Product Discovery Masterclass: In-house training for product teams
In this masterclass, your team learns how to get from a fuzzy idea or a vague request to a validated solution – systematically, fast and without dogma. All four areas of product discovery in one training: product strategy and mandate, research and insights, ideation and evaluation, experiments and validation. Including the use of AI along the way.
The masterclass is an in-house training only. Every edition is tailored to your team, your product and your context – for product managers, product owners, designers, researchers, engineers and product leaders. On-site at your company – e.g. in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Vienna or Zurich – or remote, in English or German.
What is product discovery?
Product development means taking decisions along an uncertain path. Product discovery is how you do that systematically: identifying the target groups that really matter – customers and internal or external users, but also buyers, influencers, operators and admins, stakeholders and partners –, understanding their context and their needs, and translating them into value-adding solutions that achieve a measurable business impact. Solutions that are technically feasible, economically viable and strategically aligned with your company.
That means every solution has to hold up in four dimensions at the same time: Is it desirable for the people involved? Is it viable as a business? Is it feasible – technically, organizationally, legally? And does it fit the strategy of the company? A product that is attractive for users but does not fit the strategy will sooner or later lose the fight for resources. A product that fits the strategy but that nobody wants will never get there in the first place. Hitting the intersection is anything but trivial.
Product discovery is not a project phase that ends with a concept. It is a cyclical, learning-oriented process: Assumptions are made explicit, tested and, in case of doubt, discarded. Delivery, on the other hand, builds and operates what has been validated. Both are inseparably connected, but they are fundamentally different jobs – discovery deals with uncertainty, delivery with plannability. Teams that do not at least mentally separate the two almost automatically end up focusing on delivery only.
Why product discovery matters more than ever
With AI, a clickable prototype takes a few hours, and even complex functions can be built significantly faster than before. Building has become cheap. Deciding what to build has not.
The consequence: The number of options grows faster than the ability of teams to evaluate them. Competitors can copy features within weeks. And the risk shifts from building things wrong to building many wrong things very efficiently. The real competitive advantage is no longer development speed, but learning speed: finding out faster than others which options create value – and which do not.
That is exactly what this masterclass trains. AI is part of it throughout – as a tool that makes research, ideation and prototyping faster. But not as a replacement for a clear mandate, real conversations with target groups and a deliberate decision.
What your team will learn
The masterclass covers the four areas every product discovery has to answer: Why are we doing this? Who is involved and what do they really need? What is the best solution? And does it actually create value? Your team learns the tools for each area – AND when to use which one.
1. Product strategy and mandate
Without a clear mandate, even the best team gets lost in the numerous, supposedly attractive options. The most serious mistake in product discovery is starting without one. Your team learns how to connect product vision and strategy with a concrete mandate that gives direction and at the same time leaves room for autonomy – and how to align stakeholders behind it.
- Product vision, strategic goals and measurable outcomes
- Mandate clarification with the strategy brief (Auftragsklärung): context, intent, higher intent, key tasks, boundaries
- Distinguishing optimization of the core business, extension and new business areas
- Briefing and backbriefing with stakeholders and management
2. Research and insights
A product rarely has only one target group – and all of them behave differently than expected. Your team learns to find out who really matters, to talk to these people in the right way and to turn what they hear into insights that can carry decisions. Based on evidence and empathy, not on opinions in the meeting room.
- Identifying and prioritizing target groups: users, buyers, influencers, admins, partners, stakeholders
- Planning and conducting qualitative interviews and observations – including live interviews during the training where possible
- Using surveys and usage data to quantify what you have learned
- Synthesizing results into needs, pain points, jobs-to-be-done and opportunities
3. Ideation and evaluation
Most teams do not lack ideas. They lack focus. Without a clearly framed challenge, almost any idea fits the problem space – and in case of doubt, the idea of the highest-ranking person in the room wins. Your team learns to frame the challenge first, then generate many options in a short time and select the ones that really matter.
- Formulating focused ideation challenges from mandate and insights
- Design Studio and other collaborative ideation methods
- Evaluating and selecting ideas against clear criteria
- Making biases and existing pet ideas transparent
4. Experiments and validation
No idea is successful straight away. Your team learns to identify the assumptions that could kill a solution, to test them with the smallest possible effort and to draw honest conclusions from the results. Success can also mean abandoning an idea early to avoid burning money.
- Deriving critical hypotheses across desirability, viability, feasibility and strategic fit
- Choosing the right prototype for the right level of confidence
- Designing experiments with clear metrics and success criteria
- Feeding results back into strategy, mandate and product
Putting it together: Leading a discovery
Real discoveries do not follow a linear process. Sometimes the research shows that the mandate was wrong. Sometimes a test sends you straight back to ideation. Your team learns to keep the overview in this apparent chaos: to consciously decide which step comes next, to run through areas as often as necessary – or to skip them deliberately –, and to know when there is enough evidence to decide. Including how to make progress visible to stakeholders and how to ask for the next small investment instead of one big budget at the end.
