I talked with Teresa Torres about continuous discovery, why engineers belong in the room when teams decide what to build, and a homework assignment that terrifies some people on purpose: talk to a customer.
Teresa is a product discovery coach at Product Talk, author of Continuous Discovery Habits, and host of Just Now Possible. She has spent about twenty years trying to get engineers involved in discovery. The reason is not "be more product-y." It is that engineers know best what is just now possible - Marty Cagan's line that she keeps coming back to.
Just now possible needs customer context
Her Google Maps story still lands. As a PM she would never have invented pinning customers on a map the day the Maps API shipped. An engineer who understood the business and the customer could. AI accelerates that dynamic. Coding agents write a lot of implementation. They do not replace judgment about data models, security, maintainability, or whether the next iteration will even fit.
What I appreciated is how concrete she got about two rooms where she wants both a PM and an engineer: designing the underlying data model, and bridging "just now possible" with a real customer need. Personal preference dressed up as technical expertise usually misses the customer. Informed opinions matter after you have context.
Curiosity beats solution advocacy
When leadership treats you like a ticket-taker, Teresa did not jump to "quit." Start with genuine curiosity: "I'm curious, can you tell me more?" Why-questions from an advocating stance create defensiveness. Genuine curiosity starts a conversation. If people still shut you down after that, try other people - and treat leaving as a last resort.
We also covered opportunity solution trees, confirmation bias (comparing every idea only to the status quo), and the Mom Test trap of pitching your solution instead of learning about the last time someone experienced the problem.
Homework
Talk to someone who matches your customer segment - even a casual coffee - and ask about the last time they experienced the problem your product exists to solve. Learn about them as a human. If that is blocked, ask to observe an interview your PM, designer, researcher, sales, or support team is already running.
