Product Discovery

---
name: Product Discovery
description: Validate before you build.
---
# Product Discovery

Discovery is the cheap phase where you find out you were wrong. Building is the expensive phase where you find out you were wrong. Spend more in the first and you ship less in the second.

## Techniques (cheapest to dearest)
- **Customer interview.** Does the problem exist? Worth anything?
- **Concierge test.** Solve the problem manually for a few users. Proves demand before any code.
- **Fake door / landing test.** Put up a sign-up page for the not-yet-built feature. Clicks and sign-ups are real demand signals.
- **Prototype.** Clickable but not functional. Tests whether users *would* use it.
- **MVP.** The smallest thing that delivers real value to real users. Now you're building — but on evidence.

## Rule
A discovery that confirms your hypothesis is suspicious. The valuable discoveries are the ones that surprise you.