Increase the adoption rate through continuous product discovery

Continuous product discovery increases the adoption rate for new features and products.

During the last decades, continuous integration and continuous delivery tooling and processes attracted a lot of interest, as they help organizations deliver their products frequently and quickly. More recently, another continuous process started gaining more traction, and this time it doesn’t deal with product delivery but with product discovery. It is called continuous product discovery. It represents the upgraded way of doing product discovery that is more in tune with changing the end-user needs and behaviors.

Many organizations consider that the future is predictable, and what was discovered at some point in the past will still be valid after a long time. Therefore, they approach product discovery as a timeboxed process in which product backlog items are created for several months of development, or even longer. Although detailed product roadmaps support the approach, what gets delivered doesn’t follow exactly the product roadmap. On the other hand, if the organizations don’t research how the end-user needs and behaviors have changed from the product discovery phase until the product release, how will it fit the needs? The release is then at risk of having a low adoption rate, which could have been prevented.

Why should you apply continuous product discovery in your organization?

The speed at which change takes place has increased over time. This means that people get exposed more often to new technological innovations in many areas of their lives. As a result, we frequently update our expectations on how software should work for us. For example, we expect our business software to offer a similar user experience as the apps on our mobile phones.

To achieve this, the product team needs to sit down regularly with the end-users and discuss their needs and wishes. By creating a good relationship with the end-users, the product team gets a more accurate understanding of the underlying challenges and related wishlist.

Now that there is a higher frequency of product discovery sessions, the team improves product decisions. These improvements lead to a higher adoption rate of new features and products delivered.

Like no other approach, continuous product discovery ensures that insights are shared constantly. This makes it a powerful enabler for an empathic and agile mindset.

Simply put, continuous product discovery is about delivering more value.

How do you approach product discovery in your organization?

We are very curious to find out which techniques do you find useful for this activity? Do you apply continuous product discovery? Or do you do this before creating the product roadmap but validating during the roadmap?

Please share your thoughts with us and send us an email.

Iulian-Alexandru Stoica, Functional Architect at Yonder