opportunity-solution-tree

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name: opportunity-solution-tree description: Build an Opportunity Solution Tree to connect desired outcomes to customer opportunities, solutions, and experiments. Use when prioritizing discovery work, mapping customer needs to solutions, or deciding what to build next. tags: [discovery, prioritization, product-strategy, continuous-discovery]

Opportunity Solution Tree

A visual framework from Teresa Torres' Continuous Discovery Habits that connects a desired outcome to customer opportunities, potential solutions, and assumption tests — ensuring you build what matters most.

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Purpose

Prevent the two most common PM failure modes:

1. Feature factory — shipping features without connecting them to outcomes
2. Analysis paralysis — researching endlessly without converging on action

The OST forces explicit links: Outcome → Opportunities → Solutions → Experiments.

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When to Use

• Starting a new quarter or initiative and need to decide what to build
• You have research data (interviews, surveys, analytics) but no clear prioritization
• Stakeholders are pushing features without articulating the customer need
• You want to evaluate multiple solution paths before committing

When NOT to Use

• You already have a validated solution and need execution planning (use PRD instead)
• The problem is purely technical with no customer-facing dimension
• You need a full product strategy (use product-strategy-canvas instead)

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The Framework

                    ┌─────────────────┐
                    │ Desired Outcome │  ← Single measurable metric
                    └────────┬────────┘
                             │
              ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
              ▼              ▼              ▼
        ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐
        │Opportunity│ │Opportunity│ │Opportunity│  ← Customer needs/pain points
        │     1     │ │     2     │ │     3     │
        └─────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘
              │              │              │
         ┌────┼────┐    ┌───┼───┐     ┌────┼────┐
         ▼    ▼    ▼    ▼   ▼   ▼     ▼    ▼    ▼
       Sol. Sol. Sol. Sol. Sol. Sol. Sol. Sol. Sol.  ← Multiple solutions per opp.
         │              │                    │
         ▼              ▼                    ▼
       Exp.           Exp.                 Exp.     ← Assumption tests