Updated: December 3, 2024- 13 min read
As anyone who works in Product well knows, the path from an initial idea to a successful product is rarely straightforward. Product discovery is the process that helps product managers navigate the wilderness, hacking a trail through potential solutions to real opportunities.
One of the most effective tools for navigating product discovery is the Opportunity Solution Tree. This visual framework helps teams map out possible routes to achieving their goals by connecting desired outcomes to opportunities, solutions, and experiments. It’s a way to turn big, ambiguous goals into actionable steps—enabling teams to make informed decisions and focus their efforts where they can make the biggest impact.
Teresa Torres introduced the concept of the Opportunity Solution Tree in 2016 as part of her continuous discovery framework. Continuous discovery is the practice of frequently engaging with customers to validate ideas and iterate on solutions. It encourages teams to focus not just on what they’re building but also on why they’re building it and how it ties back to solving meaningful problems for their users.
What Is an Opportunity Solution Tree?
“I believe that product managers need to focus more on outcomes versus output. The goal is not just to launch features but to ensure that those features lead to satisfied consumers who use the product. ”
— Priyankka Mani, former CPO at Lonely Planet on The Product Podcast
An Opportunity Solution Tree is a visual is a tool that supports product discovery by illustrating the path from the desired outcome to validating solutions. In this way, every experiment is retrofitted to a specific goal, keeping processes streamlined and teams focused.
The structure of an Opportunity Solution Tree can be broken down into four main components:
Outcome: This is the ultimate goal that the team is trying to achieve. It should be clear, measurable, and focused on delivering value to users.
Opportunities: Opportunities represent unmet customer needs or pain points that, if addressed, could move the team closer to the desired outcome. They may be problems or areas where there is room for improvement.
Solutions: Solutions are the ideas or features that the team believes will address the identified opportunities. This is where creativity comes into play—generating different ways to solve the problems that have been uncovered in the opportunity space.
Experiments: Experiments are tests that help validate whether a proposed solution is effective. They allow the team to gather data and insights, ensuring that they are making informed decisions before fully committing to a solution.
“We should always aim to bring value to the business while keeping the customer in mind. Opportunity solution trees are a simple and effective way to streamline the discovery journey. They help resolve the challenge of balancing business needs with customer needs. ”
— Barbara Polignano, Product Director at King, in the Product School webinar Product Discovery:
Why Use Opportunity Solution Trees in Product Management?
Opportunity solution trees are an invaluable tool for product managers because they provide a clear structure for figuring out what to build and why. This approach shifts the focus from merely launching features to understanding how each feature addresses user needs and contributes to business goals.
As Fabrice des Mazery, former CPO at Tripadvisor, said on The Product Podcast:
“Whenever I set goals, I focus on what each team can actually push forward, not in terms of features, but really in terms of business results, product results, and customer results.”
Opportunity Solution Trees help teams move beyond output and concentrate on outcomes that matter most to both the business and its users.
Benefits of using Opportunity Solution Trees:
Structured Thinking: OSTs offer a clear framework for organizing ideas and prioritizing them effectively. By visualizing the relationships between desired outcomes, opportunities, solutions, and experiments, product teams can stay focused on their overall goals.
Alignment Across Teams: Opportunity solution trees help ensure that everyone on the team understands how their work contributes to broader business objectives. This alignment fosters collaboration and ensures that all efforts are moving in the same direction.
Outcome-Oriented Focus: With OSTs, product teams are encouraged to think beyond just building features. Instead, they focus on achieving measurable outcomes that drive customer satisfaction and business success. This approach results in a more strategic and impactful product development process.
Where Do OKRs End and OSTs Begin?
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and Opportunity Solution Trees (OSTs) are both tools that help product teams stay focused on achieving meaningful outcomes. They serve distinct but complementary purposes.
OKRs are high-level goals that outline what a team wants to achieve (objectives) and how they will measure success (key results). They help set ambitious targets that align the entire organization on shared priorities. OKRs focus on outcomes: specific, measurable results that deliver value to users.
Opportunity Solution Trees take those outcomes and break them down into actionable steps. OSTs help teams visualize how they can reach their objectives by mapping opportunities, solutions, and experiments that lead to the desired outcome. In this way, OKRs and OSTs work together: OKRs define what to achieve, while OSTs lay out the how.
