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Module 12: Capstone Project — Full Product Discovery and Definition

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Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Prerequisites
  3. Project Brief
  4. Milestones
  5. Deliverable Requirements
  6. Help and Getting Unstuck
  7. Evaluation Criteria
  8. Cross-Links

Overview

This capstone is the synthesis of everything in this topic. You will produce a complete product discovery and definition package for a real product idea — the kind of artifact you could bring into a product review, investor meeting, or founding team conversation.

This module is deliberately not a lecture. There is no new theory here — only the application of what you've learned across all 11 prior modules. Your job is to build something real.

[!IMPORTANT] This capstone will not be done in a single sitting. Budget 15–25 hours across several days or weeks. The Help and Getting Unstuck section below has staged hints for each milestone. Use the hints when you're genuinely stuck — not as a shortcut around the work. The struggle is the learning.

Do not skip to the hints. Attempt each milestone first. The insights come from the attempt, not the answer.

Prerequisites

Completion (or substantial completion) of Modules 01–11. This capstone requires: - User interview skills (Module 02) - Problem framing (Module 03) - Strategy and North Star metric (Module 04) - Prioritization frameworks (Module 05) - Outcome-based roadmap format (Module 06) - Metrics definition (Module 09) - GTM planning (Module 10)

Project Brief

Choose a real product idea you believe is worth building.

This can be: - A product you've been thinking about building - A significant improvement to an existing product you know well - A solution to a problem you personally experience and know others do too

The product idea should meet these criteria: - You genuinely believe it would create value for a real set of users - You have access to at least 5 potential users you can interview - It is not so large that it requires a $50M team to build an MVP

You will take this idea through the complete product discovery and definition process, producing a package of artifacts that demonstrates PM capability from user research through roadmap.

[!NOTE] You are not required to build the product. You are required to do the product work of defining what should be built and why, for whom, and how you would measure success.

Milestones

Complete these milestones in order. Each builds on the previous one.

Milestone 1: Problem Hypothesis and Research Plan (2–3 hours)

Define the initial problem space you're exploring. Write:

  1. Problem hypothesis (1 paragraph): What problem do you believe exists? Who experiences it? What's your initial evidence (even if it's just personal observation)?

  2. Interview research plan:

  3. Who will you interview? (5 participants minimum — describe their profile)
  4. What job are you trying to understand?

  5. 5–8 interview questions you'll use (written using the techniques from Module 02)

  6. Current alternative landscape: What do people do today to solve this problem? (Products, workarounds, or "just live with it")

Milestone 2: User Research (4–6 hours)

Conduct 5 user interviews using your research plan. For each interview: - Take notes focused on behavior and context, not opinions - Note one moment of genuine surprise or insight per interview

Produce a synthesis document that covers: - Key themes (3–5 patterns that appeared across multiple interviews) - Jobs-to-be-Done (1–2 job statements derived from the interviews) - Opportunity landscape: A preliminary opportunity solution tree with at least 4 distinct opportunity nodes - What you thought going in vs. what you found: Be honest about where your hypothesis was confirmed and where it was challenged

Milestone 3: Problem Statement and Opportunity Sizing (1–2 hours)

Using your research synthesis:

  1. Write a validated problem statement in the template format from Module 03: [User type] struggles to [task/goal] when [context] because [root cause], which results in [consequence].

  2. Opportunity sizing: Estimate the opportunity using population × frequency × severity reasoning. You don't need precise numbers — you need explicit reasoning.

  3. Why this problem, not another: Name 2 other opportunities from your research that you're NOT pursuing and explain why.

Milestone 4: Product Strategy (2–3 hours)

Write a one-page product strategy document for your product idea:

  1. Vision (5-year horizon): What changes in the world if this product succeeds?
  2. Strategy (how you win): What choices are you making? What are you explicitly NOT doing?
  3. Target user: Who are you building for primarily? Who is secondary?
  4. North Star metric: One user-value metric. Justify your choice.
  5. Top 3 product bets: The three specific problems you're betting will create the most value

Milestone 5: Prioritization (1–2 hours)

From your research, you likely have more potential solutions than you can build in an MVP. Apply RICE or ICE scoring to your top 5–7 solution ideas.

