Making Continuous Discovery Work for You: The SPICEY Approach

Teresa Torres argues that teams should adopt continuous discovery through small, sustainable habits rather than attempting a full transformation at once, which often leads to frustration. She adapts Nisha Vora's SPICEY framework, originally about eating habits, to discovery work. The six steps are strategize, prep, implement, customize, embrace flexibility, and make it work for you and your stakeholders. The post illustrates each step with examples from practitioners who iterated on outreach, team roles, and assumption testing. The core message is that progress comes from starting tiny, learning from what doesn't work, and meeting stakeholders where they are.

01Key takeaways

• Pick one small, specific discovery habit you can start this week instead of planning a full overhaul.
• Find the tiniest first step, even a 20- to 30-minute weekly session, and iterate from there.
• Start with manual processes, then automate once you know what is worth scaling.
• Treat setbacks as information about your context and adjust your approach rather than giving up.
• Focus on principles like customer touchpoints and assumption testing over copying someone else's tools or process.
• Meet stakeholders where they are by showing your reasoning and tying work to outcomes they value.

02Key sections

Start with small habits

Ambitious yearly goals to overhaul discovery often backfire, so the author recommends changing habits in small, repeatable ways. Torres encourages picking specific actions instead of treating discovery as one vague concept.

Strategize and prep

Choose the easiest first step that needs little permission, plan the next few steps, then assemble the people and tools needed. Manual processes are fine at first, with automation considered later.

Implement and customize

Take action without waiting for perfection, and treat early failures as data about what works in your context. Practitioners' stories show how initial tactics were adjusted, such as changing outreach methods, rotating engineers through trios, and redesigning tests.

Embrace flexibility

There is no single right way to do discovery, so teams should adopt principles over specific tools or frameworks. Continuous improvement lets each team find its own approach.

Make it work for you and stakeholders

Sustainable change requires meeting people where they are, showing your work, and focusing on the outcomes stakeholders care about. Minimal-friction steps beat winning opinion battles.

03From the post

“At the beginning of a new year, we’re often excited to make improvements and change our ways of working. “This is the year when I’m going to adopt continuous discovery,” you might be saying to yourself. “I’m going to transform my product team and our entire approach”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.