The 10 Steps for Effective B2B Product Discovery [+Frameworks]

Dayana Mayfield

Agile Product Development

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Creating a successful B2B digital product starts with understanding. Understanding comes from research and discovery.

Who are your customers and what are their challenges?

Product discovery is the foundation to building solutions that deliver real value while minimizing risk. 

In this guide, we’ll explore the steps, frameworks, and examples that drive effective B2B product discovery.

What is product discovery in B2B SaaS

Product discovery in B2B SaaS is the process of identifying customer needs, defining problems, and validating solutions before development. It ensures your product addresses real business challenges, aligns with market demands, and delivers measurable value. By asking the right questions and focusing on iterative research, feedback, and refinement, product discovery minimizes risk and maximizes the chances of building a successful product.

How does the B2B customer persona fit in?

B2B customer discovery creates the personas that guide the product discovery process by representing target users' goals, pain points, and behaviors. They help prioritize features, design solutions, and tailor messaging to ensure the product meets customer expectations and business needs effectively.

The 10 steps of the B2B product discovery process for digital products

Here’s the  digital product discovery process tailored to the B2B world.

The B2B product discovery process infograpbic

1. Understand your target market and customers

Identify the key personas who will use your product. Research their goals, pain points, and workflows to gain a deep understanding of their needs. 

  • Use interviews, surveys, and data analysis to define who your product will serve and what challenges it will address.

2. Define the business problem you’re solving

Clarify the core business problem your product aims to address. Ensure it aligns with your target market’s needs and your organization’s objectives. 

  • A precise problem statement sets the foundation for a value-driven discovery process and solution development.

3. Conduct market and competitor research

Analyze market trends and competitor offerings to identify gaps, opportunities, and risks. Understand how competitors solve similar problems and what makes their solutions successful or flawed. This informs your product’s differentiation strategy.

4. Engage with your customers to validate pain points

Engage with prospective users through interviews, focus groups, or surveys to confirm their pain points and assess the relevance of your identified problem. Make sure that the identified challenges are critical enough for users to prioritize solving them.

5. Generate and prioritize solutions

Brainstorm multiple solutions to the defined problem. Use frameworks like the RICE score or value vs. effort matrix to prioritize ideas that deliver the most value with the least complexity. Focus on solutions that resonate with your target audience.

6. Build and test high-fidelity prototypes

Develop prototypes that represent key features of your proposed solution. Make the design realistic and interactive enough for meaningful feedback. 

  • Prototypes help users visualize your solution and provide insights on its usability and value.

7. Collect and analyze feedback from real users

Share prototypes with real users in your target audience. Collect qualitative and quantitative feedback on usability, functionality, and overall satisfaction. Analyze patterns in user responses to identify strengths and weaknesses in your solution.

8. Refine and validate the proposed solution

Incorporate user feedback to refine your product design and features. Reiterate as necessary to validate that the solution meets user needs, aligns with business goals, and addresses the core problem effectively.

9. Create a product roadmap with clear milestones

Outline a detailed roadmap that includes prioritized features, timelines, and development phases. The roadmap must be feasible, aligned with business goals, and reflect insights from user validation and feedback.

10. Align stakeholders on the finalized discovery findings

Present the validated solution, roadmap, and key insights to stakeholders. Gain alignment on the product’s direction, scope, and next steps to support a smooth transition into development and a shared vision for success.

10 common B2B discovery frameworks

Choosing the right B2B product discovery framework will depend heavily on your product, your business as a whole, and your objectives. Whether you're focused on a discovery sprint, or developing your continuous discovery methodology here are some common frameworks to check out. 

1. Design Thinking

Design thinking

A human-centered approach that focuses on understanding user needs and iterating quickly.

Steps:

  • Empathize (understand users’ pain points)

  • Define (clearly define the problem)

  • Ideate (brainstorm solutions)

  • Prototype (create prototypes to test ideas)

  • Test (validate ideas with users)

Best for: Teams looking to uncover unmet needs and innovative solutions.

2. Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) Framework

Jobs-to-be-done framework

Focuses on what job the user hires your product to do.

Steps:

  • Identify the user’s "job" (desired outcome or task).

  • Understand the circumstances and challenges.

  • Determine how your product can improve the outcome.

  • Build features to fulfill the job effectively.

Best for: Identifying customer pain points and aligning the product with core user needs.

3. Lean Startup

Emphasizes fast experimentation to minimize waste and validate ideas quickly.

