discovery-planninglisted

# Discovery Planning ## Purpose Walk into discovery with a plan, not a checklist. Produce a hypothesis-driven question tree, a ladder that drives every pain to quantified impact and ranked priority, the stakeholders you intend to surface, and a structured question plan you can run live. ## Inputs - The account and who you're meeting (name, role, function) - What you already know (prior calls, emails, CRM, public research) - The goal of this call — what you're trying to learn and what advance you want next ## Method ### 1. Build a hypothesis-driven question tree Don't list questions — list *hypotheses*, then hang questions off each one. A hypothesis is your best guess at a problem this buyer likely has, given their role/segment/triggers. ``` Hypothesis: "Reps lose deals because no one sees risk until it's too late" ├─ Open: "Walk me through how you find out a deal is slipping today." ├─ Probe (if confirmed): "How far in advance? Who flags it?" ├─ Probe (if denied): "So you catch slippage early — what's your tell?" └─ Disconfirm: "When did this last surprise you, if ever?" ``` Rules for a good tree: - 3–5 hypotheses max. More than that means you haven't prioritized. - Each branch has an **open** question to surface, **probes** to deepen, and a **disconfirming** question so you're not just fishing for confirmation. - Order branches by likelihood × deal impact, not by your product's feature list. ### 2. Run the pain → impact → priority ladder For every pain