06Global
Creating a shared language for product discovery.
A flexible discovery model made responsibilities, evidence and decision points clearer across Product, Design, Engineering and stakeholders.
- My role
- Lead Product Designer
- Industry
- Media & entertainment
- Focus
- Product discovery, Ways of working
- Scope
- Cross-functional product teams
The short version
The case in three moves.
- Challenge
- Teams needed a clearer shared approach to framing problems, gathering evidence and involving the right disciplines before delivery.
- Leadership
- I introduced a flexible discovery model, clarified responsibilities and refined it with the teams using it.
- Outcome
- Teams gained clearer ownership and a more consistent way to align around evidence before committing to solutions.
01 / Opportunity
Make discovery visible and shared.
Early releases and retrospectives exposed a recurring pattern. Important details were missed, disciplines worked with limited collaboration, ownership was unclear and stakeholders sometimes saw solutions too late to challenge them properly.
The problem was not a lack of effort. Teams needed a shared structure for framing the question, involving the right perspectives and deciding what evidence was sufficient before moving forward.
02 / Model
Clarify the decisions, not just the activities.
I adapted a discovery framework I had first developed at Busuu and worked with Global stakeholders to fit it around existing workflows. A flexible Miro template made the stages, tasks and decision points visible.
Real use exposed gaps, so the model gained clearer roles, recommended methods and realistic expectations for time and collaboration. Supporting task templates translated the framework into the responsibilities designers handled day to day.
03 / Adoption
Refine the practice through real use.
Early adopters demonstrated the value to other teams. Rather than demand immediate compliance, people could start with the parts that addressed their current problem and expand their use as the work required.
Feedback and observation continued to shape the templates. That flexibility helped the process become a team-owned foundation rather than another static document created by design leadership.
04 / Value
Earlier alignment supports stronger delivery.
Teams described clearer task ownership, closer cross-functional work and fewer handover bottlenecks. Stakeholders could become involved early enough to challenge the direction, and releases benefited from more considered preparation.
The framework also gave design leadership better visibility of progress and the right moments to coach, challenge or unblock the work without taking ownership away from the team.