By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Sandrine Veillet, VP of Global Product at WebMD, describes how she introduced continuous discovery into a large, previously waterfall-style product organization. She began by building a product vision and simple templates, then enrolled a first cohort of cross-functional trios in a discovery course so they could train others. Adoption grew in phases, supported by biweekly coaching sessions and involving stakeholders through internal talks and shared research. The story is candid that teams still apply discovery unevenly, with gaps around testing, success criteria, and sharing work. It matters because it shows a realistic, incremental path for scaling discovery in a complex enterprise.
01Key takeaways
- Start discovery now, even with imperfect templates, and improve through fast learning.
- Use a small pilot cohort of trios as proof, then have them train colleagues to scale adoption.
- Set a regular coaching cadence and have teams present real boards to surface misunderstood concepts.
- Involve stakeholders in outcomes and assumption reviews to build trust and alignment.
- As a leader, protect calendar time for discovery and repeatedly champion the change.
02Key sections
- Starting point at WebMD
- Sandrine found teams organized as scrum groups without a true product trio, with product managers passing stakeholder requests straight into roadmaps. She began by creating a product vision and discovered Teresa's discovery ideas as a practical toolkit.
- Phased adoption
- The rollout moved from raising awareness and simple templates, to a formal course cohort, to tool refinement, then ongoing coaching. Each phase built on the last rather than trying to change everything at once.
- Coaching and peer training
- Biweekly sessions where teams walk through their discovery boards help spot misunderstood concepts. Trained participants then taught around 20 to 30 more people, spreading the practice beyond the original cohort.
- Involving stakeholders
- Monthly internal talks and invitations for non-trio stakeholders to join outcome setting and assumption review build trust and reduce command-and-control pressure from the business.
- Ongoing challenges
- Teams still test whole solutions instead of specific assumptions, skip success criteria, and hesitate to share imperfect work. Tech teams and teams with directive stakeholders have been slower to adopt.
03From the post
“The larger and more complex your company is, the more challenging it can be to introduce continuous discovery. It’s not just about training people to conduct interviews, use opportunity solution trees, or test assumptions—though those are all important activities—it’s also about convincing them of the value”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.