By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres describes her Continuous Discovery Habits (CDH) community, built on the idea that people learn best in community rather than from reading alone. She explains why she shifted from being the expert to facilitating peer support, and how the community runs monthly challenges, a book club, twice-monthly calls, and new-member calls. She emphasizes awareness over engagement, expects low participation from any one member, and favors real-world examples over outside thought leaders. The piece is an excerpt from Petra Wille's interview with Torres, published to promote the book Strong Product Communities, and it offers a practical look at how a community of practice operates.
01Key takeaways
- Learning sticks better when people discuss ideas and see others' examples, not just when they read.
- Design for awareness and small, optional participation rather than pushing for constant engagement.
- A strong onboarding moment, such as a new-member call where people meet a few others, improves retention.
- Highlight real-world practice from peers rather than generic ideal processes, since teams need to find their own fit.
- Pair content with concrete application activities so people act on ideas instead of merely consuming them.
- Encourage members to share what they're doing day to day, not just questions, since these posts often prove most valuable.
02Key sections
- Why Communities of Practice Matter
- Torres explains that learning happens through discussion and seeing examples from others, and that she wanted to scale impact and step back from being the expert.
- Rituals and Formats
- The community uses monthly challenges, a rolling book club with weekly application activities, twice-monthly discussion calls with breakout rooms, and new-member calls.
- Onboarding and Promoting Participation
- Messaging was reframed from pushy engagement prompts to gentle awareness, and new-member calls proved the strongest predictor of members sticking around.
- External Speakers vs. Member Stories
- Rather than inviting thought leaders who promote their own work, the community highlights members' real-world practice and applied examples.
- Lessons and Future Direction
- Torres values exposure to diverse ways of working, the messiness of real practice, and member sharing of daily work, which she plans to encourage more.
03From the post
“Reading is one of my favorite ways to spend my time. I’ve designed my business to allow plenty of time for reading books, articles, interviews, etc. As much as I love reading, I firmly believe that reading alone is rarely enough to help us change our behavior. Most of”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.