Steps:

  • Build (create a minimal viable product – MVP)

  • Measure (test the MVP with real users)

  • Learn (analyze data and iterate based on feedback)

Best for: Early-stage discovery and continuous validation of hypotheses.

4. Opportunity Solution Tree (OST)

Helps visualize the path from goals to opportunities and solutions.

Steps:

  • Define the product outcome (goal).

  • Identify opportunities to achieve the goal (pain points or needs).

  • Brainstorm and prioritize potential solutions.

  • Test and validate solutions iteratively.

Best for: Structuring discovery work and mapping opportunities clearly.

5. Double Diamond Framework

Double diamond framework

A process split into two phases: problem discovery and solution development.

Steps:

  • Discover: Understand the problem space and gather insights.

  • Define: Narrow down and clearly define the core problem.

  • Develop: Ideate and prototype multiple solutions.

  • Deliver: Test, refine, and finalize the best solution.

Best for: Teams that need a structured process for exploring problems and solutions.

6. User Story Mapping

User story mapping framework

Organizes product features and user flows to align with user journeys.

Steps:

  • Identify user personas and their goals.

  • Map user activities (high-level steps).

  • Break activities into tasks (detailed user actions).

  • Prioritize tasks to create a development roadmap.

Best for: B2B ecommerce, visualizing user needs, and creating a prioritized feature backlog.

7. RICE Framework

RICE framework

Prioritizes product discovery opportunities based on:

  • Reach: How many users will this impact?

  • Impact: How impactful will it be?

  • Confidence: How certain are we about this idea?

  • Effort: How much time and resources are needed?

Best for: Prioritizing ideas when resources are limited.

8. HEART Framework (by Google)

Focuses on measuring user experience to identify product improvements.

Metrics:

  • Happiness (user satisfaction)

  • Engagement (user involvement)

  • Adoption (new user growth)

  • Retention (user retention rates)

  • Task success (effectiveness and efficiency of workflows)

Best for: Product teams focused on delivering measurable UX improvements.

9. Kano Model

Categorizes product features based on customer satisfaction and investment.

Feature Types:

  • Basic Needs: Must-have features users expect.

  • Performance Needs: Features that improve satisfaction linearly.

  • Excitement Needs: Features that surprise and delight users.

Best for: Prioritizing features based on customer expectations.

10. Value vs. Effort Matrix

A quick way to prioritize opportunities based on the value they provide versus the effort required.

Steps:

  • Plot features on a 2x2 matrix:

    • High value, low effort = top priority

    • Low value, high effort = deprioritize

Best for: Aligning teams quickly on priority areas.

3 great B2B product discovery examples

Now that we have a grasp on the steps and common frameworks for product discovery in B2B, let’s check out some examples.

1. Customer feedback

Customer feedback is an absolute must, and a great example of product discovery. Utilizing a feedback tool like Frill (shown above) makes the continuous collection of feedback simple and effective. In addition to feedback tools, other methods of obtaining feedback include:

  • User interviews: Gain deep insights into customer challenges and goals through one-on-one discussions.

  • Surveys: Collect structured, scalable feedback using tools like Google Forms or Typeform.

  • Focus groups: Facilitate conversations among small customer groups to explore shared experiences and expectations.

  • Beta testing: Involve users in testing new features, gathering direct feedback on functionality and usability.

2. Competitor benchmarking

SemrushAnalyzing competitors is a key aspect of product discovery. By studying their offerings, pricing, user experiences, and customer reviews, you can identify gaps and opportunities in the market. Consider tools like Semrush or Similarweb to help you assess competitors' digital strategies, and direct use of competitor products can uncover unmet customer needs or areas for differentiation.

3. High-fidelity prototyping and testing


Prototyping bridges the gap between ideas and execution, allowing you to validate concepts with real users. For example, when redesigning your main product dashboard, you’d want to create the prototype that matches the new design precisely. That way when you share the prototype with a small segment of your target audience you are gaining the most accurate actionable insights.

Leverage the experts with your continuous product discovery development

Continuous product discovery is the way to keep your B2B SaaS product evolving with customer needs and market trends. Partnering with experts like DevSquad can accelerate this process. With proven frameworks, user-centric strategies, and hands-on collaboration, we help you uncover valuable insights, refine solutions, and prioritize impactful features. Be it aligning stakeholders or validating ideas with prototypes, our squads ensure your product is always poised for success. Don’t just build—discover, iterate, and deliver a solution your customers truly need. 

Ready to level up your B2B product discovery? Learn more about how we work.

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