This technique is called the “Perfect Review” and I’d consider it to be under the “Solution space” in product discovery.

Have you ever looked for a new restaurant on Google Maps or Yelp? Have you ever searched for a product on amazon and picked one with tens of thousands of 4 star reviews or higher?

People typically take the 1-5 star reviews as a major factor in their decision making. 

If we imagine what a 1 star, 5 star and above 5 star review would look like, we can unlock groundbreaking ideas.

How to utilize the Perfect Review technique

1. Set the stage

With your team, set the stage of what you know. Write down what a 1 star review looks like. Better yet, use a real one or some sort of customer verbatim!

Then write down what a 5 star review looks like or what it would look like. 

Tip: Show don’t tell here. Be descriptive and over communicate. Don’t use generic language like “secure, simple, easy, quick, etc.” 

Truly imagine what the customer looks and feels like, what emotions does that customer experience throughout?

2. Align

Now that we have a cohesive understanding of 1 and 5 star reviews. Write down the themes across each. Take note of what you see across positive and negative reviews. 

3. Above and beyond

Now that you have alignment, we understand what problems cause negative customer experiences. What could we do to make a customer write a review HIGHER THAN 5 STARS??? 

What could you do to solve all the 1 star reviews and make the experience so significant that on a scale of 1-5, the customer wants to leave you a 10 star or even higher? 

The mindset in the group will now shift and your team will now dream up remarkable experiences.

Have your team write out what these above and beyond reviews would look like. 

They will most likely be experiences that are much “sweeter” than what the current product is offering today. 

4. Review and Remix Ideas

Next the team can review the above and beyond reviews, jotting down ideas that seem relevant, plausible, etc. 

What actually has legs? Can we achieve any of these “outrageously good” experiences? 

Break them down where possible. 

5. Test Ideas

Once your session concludes with your team, you can test ideas out with customers by asking them if ABC would yield XYZ. etc. 

This article will break down the “Ride Along” Technique to assist with product discovery in the Problem Space.

A Ride Along is exactly what it sounds like. Go through an experience/process in the passenger seat with your customer. This will help you understand what the experience is really like for the customer as you recreate it realtime. 

In this example, picture an online shopping experience. 

1. Since we were not with the customer in the first experience, let's recreate it with them. 

   1. Start at the beginning. 

2. Ask “How did we get here?” Set the scene.

   1. Where did the customer start this online shopping experience? Did they see an ad? Did they start a search in a search engine? Did they go directly to the e-commerce site?  

   2. What had just happened beforehand?

   3. Where were they?

   4. What were they using? (device) 

   5. Did they know what they were looking for? 

You want a full picture and understanding of what headspace the customer was in.

3. Walkthrough

   1. Now we ask them to walk through, step by step what actions they took. 

   2. Every click or tap should be looked at. What was the intention with that action?

Here you will want to get them to talk out loud. Narrate their thoughts and feelings as they go through the experience. 

4. Observe

   1. Watch carefully and note the person’s actions, word choice and their emotions throughout the process. 

   2. If something is not clear, ask more about it. 

   3. If something surprises you, ask more about it.

Here you’re learning more about the POV of the customer. 

5. Close

   1. As they complete the customer journey, ask them how they feel about the experience.

      1. Are they happy about it? Annoyed? This helps confirm whether or not what you think they experienced matches what they experienced.

Now that you have this data, you need to pick it apart and see where there are areas for improvement. Focusing on these areas will help validate ideas and will improve focusing on problems that arise in a given experience. 

Tips for asking questions:

• Try and ask open, non leading questions.

• “What would you like to see?” “Then what happens?” “How did you make that decision?”

• Paraphrase back to them to cross check your understanding

This technique can help find real opportunities within someone’s suggested solution.

As a product manager, you’re typically told not to jump to solutions and instead figure out the problem first. However, if someone (a customer, a stakeholder, engineer, designer, etc.) jumps to a solution, you can use it to your advantage to help discover what’s really going on. (They may have already thought through a lot of the problem space).

How to execute:

1. Someone has an idea/solution

When someone jumps to a solution and explains their idea, let them do this and don’t stop them! If you summarize their idea back to them, you will help them feel heard. Tell them something positive about it as well. (It’s easy to point out flaws, try not too!)

2. Ask questions!

As the conversation flows, use the momentum to unearth what problem or opportunity they are truly solving or reacting to.

Ask indirect questions like:

• “Then what happens?”

• “When you have the solution you’re referencing, how does this help the [person, customer, product, etc.]?”

• “What does this solution enable?”

• “Does this impact anything else?”

Ask direct questions like:

• “What problem are we solving with this?”

• “Why does this matter?”

• “Who does this help?”

• “What’s the cost of not doing this” ← (One of my favorites because it’s not just about $$, the cost of not doing something could mean XYZ fails, competitor ABC takes marketshare, etc.)

• “Have we tried anything similar? Different?”

• “If time and money were not a constraint, what would you do?”

Exploratory questions:

• “What else have you thought of”? (did they have other ideas before arriving to this one? Why did they think those would not work?

• “Why do you think that is?”

• “Tell me more about that?”

• If something is confusing asking “Can you explain this to me like I’m a 5th grader?” That can help people take it down a notch and put them in the right mindset to speak clearly and concisely. 

3. Label everything

   1. When you think you’ve reached an understanding of the problem, repeat it back to them.

   2. For example:

      1. “It sounds like you want [impact/improvement] to [ABC] without sacrificing [outcomes/results].

      2. “It sounds like you want a [better customer experience] without any [friction].”

      3. “It sounds like you want the car to go faster but not use more gas.”

You can ping pong back and forth for a bit until you both start to agree on understanding and start to hear things like “Yea, that’s it, that’s what I mean!”

4. Read between the lines

   1. Now that you have asked a bunch of questions, you understand the problem they’re trying to solve for and you understand their idea/solution, it’s time to evaluate everything. 

   2. When looking at what you’ve documented;

      1. What patterns are you seeing?

      2. What new questions do you have? 

      3. What data do you need that supports the solution and the problem they outlined?

      4. Is this similar to something else? Have we tried solving it this way before?

      5. Is this the right problem to be solving for right now?

      6. Is this problem the actual problem? Or did you discover a more prevalent or separate but related problem?

      7. Are the results/outcomes they were looking for worth it? Is that the right outcome?

Going through this exercise of letting people solution can really help you streamline what they’re actually trying to solve for. Someone may not know how to articulate the problem or pain someone is experiencing but by the end of this exercise, you should be able to communicate it clearly and concise. 

Save this to refer back to the next time someone starts going through a solution or idea and feel free to forward to a fellow product manager you think would benefit from this!

I’ll show you practical techniques you can add to your arsenal to level up your product career. I guarantee you’ll learn something new!