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Product discovery & MVP planning
Product Discovery & MVP Planning
An idea can be worth exploring without being ready for development. I help founders, startups, SMEs and agencies investigate customer problems, examine the riskiest assumptions and define a focused first release that has a clear purpose.
A bounded engagement with research, decision outputs and an MVP brief your team can use. Work remotely with Jagjeet Singh, based in India, before committing to a larger build.
RESEARCH / PRIORITIES / DELIVERY
Illustrative workspace and planning imagery. Deliverables are agreed for your product; this is not a client project screenshot.
Before you build more, decide what to test.
A CLEAR ENGAGEMENT
Bring a decision. Find a useful next step.
Use discovery when uncertainty is still shaping the product. We agree the problem area, research questions and decision to reach, then scope the work around the most important unknowns rather than documenting every possible feature.
- Founders with an idea and a potential audience who need to understand the problem before commissioning an application.
- Startups whose first-release feature list is growing without a clear learning goal or a defensible boundary.
- SMEs considering a portal, custom CRM or AI workflow that must fit how staff and customers actually work.
- Agencies that need a research-backed brief and agreed MVP scope before estimating or delivering a client's product.
WHAT WE CAN WORK ON
A scope built around your product.
An assumptions and risk map
Record the assumptions behind the proposed audience, problem, solution and operating model. Identify which would materially change the product decision if wrong, and prioritise the questions the discovery engagement can realistically investigate.
Customer and workflow research
Research the agreed users and stakeholders to understand their tasks, pain points, constraints and existing workarounds. Review relevant alternatives and available evidence. Capture findings with their limitations so a small sample does not become an unsupported market claim.
A focused problem and value proposition
Define the audience and problem the first release is intended to address. Describe the proposed value in concrete terms, distinguish needs from requested features and document where the evidence supports the direction or leaves an important question open.
Concepts to test the risky parts
Select an appropriate way to examine the idea, such as workflow sketches, a prototype or a structured concept test. Agree what we want to learn and how the findings will inform the decision before creating the test material.
An MVP definition and initial backlog
Set the first release’s purpose, essential user journey and scope boundaries. Separate must-have work from later options, outline acceptance criteria and surface integration or data dependencies. Include the learning and measurement needs that should influence the build.
A decision and delivery brief
Bring the findings, remaining risks and product options together. Recommend whether to proceed, narrow the idea, investigate further or pause. If a build is appropriate, hand over a brief and release sequence for technical estimation and planning.
Discovery is a bounded research and planning engagement. The agreed scope states the research methods, participant access, concept work and deliverables. It does not guarantee demand, product-market fit or a decision to build. Production development is a separate commitment. Ongoing ownership after discovery is available through Fractional Product Manager support; broader planning questions can be scoped through Product Management Consulting.
FROM CONTEXT TO ACTION
A shared process. Clear responsibilities.
01
Frame the question
Discuss the idea, intended users and business context. Agree the key assumptions, participant access, research methods, scope boundaries and the decision the engagement should help you make.
02
Understand the problem
Conduct the agreed research and examine current behaviour, workflows and alternatives. Share findings and gaps early, including any evidence that challenges the original idea.
03
Explore and test the approach
Use appropriately scoped concepts or prototypes to investigate the riskiest questions. Refine the proposed direction based on what we learn, keeping unresolved assumptions visible.
04
Define the next commitment
Review the decision with stakeholders. Deliver the MVP brief or recommended next investigation, with scope, dependencies and open questions that your team can use to plan responsibly.
START WITH THE CONTEXT
What should we review first?
Share the information you already have. Gaps and unresolved questions are useful inputs too; we can agree what needs to be investigated before making commitments.
- The idea, intended audience and problem you believe it will solve.
- How people handle that problem today and any feedback already collected.
- Which assumptions or decisions you are least confident about.
- Access to potential users, stakeholders and relevant business information.
- Budget, timing, integration and operational constraints that may shape the MVP.
BEFORE WE START
Good questions. Clear answers.
We agree the remit, access, responsibilities and deliverables before work begins.
You receive the agreed research findings, assumptions and risk map, product decision notes and next-step recommendation. If the evidence supports moving towards a build, the outputs include a focused MVP definition and delivery brief. The exact documents and concept work are agreed around the questions we need to answer.
Discovery investigates assumptions and gives you evidence for a decision. It may support an idea, reveal that the audience or scope should change, or indicate that more research is needed. It cannot guarantee customer demand or commercial success, and findings are presented with their practical limitations.
Yes, provided we agree a realistic way to reach people relevant to the problem. We discuss participant access and any recruitment needs when scoping the work. If access is limited, the research plan and conclusions reflect that limitation; internal opinion is kept distinct from direct customer evidence.
Production development is scoped separately. Discovery can include concept or prototype work when it helps investigate a question, but that does not automatically make it production-ready. You can take the brief to your own team or discuss a separate custom CRM, AI or web application build with me.
Yes. A useful result may be a narrower first release, a simpler operational change, another test or a decision to pause. The purpose is to make your next commitment better informed. Recommendations explain the evidence, remaining uncertainty and what would need to change before proceeding.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT NEXT STEP
Planning, ongoing ownership or delivery.
The portfolio and case studies below describe existing development work. They are not presented as evidence of prior product-management consulting engagements.
Product Management Consulting
Scope a product strategy, prioritisation or roadmap engagement.
Fractional Product Manager
Continue with embedded product ownership after discovery.
Custom CRM Development
Plan a custom CRM implementation once the workflow and scope are clear.
AI Development Services
Discuss development when AI is appropriate to the problem you need to solve.
Development Case Studies
Explore published development project scope and context.
LET’S DISCUSS YOUR PRODUCT
Start with the problem you want to solve.
Share the idea, the people you want to help and the assumption you most need to investigate. Include what you have already learned and how you could reach potential users. We can define a discovery scope around the decision ahead.
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