Product Activists: Guerilla Discovery | Heise Online

Guerrilla Discovery – This is probably an initially unknown or unusual term. It means an unconscious and continuous way of gaining user insights, even when the environment is not ideal for deep discovery processes.

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In this episode of the podcast, Tobias Morouf, Senior Product Manager KosiGuest of product activist Tim Klein on this topic. Morouf gives exciting insights into his way of ensuring more product discovery – even if his product context or project has no budget or no apparent will to strive for more product discovery.

This episode of the podcast explains how it works and what practical tips help.

Guerrilla Discovery: Unconscious Product Discovery

Tobias understands guerrilla search as an approach in which product discovery is not done in a complex and formal way, but rather unconsciously but continuously integrated into everyday product life. The aim is to collect valuable insights despite scarce resources and limited scope. A central idea is that discovery often takes less time and effort than you think.

A simple example that Tobias Morouf shares from his practice impressively shows how this approach works. One project involved migrating a system that had a clear feature list from the IT department. But Morouf immediately noticed a discrepancy between the IT requirements and the actual needs of the customer service. Instead of simply implementing the existing requirements, he decided to inspect the customer service directly – very discreetly and without making a big fuss.

This simple measure helped them determine that some of the originally planned features were unnecessary, while others, such as the ability to block or anonymize customers, were much more important. These insights not only led to a better solution, but also helped avoid unnecessary effort – in keeping with Jeff Patton’s principle: “Maximize the outcome while minimizing the output.”

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The Five Steps of Guerrilla Search

To successfully implement Guerrilla Discovery in practice, Tobias suggests a five-step approach:

1. Convince stakeholders: There is often resistance when it comes to additional exploration. Here it helps to work with targeted questions and assumptions rather than jumping right away into big concepts or broad overviews.
2. Understanding users: Direct contact with users is essential. If this is not possible, small, continuous observations and questioning existing assumptions can help.
3. Small-scale experiments: Discovery can happen in small steps. It doesn’t always have to be a big hit. Even brief observations or conversations can provide valuable insights.
4. Beware of scope creep: Every project has a budget, whether it is financial or time-related. A portion of this budget should be deliberately allocated for discovery as this leads to better decisions in the long run and ultimately saves resources.
5. Involve the Scrum Master: If there is resistance in the team, Morouf recommends involving the Scrum Master as an ally. This can often help control disputes and focus on user needs.

A key point that Tobias emphasizes is the courage required for guerrilla discovery. You have to step out of your own comfort zone and maybe even annoy people. But that is where the key lies: if you are willing to take small steps and constantly question yourself, you can gain valuable insights even in a difficult environment.

Conclusion: Small actions, big impact

Tobias Moroff’s approach shows that product discovery doesn’t always have to be complex or formal. Through targeted, small measures, important insights can be gained even in difficult environments. It’s important to focus on users and constantly question whether the planned solutions actually solve their problems – and often with much less effort than you think.

If you want to know more about this approach, you can watch the video Morouf’s talk at the “Crafting Products” conference See.

Further links

This episode references these earlier episodes:

Tobias Morouf refers to the following instruments:

If you have further questions for Tobias Morouf or would like to contact him in another way, the best way to reach him is Linkedin,

The current version of the podcast is also available on the ProductWorker blog: “Guerrilla Discovery — When the context does not actively support discovery,

(May)