By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres explores how the opportunity solution tree, a continuous discovery tool, can be applied beyond digital products to personal and organizational challenges. Through three examples, she shows how the tree helps structure messy, complex goals into outcomes, opportunities, and solutions that can be tested and tracked. The piece highlights that adapting the tool to different contexts, such as life management, career planning, or running an internal community, can bring clarity and visibility to decisions. A recurring lesson is that a clear, measurable outcome at the top of the tree is essential for making the rest of the structure useful.
01Key takeaways
- Apply the opportunity solution tree to personal challenges to turn overwhelming life complexity into actionable, testable steps.
- Start with a clear, measurable outcome at the top; without it, the rest of the tree becomes messy and hard to fill.
- Mapping options in a structured format can cut through mental clutter and show which paths deserve focus.
- Involve the people affected by a decision in generating and voting on opportunities so solutions reflect their needs.
- Update the tree regularly to record completed work, track outcomes, and create a visible history of progress.
- Adapt the tree's format, such as color coding or voting marks, to fit your own tracking needs, and don't wait for a perfect outcome to begin.
02Key sections
- Why use the tree beyond product work
- The opportunity solution tree helps product people visualize thinking and share it simply, and the author notes it may also suit everyday problem-solving. A community question prompted the exploration.
- Amy O'Callaghan's life tree
- Amy uses Maslow's hierarchy to set a life outcome, then maps opportunities like a livable climate into actions she tests, color-coding ideas by status. She finds the tree makes a large, messy life easier to manage.
- Jenny Greenstein's career exploration
- After a layoff, Jenny moved from an idea backlog to a tree with three career branches, testing options like part-time work and writing a book. The structure brought clarity, though she found the outcome hardest to define.
- Liz Lehtonen's internal community
- Liz applied the tree to improving Wayfair's product community, building opportunities from surveys and voting by roughly 180 product people. Quarterly updates made progress visible and seeded the next year's roadmap.
- The importance of a clear outcome
- Across all three examples, a crisp, measurable outcome at the top proved essential, though teams can start imperfectly and refine it later.
03From the post
“If you’re a product person, you’ve developed a set of skills that help you in your job. You know (or you’re in the process of learning) how to identify opportunities, consider different solutions, and identify and test your assumptions. And if you’re working within the continuous”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.