The Best vs The Rest (2/4) - Tackle Risks Up Front

The best tech companies work differently, and in ways most companies can't imagine. It may be perceived as utopian, unrealistic or orchestrated BS. Yet, the best teams are truly disciplined about a few principles.

One of these principles is to tackle risks upfront. This is what we call Product Discovery. While building a new feature, we need to figure out what to build next. Some things are pretty obvious and don't need discovery. If no team member is nervous about a feature and the product manager, designer and tech lead are aligned, the work item can go to the backlog for delivery!

But if the team is a bit more nervous, it means some questions need to be answered to identify and validate the right feature to build, and risks need to be managed. There are four risks to address in Product Discovery.

• Value - Will they buy/use it?

• Usability - Can they use it?

• Feasibility - Can we build it?

• Viability - Will it work for our business?

Are you researching, prototyping and experimenting ahead of development to validate the right feature to build next? If not, let's work together to change this!