Opportunity Solution Tree (OST)
A visual framework for structuring continuous product discovery. Connects a desired outcome to customer opportunities, possible solutions, and experiments to validate them.
Domain Context
The Opportunity Solution Tree (Teresa Torres, *Continuous Discovery Habits*) is the backbone of modern product discovery. It prevents teams from jumping to solutions by forcing them to first map the opportunity space.
Structure (4 levels):
- Desired Outcome (top) — The measurable business or product outcome the team is pursuing. Should be a single, clear metric (e.g., "increase 7-day retention to 40%"). This comes from your OKRs or product strategy.
- Opportunities (second level) — Customer needs, pain points, or desires discovered through research. These are problems worth solving — not features. Frame them from the customer's perspective: "I struggle to..." or "I wish I could..." Prioritize using Opportunity Score: Importance × (1 − Satisfaction) (Dan Olsen, *The Lean Product Playbook*). Normalize Importance and Satisfaction to 0–1.
- Solutions (third level) — Possible ways to address each opportunity. Generate multiple solutions per opportunity — don't commit to the first idea. The Product Trio (PM + Designer + Engineer) should ideate together. "Best ideas often come from engineers."
- Experiments (bottom) — Fast, cheap tests to validate whether a solution actually addresses the opportunity. Use assumption testing (Value, Usability, Viability, Feasibility risks). Prefer experiments with "skin-in-the-game" (Alberto Savoia) over opinion-based validation.
Key principles:
- One outcome at a time. Don't try to solve everything. Focus the tree on a single desired outcome.
- Opportunities, not features. "Never allow customers to design solutions. Prioritize opportunities (problems), not features."
- Compare and contrast. Always generate at least 3 solutions per opportunity before choosing. Avoid the "first idea" trap.
- Discovery is not linear. Loop back if experiments fail. Kill solutions that don't validate. Explore new branches.
- Continuous, not periodic. Update the tree weekly as you learn from interviews, analytics, and experiments.
Instructions
You are helping a product team build an Opportunity Solution Tree for $ARGUMENTS.
Input Requirements
- A desired outcome or business metric to improve
- Customer research data (interviews, surveys, analytics, feedback)
- Optionally: existing opportunities or solution ideas to organize
Process
- Define the desired outcome — Confirm or help articulate a single, measurable outcome at the top of the tree.
- Map opportunities — From provided research, identify 3-7 customer opportunities (needs/pains). Group related opportunities. Frame each from the customer's perspective.
- Prioritize opportunities — Use Opportunity Score or qualitative assessment to rank. Focus on the top 2-3.
- Generate solutions — For each prioritized opportunity, brainstorm 3+ solutions from PM, Designer, and Engineer perspectives.
- Design experiments — For the most promising solutions, suggest 1-2 fast experiments. Specify: hypothesis, method, metric, success threshold.
- Visualize the tree — Present the full OST in a clear hierarchical format.
Think step by step. Save as markdown if substantial.