Opportunity
In an Opportunity Solution Tree, an opportunity is a customer need, pain point, or desire — always phrased as the customer's problem ('I can't tell which teams are active'), never as a solution. Opportunities come from talking to customers, and they sit between the outcome and the solutions: you map the opportunity space first, then decide which opportunities are worth solving.
Related terms
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.
Assumption mapping
Plotting each assumption by importance and evidence to find which to test first — the high-importance, low-evidence ones.
Continuous discovery
The habit of weekly customer contact feeding product decisions, rather than a one-off research phase before a project.
Customer interview
A story-based conversation that uncovers real needs — you ask about specific past moments, not hypotheticals or opinions.
North star metric
The single metric that best captures the value customers get from your product, used to align the whole team.
Opportunity Solution Tree
A visual map connecting a measurable outcome to the opportunities, solutions, and assumptions you bet on to reach it.