opportunity-solution-tree

name	opportunity-solution-tree
description	Build an Opportunity Solution Tree (OST) to structure product discovery — map a desired outcome to opportunities, solutions, and experiments. Based on Teresa Torres' Continuous Discovery Habits. Use when structuring discovery work, mapping opportunities to solutions, or deciding what to build next.

Opportunity Solution Tree (OST)

A visual framework for structuring continuous product discovery. Connects a desired outcome to customer opportunities, possible solutions, and experiments to validate them.

What You'll Need

Input	Required?	Example
Desired outcome (measurable)	✅ Required	"Increase 7-day retention from 28% to 40%"
Product description	✅ Required	B2B collaboration tool, enterprise segment
Customer research / known pain points	🟡 Recommended	Interview themes, NPS feedback, churn exit surveys
Existing solution ideas to evaluate	⚪ Optional	Feature backlog, team ideas

Don't have everything? Start anyway — the skill will work with what you provide and flag where richer input would improve the output.

Domain Context

The Opportunity Solution Tree (Teresa Torres, Continuous Discovery Habits) is the backbone of modern product discovery. It prevents teams from jumping to solutions by forcing them to first map the opportunity space.

Structure (4 levels):

1. Desired Outcome (top) — The measurable business or product outcome the team is pursuing. Should be a single, clear metric (e.g., "increase 7-day retention to 40%"). This comes from your OKRs or product strategy.

2. Opportunities (second level) — Customer needs, pain points, or desires discovered through research. These are problems worth solving — not features. Frame them from the customer's perspective: "I struggle to..." or "I wish I could..." Prioritize using Opportunity Score: Importance × (1 − Satisfaction) (Dan Olsen, The Lean Product Playbook). Normalize Importance and Satisfaction to 0–1.

3. Solutions (third level) — Possible ways to address each opportunity. Generate multiple solutions per opportunity — don't commit to the first idea. The Product Trio (PM + Designer + Engineer) should ideate together. "Best ideas often come from engineers."

4. Experiments (bottom) — Fast, cheap tests to validate whether a solution actually addresses the opportunity. Use assumption testing (Value, Usability, Viability, Feasibility risks). Prefer experiments with "skin-in-the-game" (Alberto Savoia) over opinion-based validation.

Key principles:

• One outcome at a time. Don't try to solve everything. Focus the tree on a single desired outcome.
• Opportunities, not features. "Never allow customers to design solutions. Prioritize opportunities (problems), not features."
• Compare and contrast. Always generate at least 3 solutions per opportunity before choosing. Avoid the "first idea" trap.
• Discovery is not linear. Loop back if experiments fail. Kill solutions that don't validate. Explore new branches.
• Continuous, not periodic. Update the tree weekly as you learn from interviews, analytics, and experiments.

Instructions

You are helping a product team build an Opportunity Solution Tree for $ARGUMENTS.

Phase 0: Context Confirmation

Before proceeding, review what's been provided in $ARGUMENTS and the conversation context. Only ask about what's missing — don't re-ask what's already clear.

1. Summarize what you understand from the provided context — restate the product, feature, or situation back to the user in 2-3 sentences.
2. Identify gaps — if any of the following are unclear, ask:
   • What is the desired outcome (the metric the team owns)?
   • What research data is available (interview transcripts, survey data, analytics)?
   • Has opportunity mapping been done before for this area?
3. Confirm: "Here's my understanding: [summary]. I plan to [brief description of what the skill will produce]. Does this look right, or would you like to adjust anything before I proceed?"

If the user provides additional context, incorporate it. If the user confirms, proceed.

Input Requirements

• A desired outcome or business metric to improve
• Customer research data (interviews, surveys, analytics, feedback)
• Optionally: existing opportunities or solution ideas to organize

Process

1. Define the desired outcome — Confirm or help articulate a single, measurable outcome at the top of the tree.

2. Map opportunities — From provided research, identify 3-7 customer opportunities (needs/pains). Group related opportunities. Frame each from the customer's perspective.

3. Prioritize opportunities — Use Opportunity Score or qualitative assessment to rank. Focus on the top 2-3.

4. Generate solutions — For each prioritized opportunity, brainstorm 3+ solutions from PM, Designer, and Engineer perspectives.

5. Design experiments — For the most promising solutions, suggest 1-2 fast experiments. Specify: hypothesis, method, metric, success threshold.

6. Visualize the tree — Present the full OST in a clear hierarchical format.

Think step by step. Save as markdown if substantial.

---