By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres profiles Lisa Orr, a product manager who carried her continuous discovery habits from Airship to a new Senior PM role at Human API. The central argument is that good discovery is wasted unless stakeholders are brought along, so product trios must show their work throughout. Lisa adapts communication to each group, from engineering and sales to customer success and leadership, using different channels and formats. The piece matters because it treats stakeholder communication as a core product skill, not an afterthought to research.
01Key takeaways
- Good discovery only creates value if stakeholders such as sales and leadership are brought along.
- Block recurring time, such as three hours a week, for the product trio to do discovery together.
- Map stakeholders into close groups that control resources and far groups that need market context.
- Tailor each channel to its audience; engineers respond to demos and metrics, while sales needs market updates.
- Make communication a push-and-pull by giving stakeholders something concrete to react to, then iterate.
- Start with the resources you have; discovery and communication practices improve through doing rather than perfect planning.
02Key sections
- Why showing your work matters
- At Airship, Lisa's team built a strong discovery-based solution but the sales team resisted it, so a limited beta convinced them. The lesson is that discovery only pays off when stakeholders are brought along.
- Translating discovery to a new company
- Lisa assessed how discovery-friendly Human API was, then built her product trio and learned alongside them rather than prescribing a method. Protecting weekly time for discovery was the key takeaway.
- Mapping stakeholders close and far
- Lisa divides stakeholders into close groups (product and engineering, who must supply resources) and far groups (leadership, sales, customer success, marketing), each needing different information.
- Tailoring formats per group
- She uses dedicated Slack channels, a weekly engineering meeting shaped by a dot-voting exercise, market updates for sales, and assets and a Coda-based idea repository for leadership and CS.
- Lessons and takeaways
- Lisa advises starting with available resources, sharing early and often so stakeholders have something to react to, and treating communication like any other prototype test.
03From the post
“Continuous discovery is more of a journey than a destination. You can pick up the habits and fold them into your daily practice, but there will always be room for improvement. Plus, your work environment is always changing, so you’ll constantly need to adapt to your current settings and”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.