opportunity-solution-trees

What this skill does

# Opportunity Solution Trees

## 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 you're 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. Frame them from the customer's perspective: "I struggle to..." or "I wish I could..." Prioritize using **Opportunity Score: Importance × (1 − Satisfaction)** (Dan Olsen).

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.

4. **Experiments** (bottom) — Fast, cheap tests to validate whether a solution addresses the opportunity. Use assumption testing (Value, Usability, Viability, Feasibility).

**Key principles:**
- One outcome at a time — don't try to solve everything
- Opportunities, not features — never let customers design solutions
- Compare and contrast — generate at least 3 solutions per opportunity
- Discovery is not linear — loop back if experiments fail
- Continuous, not periodic — update the tree weekly

## 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

## What It Is

Use the Opportunity Solution Tree (OST) to connect a business outcome to the customer opportunities that drive it, then compare solutions and tests. The tree forces you to separate needs from ideas and keeps discovery tied to delivery.

## When to Use It

- Structure discovery around customer opportunities
- Tie customer needs to measurable outcomes
- Compare multiple solutions for the same opportunity
- Keep continuous discovery aligned with the roadmap
- Create a shared view of priorities with stakeholders

## When Not to Use It

- You are not doing customer research
- The solution is already decided
- The work is a commodity requirement with no real options
- You only need a quick one-off decision

## Core Structure

- Outcome: the business result you are responsible for achieving
- Opportunities: unmet customer needs, pains, or desires
- Solutions: multiple ideas that address one opportunity
- Experiments: tests that validate the riskiest assumptions

## Process

Follow this step-by-step process to build and use an Opportunity Solution Tree:

### Step 1: Define the Desired Outcome
- Confirm or help articulate a single, measurable outcome at the top of the tree
- Make it specific (e.g., "increase 7-day retention to 40%" not "improve retention")
- Tie it to your OKRs or product strategy

### Step 2: Map Opportunities
- From customer research, identify 3-7 customer opportunities (needs/pains/desires)
- Frame each from the customer's perspective ("I struggle to...", "I wish I could...")
- Group related opportunities into themes
- Avoid solutions disguised as opportunities (e.g., "needs a dashboard" → "struggles to understand performance")

### Step 3: Prioritize Opportunities
- Use **Opportunity Score** (Importance × [1 − Satisfaction]) or qualitative assessment
- Focus on the top 2-3 opportunities
- Consider: impact on outcome, frequency, intensity of pain

### Step 4: Generate Solutions
- For each prioritized opportunity, brainstorm 3+ solutions
- Include perspectives from PM, Designer, and Engineer (Product Trio)
- Resist the "first idea" trap — compare and contrast before choosing

### Step 5: Design Experiments
- For the most promising solutions, suggest 1-2 fast experiments
- Specify: hypothesis, method, metric, success threshold
- Prefer experiments with "skin in the game" (Alberto Savoia) over opinion-based validation

### Step 6: Visualize the Tree
- Present the full OST in a clear hierarchical format
- Use indentation, bullets, or a visual tool
- Make it easy for stakeholders to scan and understand

### Step 7: Iterate Weekly
- Review the tree every week as you learn from interviews, analytics, experiments
- Kill solutions that don't validate
- Explore new branches as you discover new opportunities

## Further Reading

- [The Extended Opportunity Solution Tree](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/the-extended-opportunity-solution-tree)
- [What Is Product Discovery? The Ultimate Guide](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/what-exactly-is-product-discovery)
- [Product Trio: Beyond the Obvious](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/product-trio)
- [Continuous Product Discovery Masterclass](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/cpdm)
- *Continuous Discovery Habits* by Teresa Torres (book)