What is continuous product discovery: essentials + 4 best strategies to try

Key takeaways

• • Continuous discovery is a framework for iterative research and improvement of the product during development and after release.
  • The strategy is based on regular interviews with the users, surveys, and serious data analysis to come up with improvements for the product.
  • 4 activities for continuous discovery are weekly user interviews, prototype testing, data-driven experiments, and a consistent feedback loop that includes both customers and a product team.

What is a continuous product discovery

First, let’s define project discovery. The discovery process, also known as the scoping phase or business analysis, is a complex market research process done before any product development. The ultimate goal is to study the demand, and project unit economics and increase the chances of its success after launch. During this stage, product teams collect information about the demand, user needs, and potential revenue opportunities.

Sometimes, product discovery can help startup owners pivot, change a hypothesis, and save some money. For example, we were able to save our client $150,000 on an app that didn’t have a large enough audience on the market.

Most teams develop solutions in stages, with project discovery happening at the very beginning of the project. Product researchers have limited time to conduct in-depth studies of users before they have to move to the next stage. This strategy makes it harder for the team to make changes at the latest stages of development.

Continuous product discovery is a strategy for product improvement. Unlike project-based discovery, continuous discovery happens throughout the product lifespan and requires collaboration between all project members.

Continuous product discovery is a method of user research that includes regularly gathering customer feedback and introducing updates based on the findings.

According to the author of the term, coach Teresa Torres, the continuous delivery process includes “at a minimum, weekly touchpoints with customers by team building the product, where they’re conducting small research activities in pursuit of a desired product outcome.” This includes regular user interviews, surveys about their experiences, A/B tests, and other tools to check how effectively the product covers customer needs.

Why continuous product discovery is important

A continuous discovery framework is useful for projects of all sizes and industries. It calms the pressure of completing research in a short time frame and opens up an opportunity to get to know your customers on a deeper level.

Here are 4 examples of how continuous product discovery can help startups tackle common issues.

Adapt to changing customer needs

It’s no secret that user needs can change. As a product owner, your goal is to stay on top of these shifts and ensure that your product remains relevant and valuable. Frequent check-ins with users and ongoing research can help identify emerging needs or new pain points early and adjust the product roadmap accordingly.

Avoid assumption-based development

Instead of relying on gut feelings or assuming what’s best for users, you can have factual evidence of why certain features or buttons need to be added. Continuous project discovery includes rounds of interviews where you can ask for customer feedback and decide about your next development step based on what you hear.

Lay out the foundation for your updates

If you have a hypothesis about the product update, continuous discovery is an opportunity to validate your ideas with real users. As you develop and improve the product, you can gather customer feedback, research their behavior, and make data-driven changes to the solution.

Improve product-market fit

As much as users’ needs change, the market also rapidly develops — new products emerge, habits shift, and trends come and go. Having an ongoing dialogue with customers helps identify gaps in your product, uncover new opportunities, and fine-tune the business value proposition.

How to get started with continuous product discovery: 5 tips from Purrweb

The continuous discovery process is a relatively new concept, with not-that-many tutorials and guides available online. One of the key sources about the framework is Teresa Torres’ book, “Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value.”

However, it’s crucial to understand all the ins and outs of the product discovery framework if you want to avoid creating a mess in your development process. Here are 5 tips from our team based on our experience with product discovery and key takeaways from the book.

🎯 Set clear goals and objectives

Before jumping into research, define what you’re trying to achieve. Are you aiming to increase user retention? Looking to prioritize features for development? Having specific goals for the discovery process helps product teams focus efforts and measure progress.

Imagine you’re working on a home rental app with a matching algorithm. Your goal might be to increase the overall number of registered users by 15% over the next two months. This clear objective will guide your discovery process, helping you understand why users might not be registering on our app and what could motivate them to do so.

📆 Establish a schedule for discovery activities

Create a routine that fits your team’s workflow and stick to it. This could be weekly user check-ins, monthly data reviews, or quarterly in-depth interviews.

When you have a consistent schedule of discovery process activities and follow it, other team members will know when to expect possible changes and can plan their work around them.

Continuous Discovery Habits proposes a framework that includes weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks for product teams.

• • Every week: User interviews, analytics review, competitors research.
  • Every month: User testing, surveys and feedback, product metrics review.
  • Every quarter: User persona and journey mapping, prioritization, and stakeholder review.

🔍 Choose appropriate research methods

Different questions require different tools. Use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to get the full picture — qualitative approaches answer how and why questions, while quantitative reflects how much, how often, and who does it.

