Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value

In Chapter 14, Torres discusses how individuals can implement product discovery practices even in organizations that do not officially support such methods. The chapter opens with Torres’s personal narrative from 1999 when she began working as a software developer at HighWire Press, a Stanford University Libraries division focused on digitizing academic journals. As a recent college graduate with training in human-centered design, Torres encountered immediate challenges when her initial navigation design for the American Association for the Advancement of Science received harsh criticism from a client who had previously specified different requirements.

This formative experience taught Torres that she needed to maintain close connections with clients and end users, regardless of her company’s standard practices. She initiated regular client meetings, attended conferences, monitored discussion forums, and established feedback mechanisms within products. These self-directed changes to her work process yielded significant results—by age 32, she had become CEO of a company.

Torres uses this personal history to introduce her central argument: Individuals possess more agency in their work processes than they might realize. Rather than waiting for organizational change or seeking permission, she advocates for making incremental improvements within one’s sphere of influence. The chapter then presents specific strategies for implementing discovery practices, beginning with the formation of a cross-functional trio comprising a product manager, designer, and engineer.