Customer Discovery and Research

Discovery decides what to build by testing whether ideas are valuable, usable, feasible and viable; delivery builds and ships the chosen solution to production quality.

It ships features on schedule that customers do not use or value, spending engineering effort on untested assumptions.

Engineers judge feasibility early and, knowing what the technology now makes possible, often propose better solutions than the PM or designer would; Cagan calls engineers the best single source of innovation.

At minimum weekly touchpoints with customers, by the team building the product, through small research activities in pursuit of a desired outcome.

Small, frequent learning keeps decisions tied to current customer reality and lets the team adjust each week instead of acting on stale findings.

They automate recruiting, for example with an in-product intercept or a standing panel, so a scheduled interview appears each week without manual effort.