opportunity-solution-tree

# Opportunity Solution Tree (OST) Structures product discovery by connecting a desired outcome → customer opportunities → solutions → experiments. Prevents jumping to solutions before validating the problem space. Based on Teresa Torres, *Continuous Discovery Habits* (2021). --- ## The 4-level structure ``` ┌─────────────────────┐ │ DESIRED OUTCOME │ ← single measurable metric └──────────┬──────────┘ ┌───────────────┼────────────────┐ ┌──────┴─────┐ ┌──────┴─────┐ ┌──────┴─────┐ │Opportunity │ │Opportunity │ │Opportunity │ ← customer pain/need │ A │ │ B │ │ C │ └──────┬─────┘ └──────┬─────┘ └────────────┘ ┌──────┴───┐ ┌──────┴───┐ ┌───┴──┐ ┌───┴──┐ ┌───┴──┐ ┌───┴──┐ │Sol 1 │ │Sol 2 │ │Sol 3 │ │Sol 4 │ ← possible solutions └───┬──┘ └──────┘ └───┬──┘ └──────┘ ┌────┴────┐ ┌───┴────┐ │ Exp 1 │ │ Exp 2 │ ← fast experiments └─────────┘ └────────┘ ``` **Key principles:** - One desired outcome at a time — don't try to solve everything - Opportunities are customer problems/needs, never solutions - Generate ≥3 solutions per opportunity before choosing one - Experiments are the cheapest way to validate an assumption - The tree is a living document — update weekly as you learn --- ## How to build an OST ### Step 1 — Define the desired outcome Confirm or help the user ...