Now, is the outcome in an Opportunity Solution Tree the same as an OKR’s Key Result? Or is it analogous to the objective?
The answer is…yes! Look, it’s not always that clear cut. Best practice dictates that the Outcome at the top of an OST be specific and measurable, making it look very much like a Key Result, i.e. “Increase DAU by 20%.” That being said, you’ll also find examples of outcomes that are less quantitative, such as “improve the onboarding process,” which sounds more like an objective.
Every team has the right to use these frameworks as they see fit. As long as they use OKRs to set ambitious and clear goals and OSTs to figure out the best course of action to achieve them, they’ll be in good shape!
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Building an Opportunity Solution Tree: A Step-by-Step Guide
Here is a step-by-step guide to help you build an effective Opportunity Solution Tree:
Step 1: Define Your Desired Outcome
The first step in building an Opportunity Solution Tree is to establish a clear, measurable outcome that balances customer and business needs.
For example, an outcome might be: increase user satisfaction scores by 15%.
The outcome should consider both business objectives and product impact. If the outcome is too focused on business goals like specific revenue targets, the product team may struggle to implement it effectively. On the other hand, if the outcome does not add value for the company, it’s not worth pursuing, regardless of how innovative it may be.
Step 2: Identify Opportunities
Next, identify the opportunities that could help achieve the outcome. Opportunities are the unmet customer needs or pain points that, if addressed, would bring you closer to your goal. Essentially, what you’re looking for at this stage is identifying room for improvement. This process, also known as Customer Discovery, has to be done with care and intention if the OST is going to be useful.
There are many ways to find opportunities to achieve the outcome at the top of the tree:
Market analysis: Reviewing industry trends and studying competitor offerings.
Session playbacks: Analyzing user sessions to observe behavior and identify pain points.
User surveys: Collecting feedback from users to understand their needs, preferences, and challenges.
Customer interviews: Conducting in-depth conversations with customers to gather qualitative insights.
Focus groups: Bringing together a group of users to discuss and gain diverse perspectives on product needs.
Discovery sprints: Running focused, time-boxed sessions to explore and validate opportunities quickly.
The ideas generated through this type of analysis should be considered opportunities if they have the potential to support the outcome at the top of the OST. For example, if an Amazon product team is working toward increasing user satisfaction scores by 15%, then proposed opportunities might include transparent delivery times and flexible delivery options.
Step 3: Generate Potential Solutions
Solutions are the features, fixes, or improvements that could solve the customer problems identified above. At this stage, it's essential to be creative and open to a wide range of possibilities. Engage with your team to gather diverse perspectives and come up with several different ways to address each opportunity.
For example, for the Amazon team’s opportunity of flexible delivery times, potential solutions might be scheduled delivery times and alternate pickup locations.
Step 4: Design Experiments to Validate Solutions
The next step is to design experiments to test the proposed solutions. Experiments allow you to validate whether a solution effectively addresses the opportunity before committing significant resources to build it. The goal is to gather enough evidence to decide whether a solution is worth pursuing further.
Examples of experiments to validate solutions:
A/B testing: Comparing two versions of a solution to determine which performs better.
404 testing: Using a fake link or button to gauge user interest in a feature before building it.
Rapid prototyping: Creating a simplified version of the solution to test its viability and gather early feedback.
Phased launch: Releasing a feature to a small subset of users before rolling it out more broadly, to gather feedback and identify issues.
Minimal Viable Product (MVP): Creating a minimal version or landing page to gauge user interest in a solution before full development.
Notice that there are different types of analysis and experiments for identifying opportunities versus solutions. As Stripe Head of Product Stephanie Neill put it in the Product School webinar Experimentation for PMs: A Primer:
“It's not just about finding the right solution—it's about ensuring you're solving the right problem in the first place. You can always ask yourself, where am I in the process? Are you still exploring the problem space, or are you focused on finding a solution?”
Step 5: Iterate and Prioritize
After running experiments, analyze the results to determine whether the solution should be implemented, adjusted, or discarded. If an experiment yields positive results, prioritize that solution and add it to your product backlog. If the experiment does not yield the desired outcome, revisit the opportunity to generate new ideas or refine the solution. The process of building an Opportunity Solution Tree is iterative—continuous learning and adaptation are key to making progress toward your desired outcome.
