name	dec-discovery-validation
description	Product discovery and validation frameworks — Jobs To Be Done, Continuous Discovery / Opportunity Solution Tree, Lean UX / Build-Measure-Learn, Design Sprint, Working Backwards, Story Mapping, Crazy 8s. Use when scoping what to build, validating an idea before committing, structuring user research, or turning a fuzzy outcome into testable solutions.
tags	["product","discovery","validation","jtbd","research","always-on"]

Discovery & Validation Frameworks

Methods to figure out what to build and whether it's worth building before sinking engineering effort.

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD): Users "hire" a product to make progress in a specific circumstance. Focus on the job, not the demographic. Template: "When ___, I want to ___, so I can ___."
Continuous Discovery / Opportunity Solution Tree (Teresa Torres): Outcome → opportunities → solutions → experiments, mapped as a tree. Weekly customer contact, not quarterly research.
Lean UX / Build-Measure-Learn: Hypothesis-driven design; ship the smallest testable thing, measure, iterate.
Design Sprint (GV 5-day): Map → Sketch → Decide → Prototype → Test. Compress months of debate into a week with a validated prototype.
Working Backwards (Amazon): Write the press release and FAQ before building. If you can't write a compelling PR, don't build it.
Story Mapping: Arrange user activities horizontally (journey) and details vertically (priority) to slice releases.
Crazy 8s: 8 sketches in 8 minutes — forces divergent ideation past the obvious first idea.

Frame the problem as a JTBD statement before designing a solution.
Use the Opportunity Solution Tree to keep solutions tied to a measurable outcome, not feature requests.
Working Backwards is the cheapest kill switch: no compelling press release → don't build.
Story Mapping turns a backlog into a thin end-to-end first slice (pairs with ship-one-vertical-slice discipline).

name	dec-discovery-validation
description	Product discovery and validation frameworks — Jobs To Be Done, Continuous Discovery / Opportunity Solution Tree, Lean UX / Build-Measure-Learn, Design Sprint, Working Backwards, Story Mapping, Crazy 8s. Use when scoping what to build, validating an idea before committing, structuring user research, or turning a fuzzy outcome into testable solutions.
tags	["product","discovery","validation","jtbd","research","always-on"]

Methods to figure out what to build and whether it's worth building before sinking engineering effort.

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD): Users "hire" a product to make progress in a specific circumstance. Focus on the job, not the demographic. Template: "When ___, I want to ___, so I can ___."
Continuous Discovery / Opportunity Solution Tree (Teresa Torres): Outcome → opportunities → solutions → experiments, mapped as a tree. Weekly customer contact, not quarterly research.
Lean UX / Build-Measure-Learn: Hypothesis-driven design; ship the smallest testable thing, measure, iterate.
Design Sprint (GV 5-day): Map → Sketch → Decide → Prototype → Test. Compress months of debate into a week with a validated prototype.
Working Backwards (Amazon): Write the press release and FAQ before building. If you can't write a compelling PR, don't build it.
Story Mapping: Arrange user activities horizontally (journey) and details vertically (priority) to slice releases.
Crazy 8s: 8 sketches in 8 minutes — forces divergent ideation past the obvious first idea.

Frame the problem as a JTBD statement before designing a solution.
Use the Opportunity Solution Tree to keep solutions tied to a measurable outcome, not feature requests.
Working Backwards is the cheapest kill switch: no compelling press release → don't build.
Story Mapping turns a backlog into a thin end-to-end first slice (pairs with ship-one-vertical-slice discipline).

dec-discovery-validation