Opportunity Solution Tree (OST)

What is it?

The Opportunity Solution Tree (OST) is a tool developed by product discovery coach Teresa Torres, designed to help you connect your business goals with unmet customer needs. It’s made up of several parts that work together to guide your thinking.

At the top of the OST is your desired outcome, which usually aligns with a business goal. From there, you branch out into opportunities—these are the customer pain points that, if addressed, can help you achieve your goal. Each opportunity then leads to potential solutions—ideas that could solve these customer problems.

How do I use it?

1. Select a customer segment

2. Capture and group customer pains

3. Translate pains to opportunities

4. Prioritize opportunities to pursue

5. Organize opportunities

6. Define your desired outcome

7. Map opportunities on the OST

8. Ideate

9. Categorize by Desirability, Viability, and Feasibility

10. Identify the most promising ideas

11. Select three solutions to explore