Produce: 1. A scored table with explicit RICE or ICE estimates and documented assumptions 2. A written defense of your top 3 priorities (200+ words) 3. A clear statement of what's NOT in the MVP and why

Milestone 6: OKRs and Success Metrics (1 hour)

For the first quarter of your product:

  1. Write one OKR with the objective and 2–3 key results with specific, measurable targets
  2. Define your primary success metric for the MVP launch, with a baseline and target
  3. Define 2 guardrail metrics that must not worsen
  4. Explain how you would instrument tracking for each metric

Milestone 7: Outcome-Based Roadmap (1–2 hours)

Produce a 6-month outcome-based roadmap with three time horizons:

  1. Now (month 1–2): MVP scope — the minimum set of solutions that would let you test your core hypothesis
  2. Next (month 3–4): If the MVP validates the hypothesis, what do you build next?
  3. Later (month 5–6): Assuming continued validation, what's the next level of value?

Each item should: - Be expressed as an outcome (not a feature) - Reference a specific user opportunity from your research - Have a connected success metric

Milestone 8: GTM Plan for MVP Launch (1–2 hours)

Write a GTM plan for launching your MVP:

  1. Positioning statement (using the template from Module 10)
  2. Messaging hierarchy (headline, subhead, 3 supporting points, CTA)
  3. Launch tier (which tier and why)
  4. Target audience for launch (who specifically, not "everyone")
  5. Primary distribution channel (how do you reach them?)
  6. Instrumentation and monitoring (what are you watching in the first 48 hours?)
  7. Rollback trigger (what would cause you to pause or revert the launch?)

Milestone 9: Package Assembly and Reflection (1–2 hours)

Assemble your full discovery and definition package:

  1. Executive summary (one page): What are you building, for whom, why, and how you'll know if it's working
  2. Complete artifact set: All milestones 1–8 in a single coherent document or folder
  3. Personal reflection (300–500 words):
  4. What was hardest about this project?
  5. What did you learn that surprised you?
  6. What would you do differently if you started over?
  7. If you had 3 more months, what would you validate next?

Deliverable Requirements

Your capstone package must include:

  • Problem hypothesis and interview research plan (Milestone 1)
  • 5 documented user interviews with synthesis (Milestone 2)
  • Validated problem statement with opportunity sizing (Milestone 3)
  • Product strategy one-pager (Milestone 4)
  • Prioritization table with scored candidates and written defense (Milestone 5)
  • OKRs and success metrics (Milestone 6)
  • 6-month outcome-based roadmap (Milestone 7)
  • GTM plan for MVP launch (Milestone 8)
  • Executive summary and personal reflection (Milestone 9)

Minimum standard for completion: - At least 5 real user interviews conducted and documented - Each artifact demonstrates application of the module framework (not just definition of it) - The reflection is honest — it acknowledges what didn't work, not just what did

