The book is about product discovery that is usually split into 2 phases:
Problem discovery & solution discovery.
The book present a more detailed approach named FOCUSED.
This framework is useful at the feature level.
It have 7 parts. Each part requires answers to several questions.
Frame
Sucess Criteria
- Define the metrics
- Define the goal
- look at the status today and variance
Damage control
What acceptable compromise needs to be done?
Timebox
What is the appetite for this?
If the duration of the project is too long, the ROI goes down, and ruins the purpose of the project.
Defining the timebox early is the most useful constraint. Should we look for a scrappy solution or solving the problem more and will guide if we need a scrappy solution or a full featured one. Are we looking for a small incremental improvement, or to a new solution?
Observe
I am ___
Define the exact customer segment
and when I ___
Define what the user wants to achieve
What matters the most to me is ___
Define the exact need
But ___
Define the exact pain point
So I have to ___
Define what the user has to do instead of using your solution.
So you have a baseline to compare the new solution to the situation today
Claim
Launch tweet
Write the launch tweet.
Is it easy to communicate the value to users?
Unfold
List 5 touch points
- Where the user will discover the new features? emailing? in a menu? in a tutorial?
- Which screens are impacted?
Steal
List 5 gold nuggets
A gold nugget is a best-in-class solution implemented by someone else.
Add 5 screenshots as a source of inspiration
Execute
Create a prototype
Interactive prototype in Figma?
List the hypothesis we want to test.
Ex.: is the feature discoverable?
Ex.: will the user save time?
Simplify
- What to hide?
- Are things well ordered?
- What can we remove?
- What should we make uniform?
- What should we reduce?
Decide
Go/No go
Do some user ITW and check that the suggested solution works and solves the identified pain point.