Hello there,

14 years ago, I arrived in Dubai with my 2-year-old son. Today, he’s a 16-year-old with aspirations of becoming a cybersecurity engineer. Balancing my career in product with raising a child in this vibrant region has been incredibly rewarding. Yet earlier this year, a spark ignited within me — an urge to create something truly remarkable. Something that would outshine leading a 40-person design team or guiding a child through their teenage years. In January, that spark became a beacon of inspiration.

The product landscape in MENA has been ever-evolving, but compared to more established hubs, we still have ground to cover. This realisation prompted me to embark on a journey — to establish DesignOps MENA, a lively community dedicated to nurturing innovation and maturity in product development. Through DesignOps MENA, I’ve had the privilege of cultivating a space where product professionals converge to share insights, support each other’s growth, and collectively redefine what’s possible for product development in our region.

Our mission is clear: to provide a dynamic platform where industry experts exchange ideas, draw inspiration from diverse experiences, and together, elevate the standards of product excellence across MENA. Visit our website to learn more about our initiatives.

For our 3rd event, we were honoured to have Sruthi Poduval, who shared her extensive experience in product management and her insights on product discovery. Here, I will summarise the key points from her talk.

Watch more talks from industry leaders on our YouTube channel.

Register for upcoming events on our Meetup page.

How Effective Product Discovery Leads to Empowered Teams: Sruthi Poduval — Head of Product, The Giving Movement

Sruthi began her talk by sharing her personal and professional journey. Growing up in a defence family in India, she attended seven different schools, which instilled in her adaptability and resilience. After completing her engineering degree, like many others, she transitioned to an MBA, hoping to find her true calling. Her stint in consulting provided her with broad exposure but left her yearning for more purpose.

Understanding Product Discovery

Sruthi began by defining product discovery as the process of determining what to build to meet customer needs. This involves various techniques such as customer interviews, data research, and experimentation. The goal is to understand the problem deeply before developing a solution.

Discovery vs. Delivery

She explained the distinction between discovery and delivery. Discovery is about understanding the problem, while delivery focuses on building the solution. The easiest way to differentiate the two is: “Finding the right product to build is product discovery, and building the product right is product delivery.”

Why Invest in Product Discovery?

Product discovery prevents mismatches between what the customer wants and what is delivered. This classic diagram shows the disparities between customer needs, product leaders’ understanding, and the final product, underscoring the necessity of thorough product discovery.

Success Story: Fare Calendar at Almosafer Sruthi shared a successful example of product discovery during her time at Almosafer. The team wanted to develop a fare calendar feature, common in travel booking platforms. They conducted extensive customer research using competitor websites. The key insight was that customers valued the filters for airlines and travel times more than the calendar itself. This discovery led to prioritising filter implementation, resulting in a highly successful feature.

Failure: More Options Button Conversely, Sruthi also shared a lesson from a failed experiment. At Almosafer, her team struggled to increase clicks on a “more options” button. Despite numerous tests and variations, the button’s performance did not improve, demonstrating the pitfalls of poorly defined problem statements and the importance of clear objectives in product discovery.

Empowering Teams Through Discovery

Effective product discovery can truly empower teams, enabling them to propose and defend their product decisions with solid evidence. This empowerment can lead to more innovative and customer-focused solutions, rather than simply executing a pre-determined roadmap.

When to Conduct Product Discovery

While product discovery is crucial, it is not always necessary. For minor issues or quick fixes, immediate action might be more appropriate. However, for significant decisions or when there is substantial uncertainty, thorough discovery is essential.

Getting Started with Product Discovery

Sruthi provided practical advice on starting product discovery:

• Define Objectives: Clearly state what you aim to achieve, whether it’s a business goal like increasing conversion rates or a customer goal like improving user experience.
• Identify Problems and Hypotheses: Determine the problems or opportunities and create hypotheses to test.
• Customer Focus: Maintain a customer-centric approach by regularly engaging with users and documenting insights.
• Experimentation: Emphasise the importance of running experiments to validate hypotheses and learn quickly from failures.

Experimentation, Validation of Hypothesis

Determine the problems or opportunities and create hypotheses to test.

Microsoft and several other leading companies — including Amazon, Booking.com, Facebook, and Google — each conduct more than 10,000 online controlled experiments annually, with many tests engaging millions of users

Cognitive Psychology in Product Design

Sruthi introduced cognitive psychology concepts that can enhance product design. For example, leveraging familiar user behaviours (like Instagram’s swipe feature) can improve user interaction.

Balancing Options: Learning from Experience

She shared an example from her experience at The Giving Movement about a common pitfall encountered in offering too many colour options to customers. Initially seen as a way to cater to diverse preferences, the approach often resulted in decision fatigue among customers. Instead of facilitating easy decision-making, the abundance of options tended to confuse and overwhelm potential buyers. She stressed the importance of balancing the number of options presented to avoid overwhelming users.

Measuring Impact

Finally, Sruthi highlighted the importance of measuring the impact of product discovery efforts. This involves tracking key metrics and continuously iterating based on feedback and results.

Conclusion

Sruthi Poduval’s keynote was a masterclass in the principles and practices of effective product discovery. Her journey and insights resonated deeply with our community, reinforcing the importance of understanding the “why” behind what we build. As we continue to grow this community, we remain committed to fostering a space where such invaluable knowledge can be shared and where we can collectively strive towards product excellence.

Join our community on LinkedIn to connect with industry experts.

Watch more talks from industry leaders:

https://www.youtube.com/@DesignOpsMENA

Register for upcoming events:

https://www.meetup.com/designops-mena

Join the conversation:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8196788

Visit our website to learn more about our initiatives
https://www.designopsmena.com