 Here are some effective tools we, at Purrweb, rely on during product discovery:

• • User interviews: Ideal for understanding user motivations and frustrations
  • In-app surveys: Quick way to collect feedback on specific features
  • A/B testing: Great for comparing different design options
  • Analytics: Shows how users actually use your app and what habits they have
  • Usability testing: Highlights issues in your user interface

Use methods that align with your goals and resources. If you’re a small team, start with user interviews and basic analytics. As your product grows, you can add more advanced tools and techniques.

🔁 Create a feedback loop

Set up a system to share discovery process findings regularly with your entire team. This could be a weekly summary email, a dedicated Slack channel for quick updates, or a monthly all-team meeting — whatever works best for you.

Be sure that everyone, from developers to designers to product managers, has access to user feedback. This shared knowledge helps the whole team make user-focused decisions.

All gathered insights should lead to improvements. Otherwise, efforts and resources spent on the continuous delivery process are useless.

⚠️ Acknowledge and prepare for common challenges

Be ready for typical roadblocks during product discovery such as time constraints, inconclusive data, and a consistent feedback loop. Here are some examples of the most common issues that we have faced during the product discovery process:

• • Time constraints: Any research takes time, and there is always pressure to prepare the findings before a new sprint starts.
  • Mixed feedback: Sometimes, users have conflicting opinions, and product teams need to look deeper for patterns and majority preferences.
  • Data overload: Too much information from users can be confusing. Try to focus on insights that align with your goals.
  • Team resistance: Some team members can see frequent changes as stressful and unnecessary tasks. Share the data behind each decision and involve teams in user interviews to demonstrate its value.

How to build a continuous discovery team: 3 choices

To get together an effective team for product discovery, you essentially need to make choices based on the 3 following factors.

Collaboration model

Decide if you want to hire freelance specialists for your project, outsource the development to an IT company, or assemble an in-house team. All of these models have their own pros and cons. The main difference is the budget and expertise level. For example, an in-house team will lead to a lot of out-of-pocket expenses on salaries and training, while freelancers will be the cheapest option, but it’s hard to vet their expertise. Outsourcing is somewhere in the middle.

Key roles

Pick what team members you need. Product manager, a UX designer, and a developer — also known as the “Product Trio.” This is the basic structure for a project team to work together on discovery activities and ensure a balanced approach. If you have resources to involve UX researchers — even better, it’s always a plus for a product discovery process.

Necessary skills

Identify what skills your “Product Trio” should have for successful product discovery. Usually, it requires a mix of hard and soft skills. Here are the main ones:

4 key strategies for a continuous discovery process

We put together a list of 4 practical strategies any product team can implement to start continuous product discovery right away.

Regular customer check-ins

Schedule short 30-minute calls with users every week. Ask about their recent experiences with your product. For example, if you have just added a new feature, find out if they got a chance to use it and what they think.

Prototype testing

When you have an idea for a new feature or re-design of the interface, share simple sketches and early design concepts with a group of users and iterate quickly based on their feedback.

Data-driven experiments

Split your user base into groups to compare the performance of two different ideas, without telling customers what version they interact with. Quantitative product discovery data like this will provide a foundation for future product decisions.

Continuous feedback loops

Add quick, 1-2 question surveys inside your app. Place them where users are most likely to see them, for example, after completing a task. Keep questions simple such as, “How easy was your experience today?”

Then, don’t forget to share what you learn with your developers and designers regularly. This keeps everyone focused on real user needs. For instance, if several users find your search function frustrating, your team can prioritize fixing it.

Wrapping up

Continuous discovery is a framework for iterative research and improvement of the product during its development and after its release. This is based on regular check-ins with the users and some serious data analysis to come up with improvements for the product.

Unlike traditional product discovery, a continuous approach to user research doesn’t stop at the start of the development or on the product launch. While this strategy might bring a certain stress level from constant changes, if implemented correctly, it will add value to the product and establish a sturdy bridge between the product and the user base.

About us

Purrweb is a full-cycle development company with 10+ years of experience spanning healthcare, fintech, logistics, real estate, social media, and many other niches. We build user-friendly, intuitive, and reliable digital products, from project discovery and planning to market launch and post-release maintenance.

Our specialty is MVP development, a minimum viable product that helps startups validate their ideas fast and create an early-stage product to show investors and customers. Check out our portfolio of some of the MVPs we’ve developed and our product discovery projects. For example, how we saved our client $40,000 and helped make a travel app MVP.

[wpim]