Olivia: Here’s a wild statistic for you. A famous industry report, the Chaos Report, has found for years that nearly 70% of all software projects are either challenged or fail completely. Jackson: Whoa, 70 percent? That’s a failing grade in any school. What does "challenged or fail" even mean? They just don't work? Olivia: It means they're late, they're way over budget, or, and this is the most painful part, they launch and just... flop. Nobody uses them. The crazy thing is, the problem often isn't the code. It's that we're building the wrong thing, perfectly. Jackson: That’s a terrifying thought. Pouring months, maybe years, into something that nobody needed in the first place. How do you even begin to fix a problem that big? Olivia: Well, that's exactly what we're diving into today. The antidote to that failure rate is at the heart of a book that has become a bible in the product world: Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres. Jackson: I’ve seen that one everywhere. It's got this almost cult-like following among product managers. What makes it so special? Olivia: I think it’s because Torres comes at it from such a unique angle. Her background isn't just in tech; it's in cognitive science and organizational change. So she’s not just giving you a to-do list. She’s giving you a way to rewire how your team thinks and operates, turning discovery into a sustainable, weekly habit. Jackson: Okay, so it’s less about a magic formula and more about building the right mental muscles. I'm intrigued. Where do we start? Olivia: We start with the core disease that these habits are meant to cure. It’s something called the "build trap."

Jackson: The "build trap." That sounds ominous. What is it? Olivia: It’s when a company measures success by what it ships, not by the value it creates. The team's goal becomes "launch the new feature by Q3" or "complete 10 story points this sprint." These are outputs—the stuff you make. They get completely disconnected from outcomes—the change in customer behavior that actually helps the business. Jackson: Right, so you're busy, you're shipping code, everyone feels productive, but you might be running full-speed in the wrong direction. Olivia: Exactly. And when this goes wrong, it can go spectacularly wrong. Torres uses the Wells Fargo account fraud scandal as a chilling example of outcomes gone bad. Jackson: Oh boy, I remember this. This was a huge deal. How does it connect? Olivia: Well, Wells Fargo's leadership set a desired outcome: increase the number of products per customer. On the surface, that sounds like a reasonable business goal. They wanted each customer to have, say, eight accounts instead of three. Jackson: Okay, a clear metric. Seems logical. Olivia: But they tied massive incentives for employees directly to that number. The focus became hitting the number, the output, at all costs. The actual customer was completely forgotten. So what did employees do? Under immense pressure, they started opening millions of fraudulent accounts in customers' names without their consent. Checking accounts, credit cards, you name it. Jackson: That's horrifying. They were hitting their targets, but they were destroying customer trust and breaking the law to do it. Olivia: Precisely. The company was fined billions, its reputation was shattered, and it became the poster child for a toxic, output-obsessed culture. It’s a stark reminder that an outcome without a deep connection to genuine customer value is a landmine. Jackson: Hold on, this is the part that trips me up. "Increase accounts per customer" sounds like an outcome. How do you define a good outcome, one that doesn't lead to a corporate disaster? Olivia: That is the million-dollar question, and Torres has a brilliant definition. A good outcome is a measurable change in human behavior that drives business results. It’s not just about the business result. It’s about how your product helps people do something that, in turn, helps your business. Jackson: A change in human behavior. Okay. So for a fitness app, the output is a new workout-logging feature. The outcome is "our users successfully complete 20% more workouts per month." Olivia: You got it. The focus shifts from what you're building to what you're enabling. And to figure out what to enable, you have to become a kind of anthropologist for your customers.

Jackson: A customer anthropologist. I like the sound of that. It sounds more sophisticated than just asking people what they want in a survey. Olivia: It’s a world of difference. And this is where Torres challenges a lot of conventional wisdom. She advocates for a keystone habit: the product trio—that’s the product manager, a designer, and an engineer—should be interviewing at least one customer, together, every single week. Jackson: Every week? That sounds like a lot. But wait, didn't Steve Jobs famously say that people don't know what they want until you show it to them? Are we supposed to listen to customers or not? This feels like a contradiction. Olivia: It’s a fantastic question, because it gets to the heart of what these interviews are for. You're right, if you ask a customer what to build, they'll probably just describe a faster horse. The goal of the interview isn't to get a feature request list. It's to uncover their problem, their context, their unarticulated needs. Jackson: So you're not asking, "What should we build?" You're asking, "Tell me about the last time you tried to do X." Olivia: Exactly! Torres tells this great little story about asking a woman what the most important factor is when she buys jeans. The woman says, "Fit, of course." It’s the logical, rational answer. But then the follow-up question is, "Tell me about the last pair of jeans you bought." And she says, "Oh, I bought them online, from a brand I like, because they were on sale." She never even tried them on. Jackson: Wow. So her stated preference and her actual behavior were completely different. The real opportunity wasn't about a better fitting room, it was about brand trust, price, and convenience. Olivia: That's the gold you're digging for. You're not taking their words at face value; you're looking for the story behind the words. You're observing their world, their struggles, their workarounds. That's why the "customer anthropologist" metaphor is so perfect. You're there to observe and understand the culture, not to ask the tribe to design your product for you. Jackson: Okay, that makes so much more sense. You're building a deep well of knowledge about their problems. But then what? You've got all these notes, all these stories, all these problems. It sounds like it could become an overwhelming, chaotic mess. How do you turn that into a clear path forward? Olivia: That's where the book's most famous and, I think, most brilliant tool comes in. It’s the thing that organizes the chaos. It’s called the Opportunity Solution Tree.

