EP64: What early stage SaaS companies miss about product discovery

In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim dive into product management.

They cover problem space versus solution space and why so many founders and product teams build features based on assumptions, customer requests, or competitive pressure without doing the discovery work necessary to understand what users are actually trying to accomplish.

This episode is a masterclass on how to avoid building features nobody uses and how to create products that customers genuinely adopt, value, and pay for.

Got a question you’d like Asia to unpack on the podcast? Record a voicemail here.

Links: 

• DemandMaven
• Subscribe to The Work by DemandMaven on Substack
• The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen
• Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works 
• Continuous Discovery Habits by Theresa Torres

Chapters

• (00:01:00) - Product discovery and idea validation.
• (00:03:15) - Why understanding the problem deeply creates better product decisions.
• (00:06:05) - What product discovery actually means in practice.
• (00:14:40) - Observational research and watching users interact with products.
• (00:16:15) - User stories versus hypothetical behavior.
• (00:19:50) - An example of the user stories you might look for on a SaaS reporting function.
• (00:23:45) - How support tickets can help lead you to the areas you should start working on.
• (00:29:00) - Castos example: uncovering integration problems through user stories.
• (00:37:45) - Theresa Torres and the Continuous Discovery approach.
• (00:44:30) - How discovery creates clearer product strategy and positioning.