- Nubank hired over 50 PMs in 2020 and wants to define a product discovery process to maintain high quality while scaling.
- An effective discovery process reduces uncertainties by clearly understanding problems like a product's viability, customer values, usability, and feasibility.
- Discovery involves exploring the problem space through methods like interviews and research to define the problem, and the solution space to identify options and success criteria.
- The process should scale discovery across teams while obtaining continuous customer insights and early cross-functional collaboration.
2. Hi, I’m Gus
co-founder @ Nutricart
nutritional products marketplace / we don’t sell products, we help people
achieve their life goals
- responsible for product and also a mobile/front-end developer // failed
miserably 😂
product manager @ RD Station
crm & digital marketing software / biggest SaaS B2B in LatAm
- responsible for adoption, how to make customers achieve mid-term
success and habit formation // achieved negative churn
product manager @ Nubank
digital bank / biggest digital bank (35M customers) and third most valuable
fintech in the world ($25 bi)
- responsible for:
- chargeback, scale the largest cs team // first 100% self-service experience
- customer experience (aka customer support), sustainably grow the
business by 3x // 70% of tickets successfully solved by serf-service experience
(smart FAQ and chatbot)
- international expansion, build a global business // launch the product in
MX and COL & one of the largest credit card issues in less than a year in MX
2019-
2021
2017-
2019
2013-
2015
A product lover passionate about design,
numbers and experimentation.
In my free time, you will find me playing
FPS games or practicing sports (judo,
biking or running).
When covid goes away, I will continue my
journey of getting to know different
cultures (did a backpack in LATAM).
Professional life
3. Discovery @ Nubank
● In 2020, we hired more than 50 PMs.
● How are we going to maintain a high quality product?
4. Discovery @ Nubank
● In 2020, we hired more than 50 PMs.
● How are we going to maintain a high quality product?
How can we make sure
that we’re choosing the
right problems to solve?
chapter priorities
Let’s define our product
discovery process!
6. ● Products in different stages
NO AGREEMENT
● Different types of product
management
https://www.reforge.com/blog/product-work-beyond-product-market-fit
7. Lessons Learned
● One size does not fit all
● But, we need to create a guide to scale with quality and have a
similar language to be able to help each other
8. Lessons Learned
● One size does not fit all
● But, we need to create a guide to scale with quality and have a
similar language to be able to help each other
1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
9. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
Our team needs to achieve the objective
10. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
Our team needs to achieve the objective
---------- score the goal ----------
11. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
Our team needs to achieve the objective
---------- score the goal ----------
12. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
Our team needs to achieve the objective
---------- score the goal ----------
complexity
competitors timing
13. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
Our team needs to achieve the objective
---------- score the goal ----------
14. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
talked with customers
Our team needs to achieve the objective
---------- score the goal ----------
15. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
Our team needs to achieve the objective
---------- score the goal ----------
talked with customers
analyzed data
ran an experiment
16. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
Our team needs to achieve the objective
---------- score the goal ----------
Product discovery aims to increase the odds of
scoring the goal asap by reducing the
uncertainties
17. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
18. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
A clear understanding of the following risks:
1. Viability: What is the
impact in our business?
2. Value: What do
customers care about?
3. Usability: Will customers
understand how to use it?
4. Feasibility: Will we have
capacity to build it?
19. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
But, before getting into the questions, it’s important to have a
clear North Star
- What is the expected outcome?
Worse than not scoring the goal is scoring the wrong goal, it will generate a product
debt that making it harder to use and working on the product.
- What is the expected impact?
The size of goal should reflect on how much time you will invest in the product
discovery process
or
20. 1 2
Why do we need
product discovery?
What does a great
discovery look like?
Last but not least, great PMs don’t spend their time on solutions
Most product teams
How we should be spending our time
“...obsess about the problem
definition. Then see how fast
and easy it is to know what to
build, to build it, and to see
customers value it because
you truly understood what
they needed.”
