Product Discovery & User Research
Last reviewed
Correct answer: A. The branches are solutions, and an unmet need has to sit above them
Explanation
The principle — a tree with solutions where the opportunities should be cannot do the one job it has, which is to show what else could have been built.
Why the key is correct — Torres defines the branches beneath the outcome as These are the customer needs, pain points, and desires that, if addressed, will drive your desired outcome. Invite by email, invite by link and reward tiers are none of those; they are three ways to build one thing, so the diagram shows a single path presented as three. Repairing it means asking what unmet need the referral programme was meant to serve — perhaps that people trust a recommendation from someone they know, or that new users arrive without a reason to return — and putting that above the branches. The three current entries then move down a level, where they belong as solutions, and the space beside them becomes visible: with the need stated, options that are not referral mechanics at all can finally appear. Note the top row too, since Opportunity solution trees are a simple way of visually representing the paths you might take to reach a desired outcome. means the root is an outcome rather than a thing to ship.
Why the others are wrong — treating an opportunity as whatever work has been chosen makes the label incapable of disagreeing with the plan, which is the one thing it is for. Reading the diagram as themes grouping solutions builds it upward from decisions already taken, so it can only confirm them. And calling the branches requests misdescribes them, since the team generated these itself, and a request in any case has to be unpacked into the need behind it before it can sit on the tree.
Remember this — if the branches are all ways of building the same thing, the need above them has not been written down.
Sources — Teresa Torres on opportunity solution trees, Product Talk.
Sources
“Opportunity solution trees are a simple way of visually representing the paths you might take to reach a desired outcome.”
“In this context, an opportunity is an unmet customer need, pain point, or desire.”
“These are the customer needs, pain points, and desires that, if addressed, will drive your desired outcome.”
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