Help and Getting Unstuck

Milestone 1 hint: Struggling to define the problem hypothesis? Start smaller than you think you need to. You don't need to solve a world problem. Solve a problem one specific type of person has in one specific context. Try this: "I've noticed that [user type] often struggles with [thing I've personally observed]. I think this is because [my initial guess]. I want to test whether this is actually a problem worth solving." Your hypothesis will probably be wrong in some dimension. That's the point — the interviews will correct it.
Milestone 2 hint: Struggling to recruit 5 interview participants? Recruiting is the hardest part of discovery for most first-time practitioners. Three strategies that work: 1. **Your network:** Post on LinkedIn or send direct messages to people who fit the profile. Offer 30 minutes of their time in exchange for honest conversation. Most people will say yes if you're specific about what you're researching. 2. **Communities:** Most professional problems have communities (Slack groups, subreddits, industry forums). Post a brief recruiting message: "I'm researching [problem] and looking for people who experience [specific situation] to chat for 30 minutes. No pitch, just listening." 3. **Customers of competitors:** If you know which products exist in this space, find users of those products and ask them about their experience. If you truly cannot recruit 5 real participants, you may substitute 2–3 interviews with direct roleplaying/synthesis of your own experience and deep secondary research — but be explicit about this limitation in your work and flag it in your reflection.
Milestone 3 hint: Your opportunity sizing feels made up? It probably is — and that's okay. Opportunity sizing is about making your assumptions explicit and falsifiable, not about precision. The question is not "what's the exact number?" but "is this approximately the right order of magnitude?" A problem that affects 10 million people once a month is a different animal from one affecting 5,000 specialists once a year. Write your reasoning explicitly: "I estimate [N] people experience this problem because [reasoning]. I estimate they experience it [frequency] because [reasoning]. I estimate severity is [level] because [reasoning]." Then commit to the order-of-magnitude conclusion and move on.
Milestone 4 hint: Struggling to articulate what you're NOT doing? The hardest part of strategy is saying no. Try this exercise: write a list of 5 things a competitor or substitute does that you could build. Then, for each one, write one sentence explaining why you're choosing not to build it. If you can't write that sentence — if every item feels like something you should build — your strategy is too broad. A strategy that includes everything is not a strategy. Good strategy is often surprising. "We are explicitly NOT building [category feature] because [specific reasoning tied to your target user and North Star]" — if you can say this confidently, you have a strategy.
Milestone 7 hint: Your roadmap items sound like features, not outcomes? Replace every feature noun with a problem statement verb. Instead of: "Add bulk import" → Write: "Eliminate the manual setup burden that blocks users from experiencing value in their first session" Instead of: "Build analytics dashboard" → Write: "Give users visibility into whether their work is making a difference" Test each item by asking: "What would we measure to know if this worked?" If the item can't generate a meaningful answer to that question, it's still feature-thinking.
Milestone 8 hint: GTM plan feels generic? A GTM plan is specific to a specific audience. If your positioning statement could apply to any productivity app, it's too generic. Make it specific by doing this exercise: imagine one specific person who is exactly your target user. What's their job title? What does their day look like? What would make them forward your product to a colleague? What would make them stop using it in week 2? Now write your positioning statement as if you're speaking directly to that person — not to "productivity users" or "professionals."

Evaluation Criteria

When assessing your own work, evaluate across these dimensions:

Dimension Excellent Adequate Needs Work
Research quality 5+ interviews with documented insights; synthesis reveals genuine surprises 3–4 interviews; synthesis is mostly expected findings <3 interviews; synthesis is surface-level
Problem framing Specific user, root cause identified, consequence quantified User named, problem described, consequence vague Solution masquerading as problem
Strategy clarity Vision is inspiring; strategy makes explicit exclusions; North Star is user-value Vision is present; strategy is broad; North Star is a business metric No vision; no strategy; no North Star
Roadmap All items expressed as outcomes; connected to research; success metrics named Mix of outcomes and features; some connection to research Feature list with dates
GTM plan Specific audience; differentiated positioning; clear instrumentation plan Positioning present; generic audience; instrumentation vague No positioning; no instrumentation
Reflection Honest about failures; specific insights; clear next steps Mostly positive spin; few specific insights Generic; no failures acknowledged
  • [[product-management/modules/02_user-research-and-discovery]] — User interviews are the foundation of Milestones 1 and 2
  • [[product-management/modules/03_problem-framing]] — Milestone 3 applies this module's templates directly
  • [[product-management/modules/04_product-strategy]] — Milestone 4 is the strategy one-pager from this module
  • [[product-management/modules/05_prioritization]] — Milestone 5 applies RICE/ICE from this module
  • [[product-management/modules/06_product-roadmaps]] — Milestone 7 is the outcome-based roadmap from this module
  • [[product-management/modules/09_metrics-and-analytics]] — Milestone 6 applies success metric definition from this module
  • [[product-management/modules/10_go-to-market-and-launch]] — Milestone 8 applies the GTM framework from this module