Paul Adams
SVP of Product, Intercom
https://www.intercom.com/blog/great-product-
managers-dont-spend-time-on-solutions/
21. Let’s deep dive into the discovery best practices
…...…..Problem space…..…...
1. Viability: What is the
impact for our business?
2. Value: What do
customers care about?
22. Let’s deep dive into the discovery best practices
…...…..Problem space…..…...
Start with a reflection:
● What I know that I know
○ List the assumptions
● What I know that I don’t know
○ Investigate the areas
● What I don’t know that I don’t know
○ Run exploratory research
1. Viability: What is the
impact for our business?
2. Value: What do
customers care about?
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/
which-ux-research-methods/
23. Let’s deep dive into the discovery best practices
…...…..Problem space…..…...
1. Viability: What is the
impact for our business?
2. Value: What do
customers care about?
Great problem discoveries have a clear understanding of:
Outcome Output
Why this problem matters Problem statement, ...
When the problem happens User journey, User story board, ...
What users are trying to accomplish Jobs to be done, ...
Who has the problem Segmentation target, ...
How to be the top of mind Market research, Differentiators, ...
24. Let’s deep dive into the discovery best practices
…...…..Problem space…..…...
● Tips
○ Think big, start small
■ Customer support
■ Teammates
○ Master the interviewing ability
■ Mastering JBTD Interviews
● #JTBD
■ Continuous Interviewing
● Teresa Torres
○ Open a Request for comments to
avoid confirmation bias
■ #rfc-discovery channel
1. Viability: What is the
impact for our business?
2. Value: What do
customers care about?
25. …....…....Solution space…....…...
3. Usability: Will customers
understand how to use it?
4. Feasibility: Will we
have capacity to build it?
Let’s deep dive into the discovery best practices
26. …....…....Solution space…....…...
3. Usability: Will customers
understand how to use it?
4. Feasibility: Will we
have capacity to build it?
Let’s deep dive into the discovery best practices
Great solution discoveries have:
Outcome Output
Clear success criteria
KPIs tree, input and output metrics,
counter metrics, ...
Large volume of options Opportunity tree, ...
Risk mitigator process
Minimum Lovable Product Usability Test,
Paper Prototype, Participatory Design, ...
Process to acquire valuable
knowledge
Experimentation, Post-launch research, ...
27. ● Tips
○ Diverse group and collaborative to
think about possible solutions
■ Piggyback ideas
■ Share all the information you
have
○ Process just finishes when you solve
the problem with a reasonable quality
level (build for the long-term)
■ Watch out for product and UX
debts
■ Analyze the data and talk with
customers
○ Engineers should be close since the
beginning of the design process to
guide the designers to the most
feasible path
■ If the designer invest too much
time on the solution, they might
get too emotional attached to
the solution
…....…....Solution space…....…...
4. Feasibility: Will we
have capacity to build it?
Let’s deep dive into the discovery best practices
3. Usability: Will customers
understand how to use it?
29. General lessons learned
Don’t be a bottleneck, learn how to scale the
discovery process in your team
https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-solve-problems-6bf14222e424
30. General lessons learned
Don’t be a bottleneck, learn how to scale the
discovery process in your team
Don’t wait a new discovery to learn about your
customers, run a continuous discovery
process
31. General lessons learned
Don’t be a bottleneck, learn how to scale the
discovery process in your team
Don’t wait a new discovery to learn about your
customers, run a continuous discovery
process
Don’t wait the solution phase to include
designers or engineers, involve your team as
soon as possible in the process
PM
Designer
Engineer
PMM
5 15
5 5
5 10
32. General lessons learned
Don’t be a bottleneck, learn how to scale the
discovery process in your team
Don’t wait a new discovery to learn about your
customers, run a continuous discovery
process
Don’t wait the solution phase to include
designers or engineers, involve your team as
soon as possible in the process