Main takeaways: - Understand the benefits of practicing continuous product discovery - Three 'try now' tips to incorporate product discovery today - Move beyond theory and into reality with an example of launching product discovery teams at Pearson

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3 Tips to Apply Product Discovery
Today by Pearson Education PM

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5. Angela Scott
T O N I G H T ’ S S P E A K E R

6. 3 Tips to Apply
Product Discovery Today
“That was my first time talking to someone who uses our stuff. I hope to
do that much more often. It was enlightening. Usually we just do what we
think is a good idea and hope they like it.”
- Engineering Manager

7. Main Takeaways
● Understand the benefits of practicing continuous product discovery
● Move beyond theory and into reality with an example of launching product
discovery teams at Pearson
● Three 'try now' tips to incorporate product discovery today

8. formal training as a secondary math teacher → online teacher → nerdy tech stuff → product manager
This Product Manager’s Journey

9. feeling like
a fake
Product Manager

10. Introduction to Product Discovery as a “thing”
B.D. (before discovery) A.D. (after discovery)

11. Introduction to Product Discovery as a “thing”
Discovery creates a thoughtful approach for the right people to
focus on creating and validating a great experience for users.
Discovery
building the right
product
Delivery
building the
product right

12. Benefits of continuous discovery
● Time spent talking with customers is valued by all who participate
○ “That was my first time talking to someone who uses our stuff. I hope to do that much more often.
It was enlightening. Usually we just do what we think is a good idea and hope they like it.” -
Engineering Manager
● The customer owns the ‘voice of the customer’
○ No need to ‘convince’ others what customers need
● Solid backlog of opportunities to explore
● True opportunities for delight
● More efficient delivery
● Improved confidence in build strategies for the product
● Improved relationships with technology teams
● Improved relationships with customers
● Improved confidence in my skills as a product manager

13. Product Manager Surveys & Stuff
use existing resources more efficiently
cross-functional teams reduce internal blockers
increased confidence in prioritization decisions

14. Product Manager Surveys & Stuff
discovery is the space where innovation happens!
increased confidence in prioritization decisions
Source: Fresh Tilled Soil https://www.freshtilledsoil.com/the-one-thing-that-successful-product-managers-are-
doing-differently/

15. Launching formal Discovery Teams at
Some Business Context
● 1k+ employees in business unit within larger organization (25k employees)
● Onshore and offshore development teams
● Platform, contents, services to support fully virtual K-12 schools
○ Pearson Online & Blended Learning, Connections Academy
● Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
● Remote working culture

16. Launching formal Discovery Teams at
legacy
‘do it all’ platform to
support the
complete online
school experience
cross-functional teams
dedicated toward preparing
component(s) of a new
platform for migration of
existing customers
the product manager owns the collaboration experience of the discovery teams

17. Launching formal Discovery Teams at
Why Discovery
Previous platform launch attempt with a feature-first approach.
We needed a customer-first approach to deliver a better solution.

18. Discovery in SAFe
Cast of Characters

19. Discovery in SAFe
Cast of Characters
Enterprise Architect
Product Manager
Product Owner
UX
Designer
Engineering
Manager
Engineering Lead
Engineer
Engineer
Engineer
Engineer
Engineer
Scrum Master
QA

20. Discovery in SAFe
Activity Participants Days*
Understand existing functionality PdM, PO, UX, Arch Week 1
Understand the customer:
Interview users, Validate problem, Identify pain points
PdM, UX, PO
[Customers, Stakeholders]
Define high-level vision & goal::
Refine epic definition
PdM
Brainstorm potential solutions, Identify viable solution UX, Arch, Eng, PdM Week 2
Run experiments to validate risky assumptions
(UX and technical)
UX, Arch, Eng, PdM
Collect UX feedback UX, PdM
[Customers, Stakeholders]
Synthesize feedback UX, Arch, Eng, PdM Weeks 3,4
Identify Features and Enablers PdM, PO, Arch, Eng
EpicReviewEpicAnalysis

21. What Discovery “Looks” Like
1. Alignment on the vision
2. Essential Questions
3. User Journey
a. Customer Interviews!
4. Solution Sketching
5. Decide
6. Validate
1 2 3 4 5
6

22. My 3 “Do Now” Tips

23. One
Consider the team.
Minimal triad: product manager +
technical expert + designer
Why: in order to deliver the best
solutions, they need to deeply
understand the problem.
Prepare to Collaborate

24. One
Schedule a kick-off meeting.
Why: Everyone understands roles.
Why: Align on the mission.
Why: Invoke an empathetic point of view.
Prepare to Collaborate

25. Prepare to Collaborate - everyone understands roles

26. Prepare to Collaborate- align on the mission

27. Prepare to Collaborate - invoke empathetic point of view

28. Two
Schedule Interviews
Just do it.
Get it on the calendar.
Include your team!
Favorite video conference tool.
Successful methods
to find customers to
talk to?

29. Three
Reframe Problems as
Opportunities
Everyone contributes notes from the
interviews.
‘How Might We’ format

30. HMW Notes
What they are not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-UI6wTjF1U

31. Thank you!
Instagram - come hang out with us!
@productdiscoverycrue

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