"Continuous Discovery Habits" - Summary

In the book "Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products That Create Customer Value and Business Value," the Teresa Torres shares her journey in product design, starting as a junior designer at HighWire Press, facing initial failures, and slowly learning to involve clients in the design process. The key message is to start small, iterate, and continuously discover by getting close to the customers and understanding their needs.

One of the main strategies is forming a cross-functional 'trio' consisting of a product manager, designer, and engineer, which can dynamically change according to the project. This team consults on key decisions, continuously iterating and improving the product based on customer feedback. The author stresses the importance of 'keystone habits', like regular exercise or making your bed, that lead to the adoption of other good habits. For product teams, continuous interviewing of customers is identified as a keystone habit.

Also, start working backwards when tasked with a specific solution, considering how the solution would benefit the customer and the business, and thereby uncovering implied opportunities. Other strategies involve story mapping to identify assumptions and post-release impact reviews with stakeholders. Regular retrospectives with the trio to reflect and improve on the discovery process are also encouraged.

The author emphasizes the power of individual agency and the capacity for a single person to effect change, regardless of the company's culture or norms. They advise taking a continuous-improvement approach, iterating, and evolving processes based on learnings and feedback. The underlying principle is that, to do good design work, one must get close to the customer.