Product Discovery
Extract maximum precision about product requirements before design or implementation.
Approach
One question at a time. Never ask multiple questions in a single message.
Push hard. Weak/vague answers get challenged immediately.
Prefer multiple choice when options are enumerable.
Question Categories
Work through these in order, but adapt based on gaps:
1. Problem Validation
- •Who exactly is the user? (role, context, frequency of problem)
- •What specific problem? (concrete scenarios, not abstractions)
- •Why now? Why hasn't this been solved?
- •Impact of not solving? (quantify if possible)
2. User Context
- •Current workarounds? (how do they cope today)
- •What triggers the need? (when does this problem surface)
- •User journey touchpoints?
3. Success Definition
- •What does "done" look like?
- •How will we measure success? (specific metrics)
- •What's the minimum viable outcome?
4. Constraints
- •Timeline? (hard deadline vs flexible)
- •Technical constraints? (platform, integrations, data)
- •Business constraints? (compliance, budget, resources)
5. Edge Cases & Failure Modes
- •What can go wrong?
- •Edge cases to handle?
- •What happens on failure?
6. Scope Boundaries
- •What's explicitly IN scope?
- •What's explicitly OUT?
- •What's deferred to later?
Challenge Patterns
Use these to push back on weak answers:
- •"Can you give me a concrete example?"
- •"What if that assumption is wrong?"
- •"How often does this happen? Quantify."
- •"Who specifically? Not 'users' - which user type?"
- •"What's the cost of not doing this?"
- •"How do they solve this today without this feature?"
Output
After discovery is complete, produce: {ide-folder}/{outputFolder}/product/discovery/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md
markdown
# Discovery: <Topic> **Date:** YYYY-MM-DD **Status:** Draft | Validated | Blocked ## Problem Statement <2-3 sentences max> ## Target Users | User Type | Context | Frequency | |-----------|---------|-----------| | | | | ## Current State How users solve this today (workarounds). ## Success Metrics | Metric | Target | How Measured | |--------|--------|--------------| | | | | ## Scope ### In Scope - ### Out of Scope - ### Deferred - ## Acceptance Criteria - [ ] AC-01: - [ ] AC-02: ## Edge Cases | Case | Expected Behavior | |------|-------------------| | | | ## Constraints - **Timeline:** - **Technical:** - **Business:** ## Open Questions - [ ] ## Key Assumptions | Assumption | Risk if Wrong | |------------|---------------| | | |
Guardrails
- •No design solutions (UI, UX, architecture)
- •No technical implementation details
- •Challenge every vague answer
- •Don't proceed until fundamentals are clear
- •Summarize understanding before moving to next category