12 Proven Sources of Insights to Fuel Your Product Discovery
Regularly talking to customers is essential for any product team. But true innovation comes from gathering insights from multiple sources.
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Assumption Prioritization Canvas: How to Identify And Test The Right Assumptions
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Talking to your customers regularly is the most critical activity for any product team.
In her book Continuous Discovery Habits, Teresa Torres emphasizes that the "Product Trio” must build a habit of interviewing customers at least weekly.
I couldn’t agree more.
The value you can capture for the business comes from the value you create for others. This idea is at the heart of the North Star Framework and the key to sustainable growth.
But while customer interviews are crucial, they might not be enough to spark real innovation. Product teams I work with draw from multiple sources of insights to explore the problem space in depth.
So, in this post, I’ll share 12 proven ways to fuel your discovery.
1. Customer interviews
Customer interviews are powerful for uncovering unmet needs, pain points, and hidden motivations — the “why” behind customer behaviors.
People are biased, so we need to remember to focus on asking about specific situations and facts rather than opinions.
My favorite approach is the storytelling technique. Start with an opening question like, “Can you tell me about a specific time when [something happened]?” and then encourage customers to walk you through their experiences step by step.
For more details, check out The Ultimate Guide to Research Interviews.
2. Observation
Observing customers in their natural environment provides a unique perspective, often revealing insights beyond what customers can articulate themselves.
Aim to map a series of steps a customer takes to complete a specific job-to-be-done. As Tony Ulwick explains in Jobs to be Done, customers prefer to complete the entire job within a single product.
Let that sink in.
In my experience, observation becomes even more powerful when combined with User Journey Mapping, which enables you to visualize different aspects of the process customers go through.
3. Surveys
Surveys are invaluable for collecting data at scale. I often combine open-ended questions that can reveal deeper motivations and opinions with closed-ended questions that help me quantify trends.
When crafting survey questions, ensure that each one serves a clear purpose, is easy to understand, and is relevant to your audience.
I love this quote:
“Asking one person the right question gets better results than asking 10,000 people the wrong question” - Carolyn Jarrett, Surveys That Work
To learn more, check out The Ultimate Guide to Effective Customer Surveys.
4. Secondary research
Secondary research is a cost-effective way to leverage existing data. Critically, it doesn't replace collecting Your Own Data (YODA).
When using SEO and SEM tools like Moz, SEMrush, or Ahrefs, look beyond just traffic and ranking data. Dive deeper into analyzing content strategies, backlink profiles, and keyword opportunities to refine your product positioning and messaging.
For new products, consider whether you’re entering the right industry by applying frameworks like PESTEL and SWOT analysis.
For more insights, check out Market Research: Advanced Techniques.
5. Social listening
Social listening goes beyond just tracking mentions of your brand or product on social media, forums, and online communities. It's about understanding the broader conversation around your industry, competitors, and related topics.
In most cases, you can automate this process to quickly analyze vast amounts of unstructured data. For example, we previously discussed a ready-to-use ChatGPT prompt for automating sentiment analysis.
Bonus tip: Similarly, you can “listen” to what customers say in your internal calls and support channels.
6. New technologies
This might be a bit controversial.
Many know Steve Jobs’s famous approach: “You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” Amazon follows a similar principle, starting with customers and working backwards.
But to me, that doesn't mean that you always have to start with the problem.
In TRANSFORMED, Marty Cagan lists “new enabling technologies” as one source that might power your strategy.
So, it's not about building a solution and trying to sell it but about understanding how new technology might amplify your strategic choices and enable you to solve problems you couldn’t before.
7. Data analytics
I keep checking my analytics tools dashboards virtually every day.
By analyzing user behavior with tools like heatmaps, session recordings, or web events, you can identify where users are dropping off, which features they engage with most, and which parts of the experience are causing friction.
But product analytics are not enough. You can gain deeper insights by using Business Intelligence tools to analyze trends across various data sources, such as customer data, CRM systems, or finances.
For more information about what to measure, check out The Ultimate List of Product Metrics and Are You Tracking the Right Metrics.
8. Experiments
Experiments, such as A/B testing, are crucial for validating hypotheses. But they can also fuel your discovery cycles.
They allow you to learn quickly by testing variations and observing how customers interact with your ideas in real-world scenarios.
That learning goes beyond just validating whether the hypothesis is correct. I can't count the number of times my teams have uncovered unexpected opportunities and gained new insights through usability testing experiments.
For more insights, check out A/B Testing and The Ultimate Experiments Library.
9. Stakeholder interviews
Stakeholders, especially those on the front lines (like sales, customer success, support, or founders), often spend hundreds of hours with customers each month.
Ignoring what they know is a waste. It’s a common mistake of new product managers.
What can you do to regularly engage with them?
10. Synthetic user research
Synthetic user research is an innovative approach that uses AI-driven simulations and virtual personas to replicate real human interactions. Surprisingly, this method is supported by 20+ peer-reviewed scientific papers.
I’ve recently started experimenting with Synthetic Users (I’m not affiliated with them). Let me know if you’d like me to share the results in this newsletter.
11. Benchmarking
Many say that product managers shouldn't obsess over competitors.
And I agree. A good strategy requires making unique choices that others can't or won't copy.
But here's the thing: you can't develop a strategy without competitors. So you better become an expert in what they're doing.
I regularly use benchmarking not just to compare ideas but also to reverse-engineer and validate the problems others have already solved.
Bonus tip: Not every idea needs to be groundbreaking. Sometimes, the best solution is to adopt/improve ideas that others have developed.
12. Feature requests
You don’t want customers to dictate features, but you shouldn’t ignore their requests.
I encourage you to use these requests as starting points to explore underlying needs and consider alternative solutions.
This helps prevent falling into The Product Death Cycle Trap, where customer demands solely drive product decisions.
Conclusion
Regularly talking to customers is essential.
But true innovation comes from gathering insights from multiple sources.
Data analytics helps you understand patterns in customer behavior. Stakeholders, who often spend countless hours with customers, can share insights you might not discover otherwise. Feature requests can pinpoint underserved needs, while surveys help understand motivations and preferences on a larger scale.
By tapping into different sources, you can fully explore the problem space. And, ultimately, maximize your impact as a PM.
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P.S. I prepared a high-resolution poster you can download:
Coming next
Next posts:
September 19 (Thursday): New PM Skills Assessment
September 21 (Saturday): From Strategy to Objectives Masterclass (video course)
Live (for more information, visit our Slack community):
September 26 (Thursday): Ask me anything
October 3 (Thursday): From Strategy to Objectives Masterclass - live training
October 4 (Friday): Continuous Product Discovery Masterclass - live training
Thanks for reading The Product Compass!
It's great to learn and grow together with you.
Have a productive week ahead,
Paweł