Overview
When building a product, determining what problem you're solving and the best solution requires strategic inquiry. GLIDR employs two core Product Discovery activities: Research and Experiments. This guide clarifies what to learn, then directs you to techniques from the Index of Methods to find answers.
What are you trying to learn
"If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions." — Albert Einstein
Unlike school tests with predetermined answers, entrepreneurship presents a blank page. As a business builder, you cannot guess by launching a fully developed product—the market will judge you through sales results.
The core responsibility: identifying the right questions before pursuing answers.
What Are Good Questions?
Fundamental gaps in your business model generate essential questions:
- Who is your customer?
- What job do they want completed?
- Which channels reach them?
- Which features belong in your first product?
- Is your solution sufficient?
How Do We Ask the Right Questions?
Identifying blind spots independently proves difficult. Peer review eliminates oversights—present your business model to others and encourage them to question it. Conduct 4-5 peer reviews; patterns reveal overlooked assumptions.
Priority Does Not Have a Plural
Generate at least 10-20 questions through brainstorming and peer review. More questions indicate better risk acknowledgment, not increased risk. However, address one question at a time. Select the question whose answer could destroy your entire business model.
Locate The Question
Two key questions guide method selection:
- Do we need market or product learning?
- Do we have a falsifiable hypothesis, or need to generate ideas?
A 2x2 matrix intersection yields four research/experiment categories:
- Evaluative Market Experiment (clear hypothesis + customer insight needed)
- Generative Market Research (unclear customer definition)
- Evaluative Product Experiment (clear hypothesis + feature validation)
- Generative Product Research (exploring feature solutions)
Adapted from The Real Startup Book, edited by Tristan Kromer and published by Kromatic, under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.