Product discovery for founder-led SaaS
Discovery is not workshops—it is decisions with evidence before engineers commit months.
Write the riskiest assumption first
Founders often spec UI while the real risk is distribution, compliance, or unit economics. Name the assumption that kills the company if wrong—test that before pixel polish.
Time-box spikes, not roadmaps
One-week technical spikes answer “can we integrate X under our SLA?” Document pass/fail criteria upfront. Spikes without criteria become zombie projects.
Involve QA and ops early
Bring test architecture and release thinking into discovery. Rebuilding after launch because observability was an afterthought is the expensive failure mode I see most.
Align ventures and vendors
If you use a studio like QuickVikalp or an AI venture like Aarohii, discovery should clarify who owns maintenance, eval harnesses, and on-call—not just MVP screens.