Teresa Torres
Teresa Torres is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and coach. She teaches a structured and sustainable system for continuous discovery that helps product teams infuse their daily product decisions with customer input. She’s coached hundreds of teams at companies of all sizes, from early-stage startups to global enterprises, in a variety of industries. She has taught over 11,000 product people discovery skills through the Product Talk Academy and hundreds through her coaching practice, and is the author of Continuous Discovery Habits.
Leadership Skills
Sustainable discovery involves testing the underlying assumptions of an idea rather than the entire idea at once.
"The first thing is we have to learn how to take an idea and break it into its underlying assumptions. We have to learn how to prioritize those assumptions. Then we have to learn how to run tests that..."
To avoid confirmation bias, teams should always evaluate multiple solutions for a single opportunity simultaneously.
"I think the best way to guard against what you think is the obvious solution is to work with multiple solutions for the same opportunity. Compare and contrast. We already know this intuitively... When..."
True collaboration involves a 'product trio' working from a shared understanding rather than siloed decision-making.
"The trio is the product manager, the designer, and the software engineer. If you've never worked in a well-functioning trio, this breaks people's brains, because they say, 'Well, what are we going to..."
Product Management Skills
Product work should be anchored in a specific business outcome rather than a list of features to build.
"It starts with an outcome at the root of the tree, and then it branches into the opportunity space and then it branches into solutions, and maybe even assumption tests from there."
Effective product management requires resisting the urge to jump to solutions and instead spending time deeply framing the problem space.
"I think that the heart of good product is really getting comfortable in the problem space or the opportunity space, really taking the time to frame a problem well, and to really get into what's needed..."
Deconstructing large, evergreen problems into smaller, specific opportunities makes them actionable for continuous delivery.
"As you move vertically down the tree, your opportunities are getting smaller and smaller, which is really key to helping us unlock a continuous cadence... we can deconstruct it. Maybe I can't find som..."
The primary goal of a user interview is to collect specific stories rather than general facts or opinions.
"I think interviewing is a grossly underestimated skill. Grossly underestimated skill. So that's the first thing is that if you're not collecting rich stories in your interviews, it's going to be reall..."
Automating the recruitment process is essential for maintaining a continuous interviewing habit without administrative overhead.
"The most common strategy is to allow your customers to opt in while they're using your product or service... instead of saying, 'Would you recommend our product or service to a friend or colleague?' i..."
A great interview feels like a natural conversation where the interviewer acts as a curious guide helping the user recount a timeline.
"I teach in our interviewing class, you really don't have to think about what to ask. You could run an entire interview by asking them one question... 'Tell me about the last time you watched something..."