By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres profiles how Edwin Yuen, a product designer at The Times London, uses Vistaly to build opportunity solution trees for his puzzle-focused squad. The piece presents a practical, tool-specific walkthrough of how continuous discovery artifacts are organized, from outcomes down to opportunities, linked customer insights, and solutions. It matters because it shows how a purpose-built tool can keep discovery work tied to customer evidence and business outcomes, while also noting the feature limitations and the need to keep trees concise for stakeholders. The article is explicitly educational and not an official endorsement of any tool.
01Key takeaways
- Anchor your opportunity solution tree to clear business and product outcomes by checking alignment with product and business leaders first.
- Link each opportunity to the actual customer interview insights behind it so prioritization rests on evidence.
- Count how many insights support an opportunity to see which problems recur most often.
- Use collapsed views and bolded keywords so stakeholders can grasp the most important branches quickly.
- Give yourself time to practice with a new discovery tool, since skill with the tool improves through use.
02Key sections
- Meet the squad and its outcomes
- Edwin's squad serves puzzle subscribers at The Times and frames its outcomes around engagement, retention, and habit formation. Their opportunities focus on helping subscribers stay mentally sharp through puzzles.
- Why continuous discovery changed the team
- Adopting continuous discovery gave the squad clearer prioritization grounded in customer statements rather than opinions. It also gave the team more ownership over the direction of their work.
- How Vistaly structures the tree
- Vistaly prompts users to start from OKRs or KPIs, then add opportunities, color-coded cards, and status labels such as Now and Next. Linked interview insights and solution statuses roll up visibly through the tree.
- The Interviews feature
- Edwin uses Vistaly's Interviews feature to import notes and transcripts and tag customer language directly to opportunities. This preserves context and reduces the need for multiple tools.
- Why the tool works and key tips
- Edwin values Vistaly as a purpose-built tool that is easy to share with stakeholders and keeps focus on outcomes. His tips include anchoring to business goals, using collapsed views and bold keywords to keep trees readable, and practicing with the tool over time.
03From the post
“If you’re committed to adopting continuous discovery habits, opportunity solution trees are one of the most important ways to track your learnings and progress. And there’s no shortage of tools out there that can be used to build your opportunity solution trees. Back in September 2023, we explored”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.