AI throughout the discovery
AI is not a separate module, but part of every area. We show how to use current tools for research preparation and synthesis, for generating and structuring ideas and for building clickable prototypes in hours instead of weeks. And we are honest about the limits: AI can summarize interviews, but it cannot conduct the conversation that reveals the unexpected. It generates plausible answers – but it does not know your target groups, your strategy or your market.
How the masterclass works
There is no standard product discovery – and therefore no standard training. Before every masterclass, we clarify with you what your team should be able to do afterwards, where it stands today and which challenge it is currently facing. Based on that, we put together the content.
- Your product instead of textbook cases. We work with your real challenges, your target groups and your stakeholders. Methods only really stick when teams apply them to their own context.
- Hands-on instead of slides. Short inputs, a lot of practice. Your team formulates, interviews, ideates, builds and tests – during the training, not „later”.
- No dogma. Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Jobs-to-be-Done, OKRs – all of them have their merits, but none of them fits every situation. We teach a flexible toolbox that has proven itself in practice over many years and many products, and show when which tool fits – and when it doesn’t.
- Fast results. Every tool and every exercise is tuned to one purpose: getting to a result quickly. In days, not weeks.
- At your place, in your language. We come to your company – in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Vienna, Zurich or wherever your team works – or run the masterclass remotely. In English or German.
The goal: Your team does not leave with notes, but with real results – for example a first version of its own mandate, first real insights from target groups or a tested prototype. And with the confidence to do it on its own afterwards.
For whom
Product discovery is a team sport. The masterclass is designed for everyone who decides what gets built – and for everyone who has to live with that decision:
- Product managers and product owners who want to lead discoveries with more structure and confidence
- Designers and researchers who want to connect their work more closely to strategy and business impact
- Engineers who want to contribute to discovery, not just to delivery
- Heads of product, CPOs and product leaders who want to establish discovery as a capability in their organization
- Whole cross-functional teams that want to develop a common approach and a shared language
Prior knowledge is not required. We adapt the level to your team – from first steps to experienced teams that want to sharpen their practice.
Your trainer
Christian Becker has been developing products since 2008 – from small features to innovative business models. Before founding productable, he worked in product management and corporate strategy at Hella and in marketing at eBay Motors, and then moved to mobile.de, where he became head of product management and built up the UX department.
As a consultant, coach and trainer, he has worked for companies such as eBay Classifieds, Charité, Bosch, kununu, XING, Zanox, Wer Liefert Was, Scout24, OBI, Meteo Group, DKB, mika:timing and Betterplace. He is currently co-authoring a handbook on product discovery and has spoken at conferences such as solutions 2023 on product strategy, Product Festival Zurich 2018, mtpEngage Hamburg 2018 and Working Products #5.
Deep dives: The four areas in depth
Derived from the masterclass, we offer an in-depth training for each of the four areas – for teams that want to focus on one topic. Same approach: in-house, tailored to your team, with your real challenges.
- Product strategy and mandate – product vision, strategy, strategic goals and the strategy brief (Auftragsklärung)
- Research and insights – identifying target groups, qualitative interviews, surveys, synthesis
- Ideation and evaluation – framing challenges, Design Studio and other ideation methods, evaluating ideas
- Experiments and validation – critical assumptions, prototyping, experiments and decisions
Frequently asked questions
Masterclass or deep dive – which one is right for us?
The masterclass is the right choice if your team wants to understand product discovery as a whole – how strategy, research, ideation and validation interact and how to lead a discovery from start to finish. A deep dive makes sense if the overall picture is already there and one area needs more depth – typically the one where your team currently gets stuck. In case of doubt, we clarify this together in a short preliminary conversation.
Where does the masterclass take place – and in which language?
Wherever your team is: on-site at your company – for example in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Vienna or Zurich, or anywhere else in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Europe – or remote. The masterclass and all deep dives are available in English and German.
Can we work on our own product during the training?
Yes – and we recommend it. We use your real challenges, your target groups and your stakeholders wherever possible instead of textbook examples. The only prerequisite: The challenge should be real, but not so politically loaded that the team cannot openly question it.
How is AI covered?
As part of every area, not as a separate topic. Your team learns how to use AI for research preparation and synthesis, for ideation and for building prototypes in hours. Just as important: where AI does not help. It can speed up discovery considerably, but it does not replace the conversation with real target groups – and it does not take the decision off your hands. Which tools we use depends on what your company allows and uses.
What is the difference between product discovery and design thinking?
Design Thinking is one of many approaches that can be part of a product discovery – with a strong focus on user needs and ideation. Product discovery is broader: It starts with strategy and mandate, looks at viability, feasibility and strategic fit as well as desirability, and ends only when there is enough evidence for a decision. We do not teach a single framework, but a toolbox – and the judgment to decide which tool fits which situation.
Get in touch
Do you want your team to decide faster and with more evidence what is worth building?