Glossary
Product Discovery Glossary
The language of continuous discovery and Opportunity Solution Trees, in plain English. Each term has a short definition and a link to go deeper.
- Assumption
- A belief a solution depends on. If it turns out to be wrong, the solution fails — so the risky ones are worth testing first. Read more →
- Assumption mapping
- Plotting each assumption by importance and evidence to find which to test first — the high-importance, low-evidence ones. Read more →
- Bet sizing
- Ranking candidate solutions by effort versus impact, so the highest-leverage work wins the roadmap instead of the loudest idea.
- Confidence
- How strongly the evidence supports an opportunity or assumption. Confidence is the antidote to deciding by opinion or seniority.
- Continuous discovery
- The habit of weekly customer contact feeding product decisions, rather than a one-off research phase before a project. Read more →
- Customer interview
- A story-based conversation that uncovers real needs — you ask about specific past moments, not hypotheticals or opinions. Read more →
- Desirability, viability, feasibility, usability
- The four kinds of risk an assumption can carry: do they want it, should we (business), can we build it, can they use it. Learn more →
- Dual-track agile
- Running a discovery track and a delivery track in parallel with the same team, so you build the right thing, not just build fast. Learn more →
- Evidence
- The interviews, metrics, and feedback attached to a node to justify a decision — what turns an opinion into a defensible bet.
- Key Result
- The measurable target of an OKR. In an Opportunity Solution Tree, the Key Result is the outcome you put at the root. Learn more →
- Leap-of-faith assumption
- A belief that is both high-importance and low-evidence — the first thing you should test before building. Learn more →
- North star metric
- The single metric that best captures the value customers get from your product, used to align the whole team. Read more →
- OKR
- Objectives and Key Results — a goal-setting framework. It pairs with an OST: the Key Result sets the outcome, the tree shows how to reach it. Learn more →
- Opportunity
- A customer need, pain, or desire — phrased as a problem (“I can’t tell which teams are active”), never as a solution. Read more →
- Opportunity Solution Tree
- A visual map connecting a measurable outcome to the opportunities, solutions, and assumptions you bet on to reach it. Read more →
- Outcome
- A measurable change in customer behaviour that drives business value — like activation or retention. Not a feature. Read more →
- Output
- Something you ship — a feature or release. Easy to count, but not the same as the impact it actually has. Learn more →
- Product trio
- The product manager, designer, and engineer who own discovery together, rather than handing it off between roles. Learn more →
- Product-market fit
- The point where enough customers would be genuinely disappointed to lose your product — a common discovery goal for early-stage teams. Read more →
- Solution
- A concrete bet you could make to address an opportunity. You usually compare a few per opportunity rather than marrying the first idea. Read more →
Put the words into practice
Outcomify is the purpose-built tool for Opportunity Solution Trees — outcomes, opportunities, solutions, and assumptions, with the evidence attached.