Discovery

Define ideal customers as those who get value, pay willingly, are low-maintenance, and remember their journey

Just because customers complain doesn't mean they'll change—only study people who actually switched

Product success is measured by what customers give back in return

Build products with alpha users, not just for them

Map the documentary of how customers meet, fall in love with, and grow with your product

Use your own product obsessively (dog food) and competitors' products regularly (cat food)

Change happens when push + pull outweigh anxiety + habit—understand all four forces to drive adoption

Every solution carries four risks: value, usability, feasibility, and viability

Systematically identify user experience issues by walking through the product as a specific user persona

Find product ideas by tracking what frustrates you during a normal week

People hire products to make progress in their life—understand the context and outcome, not just pain and gain

Get past pablum and fantasy to find the reality of what actually happened

Find product-market fit by developing customers willing to stake their reputation on your product

Customers move through six distinct phases—meet them where they are, not where you want them to be

Customer decisions are driven by three types of energy—functional, emotional, and social—understand all three

A living document of the most important problems in your product area