Opportunity Solution Tree Example: Spotify
To better understand how an Opportunity Solution Tree works in practice, let’s look at an example from Spotify:
The desired outcome for Spotify in this scenario is to enhance user retention and engagement. To achieve this outcome, Spotify breaks it down into two main opportunities:
Opportunity #1: Personalize the Listening Experience
Personalizing the listening experience helps users feel that Spotify understands their tastes and will serve them up music they want to hear, making them more likely to engage regularly.
Solution A: Advanced Music Recommendations
Develop algorithms that provide tailored music recommendations for users. Experiments to test this solution include:
Run A/B Testing on user retention to see if personalized suggestions lead to increased engagement.
Solicit feedback via surveys to gauge satisfaction with recommendations
Solution B: Custom Playlists Based on Moods
Create playlists that cater to different moods, offering more personalized listening options.
Experiments:
User Interaction Tracking to monitor how users interact with mood-based playlists
Engagement Monitoring to assess if these playlists are improving retention.
Opportunity #2: Increase Variety of Content
Expanding the variety of content available to users keeps them engaged and attracts new listeners.
Solution A: Expand Exclusive Podcast Offerings
Introduce more exclusive content to differentiate Spotify's offerings from competitors. Test via the following experiments:
Use Stream Counts Comparison to measure engagement with exclusive content compared to non-exclusive content.
Solicit feedback via surveys to gauge satisfaction with exclusive podcasts.
Solution B: Live Audio Sessions with Artists
Organize live sessions where artists can connect directly with fans. Test out the solution with a few live events and analyze:
Track Participation Rate during live events
Conduct Post-Event Feedback Surveys to gauge user satisfaction.
Tips for Implementing Opportunity Solution Trees in Your Team
“You are going to take risks. You're going to fail. If you go there and you fail, no problem. All I ask you to do is to fail responsibly and be able to explain why you decided to go there.”
— Fabrice des Mazery, former CPO at Tripadvisor on The Product Podcast
Implementing Opportunity Solution Trees can transform how your team approaches product discovery, but it requires thoughtful execution and collaboration. Here are some tips to get started:
Collaborate Across Teams: The success of an Opportunity Solution Tree depends on diverse perspectives. Work closely with product, design, engineering, and marketing teams to ensure that opportunities and solutions are well-rounded and comprehensive.
Regularly Update Your Tree: Product discovery is not a one-time effort. As you gather new insights and data, update your Opportunity Solution Tree accordingly. This helps keep your actions aligned with evolving user needs and business goals.
Focus on Learning: Treat experiments as opportunities to learn, whether they succeed or fail. Opportunity solution trees are about discovering what works best for your users, so even if it means canning an idea, it was still worth doing.
Regularly “prune” your tree: Sometimes Product teams want to spend all their time on experiments, but it can get in the way of building. The best way to make sure stakeholders support discovery research is to keep it focused and streamlined.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
While Opportunity Solution Trees can be highly effective, there are some common pitfalls teams may face:
Overcomplicating the Tree: Adding too many branches or details can make the tree overwhelming. Keep it focused on the most impactful opportunities and solutions to avoid overcomplicating it.
Skipping Customer Research: Without grounding your opportunities in real user insights, your solutions may miss the mark. Be sure to base your opportunities on robust customer research, whether it's through interviews, surveys, or usage data. Make sure you invest enough time in understanding customer needs before moving to the solution phase.
Failing to iterate: Product discovery is an ongoing process. A static Opportunity Solution Tree won’t be effective in the long run. Make it a habit to revisit and iterate based on new information and changing contexts.
OSTs: Invaluable Assets in Product Management
Opportunity solution trees let product teams climb the complexities of product discovery branch by branch until they reach the top. By breaking down goals into actionable steps, OSTs ensure that every effort is aligned with delivering value to users and driving measurable outcomes for the business. This tool fosters structured thinking, encourages cross-team collaboration, and maintains a steadfast focus on outcomes rather than output.
Ultimately, Opportunity Solution Trees provide a practical way for product managers to connect strategy with execution. By consistently iterating on your tree, basing opportunities on real user needs, and focusing on outcomes, you can ensure that your team is building the right product—one that meets user needs and supports business growth.
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Updated: December 3, 2024
