
3. CPT/DT sprint planning 3. Sprint Review and
Demo

Outputs 1. DT - Stories must met the DOR
2. DT - Update the stories estimate
1. DT - meets story DOR
2. CPT - Architecture documentation for
the feature as needed
3. CPT - Wireframe for stories as needed
4. DT - Estimate stories in story points
1. DT - stories are tasked and 1. DT - Documentation updated 1. DT - Operational
estimated for sprint as required documentation updated
2. DT - Stories are completed 2. CPT/DT - Acceptance of as required
stories/features recorded
Structure:

Portfolio Teams
Team Kanban

Program Teams Team Team Team

Kanban

Team Team Team

Product and Service Scrum
Teams
Team Team Team Team
Different Level Metrics:
Lead Time
Epic Burn down charts
Time/Cost/Scope
Portfolio Teams Financial metrics

Cycle Time
Features Committed VS Delivered
Automation %age: Unit, Integration
Program Teams Rework/Defects
Cumulative chart
Feature Velocity and Predictability
NFR

Backlog Horizon
Average Sprint Velocity
Burn-down
Product and Service Requirement Volatility
Teams Acceptance %age
Code Coverage
Escaped Defects