Jackson: The Opportunity Solution Tree. Okay, that sounds... like a diagram from a business school textbook. Is this just more corporate jargon? Olivia: I know, the name is a bit dry, but I want you to think of it more like a GPS for your product. It’s a simple, visual map that prevents you from getting lost in that chaos of customer needs. Jackson: A GPS. I can get behind that. How does it work? Olivia: It’s surprisingly simple. At the very top, the root of the tree, is your desired outcome. Let's stick with our fitness app example: "Increase the number of completed workouts by 20%." Jackson: Okay, the destination is plugged into the GPS. Olivia: Exactly. The next layer of branches are the opportunities—these are the customer needs, pain points, or desires you uncovered in your interviews that might be preventing them from reaching that outcome. Things like, "I don't have enough time to work out," or "I find workout plans confusing," or "I lose motivation after a week." Jackson: Ah, so you're mapping out all the potential roadblocks. Olivia: You are. And then, under each of those opportunity branches, you brainstorm solutions. For the "I don't have enough time" opportunity, you might have solutions like "5-minute HIIT workouts," "workout scheduling," or "audio-only workouts for commuting." Jackson: I see it now. It’s like a family tree for problems and ideas. It visually connects a big, abstract goal all the way down to concrete solutions. Olivia: And that visual connection is its superpower. It does a few magical things. First, it ends the pointless debates in meeting rooms where everyone is just fighting for their pet feature. Instead of arguing about solutions, you're comparing which opportunity is the most important one to tackle first. Jackson: That alone sounds revolutionary. But does this actually save time, or is it just another framework to manage? Olivia: It absolutely saves time. Torres shares a story about a travel company, Seera Group. When the pandemic hit, their main business of hotel bookings evaporated overnight. But because they had been doing continuous discovery, they quickly saw a new opportunity: people were renting large local properties instead. By mapping this out on an Opportunity Solution Tree, they could quickly see the customer needs, prioritize them, and pivot their entire product strategy in weeks, not months. The tree gave them clarity in a moment of total chaos. Jackson: So it's a tool for agility, not just for organization. It helps you see the whole landscape so you can change direction quickly. Olivia: Precisely. It makes your thinking visible, not just to your team, but to your stakeholders. You're not just showing up and saying, "We should build this." You're showing them the map and saying, "Here's the destination, here are the three paths we could take, and here's why we think this path is the most promising one to try first." It changes the entire conversation.

Jackson: You know, what's really striking me is that this whole approach feels less like a hunt for a single, brilliant, silver-bullet idea. Olivia: That’s a great way to put it. Jackson: It's more about building a system, an engine. A habit of constant learning, where you're always mapping the territory of customer problems and then running small, smart experiments to test your path. It's about the process, not the single flash of genius. Olivia: Absolutely. And that's why the book is so influential. It's a fundamental mindset shift. It moves a product team away from being an "order taker" in a feature factory, just building whatever the next person on the list asks for. Jackson: Right. It turns them into value creators. Olivia: It turns them into value creators who are empowered to solve real problems. And when you think back to that terrifying 70% failure rate we started with, this is the antidote. It's not about working harder or coding faster. It's about consistently, habitually, making sure you're pointed in the right direction before you ever hit the accelerator. Jackson: It’s a powerful idea. It feels like it applies to so much more than just software. Olivia: It really does. Which I think leaves us with a great question to reflect on. For anyone listening, whether you're building a product, a service, or even just tackling a project in your own life, maybe the question to ask isn't, "What feature should I build next?" Jackson: What is it then? Olivia: The question is, "What's the most important customer problem I can solve this week?" Jackson: A much better question. And a much more interesting one to answer. Olivia: This is Aibrary, signing off.