Continuous Discovery Habits turns five this year. And to celebrate we are reading the book together.
Each month, I am releasing an in-depth reading guide that includes:
- The chapters we will be reading
- A preview of the most important concepts we'll be learning about
- Short videos you can share with friends and colleagues to help spread the ideas
- Individual and team discussion questions to help you absorb and engage with the reading
- Team exercises to help you put the ideas into practice
- Additional reading to help you go deeper on the core ideas
We'll be discussing each month's reading in the comment section and we'll gather quarterly to discuss on a live call.
Joining late? No problem. I monitor the comments on each reading guide throughout the year. Start with the current month or go back to January—whatever works for you. You can ask for help, share what's working, and connect with other readers at any point.
If you want to participate, grab a copy of the book (or dig up your old copy), share the "Spread the Love" videos, reserve some time to do the team exercises, and register for the community sessions. Let's do this!
This Month's Reading
Chapter: Chapter 6: Mapping the Opportunity Space
Estimated reading time: ~23 minutes
This month's chapter will introduce you to:
- Why opportunity mapping is critical for structuring the ill-structured problem of reaching your desired outcome
- How to move from overwhelming opportunity backlogs to well-structured opportunity spaces
- The power of tree structures for depicting parent-child and sibling relationships between opportunities
- How to identify distinct branches in your opportunity space using key moments in time
- Common anti-patterns to avoid when building your first opportunity solution tree
- Why structure "gets done, undone, and redone" as you continue to learn
Need a copy? Grab the book
Share the Love with Friends and Colleagues
We learn best in community. Use the following short videos to share the key concepts from this chapter with friends and colleagues. Invite them to participate in the book club with you.
- The need for opportunity mapping - You will never fully satisfy your customers' desires
- Understanding the structure of an opportunity solution tree - Depicting two types of relationships
- Turn big intractable problems into smaller, more solvable problems - The power of decomposition
- How to map an opportunity space - Getting started with opportunity solution trees
- A well-structured opportunity space has distinct branches - Identify key moments in time
Reflect & Discuss What You Read
When we reflect and discuss what we read, we absorb more of the material. It helps us put what we learn into practice. Don't skip this step.
This chapter challenges us to shift from reacting to every customer need we hear to being systematic about structuring the opportunity space. Most of us have felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of customer opportunities we could address. This month, focus on how your team currently organizes (or doesn't organize) the opportunities you hear from customers.
Individual Reflection
- Think about your current product backlog or opportunity list. Is it a flat list, or do you have some structure to it? If you were to group similar opportunities together, what patterns would emerge?
- When was the last time you heard a customer need and immediately jumped to a solution without exploring whether there were related opportunities? What would change if you took the time to map how that opportunity connects to others?
- Review the anti-patterns from the chapter (opportunities framed from your company's perspective, vertical opportunities, opportunities with multiple parents, etc.). Which of these do you recognize in how your team currently talks about opportunities?
Team Discussion
- As a team, pick a top-level opportunity you're currently working on. Try breaking it down into sub-opportunities together. Where do you struggle? Where do you disagree about how to frame or group opportunities? What does that tell you about gaps in your shared understanding?
- Look at your experience map (from Chapter 4) and identify 3-5 distinct moments in time during your customer's experience. Could these become the top-level branches of your opportunity solution tree? Where do you see overlap, and where are there clear distinctions?
- Discuss the quote from Barbara Tversky: "Structure gets done, undone, and redone." How does your team currently respond when you discover new information that changes how you understand the opportunity space? Do you treat your opportunity map as fixed or as something that evolves?
Put It Into Practice
Understanding opportunity mapping is one thing. Actually building your first opportunity solution tree is where the real learning begins. These exercises will help you get hands-on experience with structuring the opportunity space.
Exercise: Build Your First Opportunity Solution Tree
Time: 60 minutes
Do this: With your product trio
Start by reviewing your interview snapshots from the past few weeks. For each opportunity you captured, ask the three questions from the chapter:
- Is this opportunity framed as a customer need, pain point, or desire (not a solution)?
- Is this opportunity unique to one customer, or have we seen it in more than one interview?
- If we address this opportunity, will it drive our desired outcome?
Then, using your experience map, identify 3-5 distinct moments in time to serve as your top-level opportunities. Group the opportunities from your interviews under these top-level branches.
Look for opportunities to add structure to each branch:
- Group similar opportunities together and identify a parent opportunity
- Look for vertical stacks (one parent, one child) and fill in missing siblings
- Reframe opportunities that are too broad or that could live in multiple branches
Don't aim for perfection. Just get something on paper (or on a digital canvas). You'll iterate on this tree with every interview you do.
Exercise: Practice Framing Opportunities from Your Customer's Perspective
Time: 30-45 minutes
Do this: With your product trio
Take 10-15 opportunities from your current backlog or list. For each one, ask: "Can I imagine a customer saying this?"
If the answer is no, reframe it from your customer's perspective. For example:
- "Increase subscription conversions" becomes "I want to know if this product is worth paying for"
- "Reduce support tickets" becomes "I can't figure out how to do X"
- "Improve onboarding completion" becomes "I'm not sure what to do next"
This exercise helps you spot business-centric opportunities disguised as customer opportunities. It also trains your team to listen for opportunities in interviews that are framed from the customer's point of view.
Go Deeper: Additional Reading
If you prefer an audio summary of this month's reading, including the book chapters and the following resources, I've included an audio version for paid subscribers at the bottom of this post.
Related In-Depth Guides
- Opportunity Solution Trees: Visualize Your Discovery to Stay Aligned and Drive Outcomes
- Customer Interviews: Uncover Hidden Insights from Every Conversation
Supplementary Reading
- Prioritize Opportunities, Not Solutions
- Product in Practice: Opportunity Mapping at Grailed
- Product in Practice: Opportunity Mapping at trivago
- 7 Key Benefits of Using Opportunity Solution Trees
- Getting Started with Opportunity Solution Trees at SuperAwesome
- Bringing Order to Chaos: Using Opportunity Solution Trees in Everyday Life
Other Voices
- Why Groups Struggle to Solve Problems Together by Al Pittampalli
- More PM Problem Areas by Marty Cagan
- Five Superpowers of Diagrams by Abby Covert
- Critical Thinking is Product Management by This Is Product Management
Our Live Discussion Schedule
Our live discussion sessions are for paid subscribers. Sessions are not recorded. Invitations will go out to Supporting Members and CDH Members two weeks before the scheduled event. But reserve the time on your calendar now.
- Tuesday, June 16, 2026: 9am-10am PDT
- Thursday, September 17, 2026: 9am-10am PDT
- Wednesday, December 16, 2026: 9am-10am PST
Audio Summary
This summary was produced by NotebookLM. The sources supplied were the book chapters as well as all of the additional reading.
This article is part of the CDH Book Club celebrating the 5-year anniversary of Continuous Discovery Habits. See all book club posts