Your startup is shifting from scrappy experimentation to a more structured approach to product development. You’ve found early traction, but now you need a scalable discovery and prioritisation process that ensures you’re building the right features at the right time for the right users.
Here’s some thoughts on an effective product discovery and prioritisation framework, including the key meetings you should have, who should be in them, and how to communicate updates across the company.
1. Product Discovery & Prioritisation Framework
Product Discovery: How to Identify the Right Problems
Product discovery should be a continuous process, feeding insights into your product roadmap. It helps uncover user needs, validate new ideas, and de-risk investments before committing engineering time. The key inputs into product discovery include:
- Customer Insights: Direct interviews, support tickets, surveys, and community discussions.
- Market & Competitive Analysis: Emerging trends, competitor benchmarking.
- Business Strategy Alignment: Growth OKRs, revenue goals, and company vision.
- Data & Analytics: User behaviour, feature adoption, and retention patterns.
- Technical Feasibility: Engineering input on constraints and opportunities.
The process follows a dual-track agile approach, where discovery happens in parallel with delivery:
Define the Problem: Identify customer pain points using Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) and other frameworks.
Explore Solutions: Rapid prototyping, concept validation, and usability testing.
Validate Ideas: A/B tests, concierge MVPs, or pilot releases.
Decide: Move validated ideas into prioritisation, iterate, or kill them early.
Prioritisation: What Gets Built and When?
Once ideas are validated, they enter the prioritisation phase. A structured decision-making framework ensures the team focuses on high-impact initiatives. Key criteria include:
- User Impact: How much does this improve the customer experience?
- Business Impact: Revenue, retention, activation, operational efficiency.
- Technical Feasibility: Time and complexity to implement.
- Strategic Alignment: Does this support key company OKRs?
- Urgency: Competitive pressure, dependencies, time-sensitive opportunities.
Prioritisation Models and When to Use Them
RICE Scoring (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort)
Formula: (Reach x Impact x Confidence) / Effort
Best for balancing effort vs. impact when prioritising across multiple initiatives.
Useful when resources are tight, and quick wins are needed.
Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) / Opportunity Scoring
Prioritises based on importance vs. satisfaction (biggest unmet needs).
Best for customer-centric teams focused on addressing high-friction pain points.
Now-Next-Later Roadmap
Now: What’s being built (next 1-2 quarters)?
Next: What’s validated but needs further planning?
Later: What’s on the horizon but requires deeper discovery?
Ideal for communicating priorities to stakeholders in a simple, strategic way.
Cost of Delay
Prioritises work based on the financial impact of delaying a feature or initiative.
Formula: Cost of Delay = Value Lost Per Time Unit x Time Delayed
Best for high-growth startups where speed to market is critical.
Works well when comparing revenue-driving vs. operational efficiency initiatives.
Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF)
Prioritises work by dividing the Cost of Delay by the Effort Required.
Formula: WSJF = Cost of Delay / Job Duration
Best for agile teams managing a large backlogBacklog A prioritised list of tasks that are needed to complete a project, including features, bug fixes, non-functional requirements, etc. This list is constantly refined and prioritised as new information surfaces., ensuring high-value items are delivered faster.
2. Meeting Cadence: Keeping Everyone Aligned
A structured meeting cadence ensures clear communication and alignment across teams.
| Meeting | Purpose | Attendees | Cadence | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product Council | Align product priorities with company strategy | Head of Product, CEO, CTO, VP Eng, VP Sales | Bi-weekly | Confirmed product priorities, roadmap updates |
| Product Discovery Standups | Align on ongoing discovery efforts | PMs, Designers, Researchers, Data, Eng Reps | Weekly | Updated discovery pipeline, blockers flagged |
| SprintSprint A set period during which specific work has to be completed and made ready for review. Sprints typically last about two to four weeks and allow teams to break down complex projects into manageable chunks and focus on high-priority tasks. Planning | Decide what will be worked on next sprint | PMs, Engineering Leads, Designers | Bi-weekly | Finalised sprint backlog |
| Product & Eng Sync | Align engineering efforts with product vision | PMs, CTO, Engineering Leads | Weekly | Product roadmap status, feasibility discussions |
| Customer Insights Review | Review feedback, feature requests | PMs, CS, Sales, UX Research | Bi-weekly | Updated customer needs backlog |
| Roadmap Review | Review and adjust roadmap priorities | Head of Product, CEO, Eng Leads | Monthly | Adjusted Now-Next-Later roadmap |
| RetrospectiveRetrospective A meeting held after a project or milestone to discuss what was successful, what could be improved, and how to incorporate the learnings for future progress. This reflection ensures continuous development and team efficiency. | Improve product processes | Product & Engineering | End of each sprint | Process improvements, blockers addressed |
3. Communication Strategy: Who Needs to Know What?
Structured communication ensures transparency while keeping teams focused. Here’s how to keep everyone informed:
| Audience | What They Need to Know | How | Cadence |
| Company (All-Hands) | High-level roadmap updates, key launches | All-hands meeting, Slack, Notion | Monthly |
| Leadership Team | Product direction, risks, roadmap shifts | Leadership sync + async roadmap updates | Bi-weekly |
| Engineering Team | Features being built, prioritisation decisions | Slack, roadmap presentations, sprint planning | Weekly |
| Customer-Facing Teams | Upcoming features, key customer pain points | Product update meeting, email digest, Slack | Bi-weekly |
| Customers | Major releases, beta opportunities | Blog, email, community announcements | Monthly |
Communication Best Practices:
- Use Notion, Productboard, or Trello to keep roadmaps visible.
- Slack channels for quick updates:
#product-updates(internal feature progress)#customer-feedback(insights collection)#engineering-sync(tech feasibility discussions)
- Keep meetings time-boxed (30-45 mins) to avoid bloat.
- Encourage async updates to reduce unnecessary meetings.
Final Thoughts: Execution & IterationIteration A specific time frame in which development takes place. The duration may vary from project to project but typically lasts from one to four weeks. At the end of each iteration, a working product should be delivered.
Scaling product discovery and prioritisation at the Series A stage requires a balance of structure and agility. The best product teams:
✅ Continuously validate customer needs before building.
✅ Use structured frameworks (RICE, ODI, JTBD, Cost of Delay) to prioritise objectively.
✅ Maintain cross-functional alignment through structured meetings.
✅ Communicate effectively across teams and stakeholders.