By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion share practical ways to use opportunity solution trees beyond the original tool. Hope adapts the tree with color-coding so stakeholders can quickly see which opportunities and solutions are validated, invalidated, or still unknown, countering organizational forgetfulness during messy discovery. The piece then argues for agreeing 'lines in the sand' with stakeholders before collecting evidence, which guards against confirmation bias and Monday-morning quarterbacking. Finally, it shows how building the tree collaboratively with a B2B client can surface hidden opportunities and build trust. Together these tactics make discovery more transparent, aligned, and customer-grounded.
01Key takeaways
- Color-code opportunities, solutions, and experiments by validation status so stakeholders can absorb progress without attending every meeting.
- Keep opportunities and solutions visually distinct, since teams often confuse a customer problem with a proposed fix.
- Agree on 'line in the sand' success criteria before gathering data to avoid confirmation bias.
- Ask 'How will we know this opportunity is real?' and decide the evidence threshold up front, such as how many interviews must surface it.
- Maintain the tree in a shared workspace so criteria and status are visible in context during reviews.
- Invite customers to build or edit the tree with you; it surfaces blind spots and builds trust.
02Key sections
- Fight organizational amnesia with color-coding
- Discovery produces a lot of information that stakeholders struggle to retain, so color-coding opportunities, solutions, and experiments by status makes progress visible at a glance. Teresa adds a status-symbol layer to keep opportunities and solutions visually distinct.
- Improve stakeholder collaboration
- Teams should define in advance the evidence thresholds that make an opportunity or solution pass or fail, ideally with the stakeholders who will live with the decisions. Documenting these criteria reduces bias and second-guessing later.
- Co-create with customers
- A product leader used the tree in a meeting with an upset B2B client, inviting him to refine it and prioritize opportunities. The exercise revealed unseen needs and showed the client the vendor was committed to his success.
03From the post
“Two and a half years ago, I introduced the opportunity solution tree. It’s been a blast seeing product people put it into practice. Today, I’m excited to share Hope Gurion’s thoughts on using opportunity solution trees. Like a true Agilist, she hasn’t just adopted the tool,”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.