Jira Product Discovery Handbook

Product development isn't about shipping features on a timeline. It's about delivering meaningful outcomes that create value for customers and the business. The difference between successful and struggling product teams often comes down to their disciplined approach to discovery and prioritization.

To help product teams on that journey, Atlassian has written a guide that distills key learnings from building Jira Product Discovery and working with hundreds of product teams. This post summarizes the most important learning from the playbook.

Let's explore how to transform abstract ideas into tangible, valuable products through deliberate processes.

Starting with Outcomes

Most teams get stuck in the output trap - focusing on shipping features rather than achieving results. They measure success by completing tasks rather than creating value. This leads to bloated products that don't solve real problems.

Instead of asking "when will feature X ship?", effective teams ask "what outcomes are we trying to achieve?" This seemingly simple shift transforms how teams work.

Source: Atlassian Product Discovery handbook

A business outcome benefits the organization - like increased revenue or reduced churn. A product outcome improves the product to drive business outcomes - like increased conversion rates or reduced support tickets. The key is connecting daily work to these bigger goals.

Some teams use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to define and measure outcomes. Others use frameworks like VMGS (Vision, Mission, Goals, Strategies). The specific method matters less than having clear targets that inform decisions.

When building Jira Product Discovery, the team's vision was "product teams focused on strategic outcomes." Their mission was "unleash the potential of product teams to make an impact." These guided every decision, from feature prioritization to interface design.

The Product Backlog: A Home for Ideas

Rather than maintaining one massive backlog of everything, separate your product backlog from your delivery backlog:

• The product backlog is for ideation and prioritization - "what should we invest in and why?"

• The delivery backlog is for execution planning - "how do we make it happen?"

The product backlog contains ideas, opportunities, and solutions connected to outcomes. Think of it as a space for product teams to collaborate with stakeholders across the company. Here they capture insights, discuss priorities, and shape ideas before committing development resources.

The delivery backlog breaks validated ideas down into concrete engineering work - epics, stories, tasks. This is where the development team plans sprints and tracks progress.

Source: Atlassian Product Discovery handbook

By separating these concerns, teams can have focused conversations about priorities without getting lost in implementation details. Product discussions stay strategic rather than tactical. Development planning stays practical rather than theoretical.

This separation also helps prevent the common problem of backlog bloat - where a single Jira project becomes an overwhelming graveyard of every idea anyone has ever had.

The Idea Lifecycle: Wonder, Explore, Make, Impact

Ideas move through four key stages:

1. Wonder - Validate problems and opportunities through customer research. Focus on understanding user needs, not jumping to solutions. Use qualitative interviews to identify pain points and desired outcomes.

2. Explore - Test potential solutions before committing development resources. Create prototypes, run experiments, get feedback early. The goal is validating assumptions as cheaply as possible.

3. Make - Build and iterate on validated solutions. Start with a limited scope, test with early adopters, expand based on learnings. Keep the feedback loop tight.

4. Impact - Launch, measure results, and keep improving until outcomes are achieved. Monitor key metrics, collect user feedback, make adjustments until you hit your targets.

This isn't a linear process. Teams often cycle between stages as they learn. An idea in Make might go back to Wonder as you discover new aspects of the problem. Some ideas will be abandoned after exploration shows they aren't viable.

Source: Atlassian Product Discovery handbook

When building Jira Product Discovery's prioritization features, the team:

• Started by interviewing PMs about their struggles (Wonder)

• Created mockups of different solutions to test with users (Explore)

• Built a limited version for early adopters (Make)

• Kept iterating based on usage data and feedback (Impact)

Using Insights to Guide Decisions

Insights keep decision-making grounded in evidence rather than opinion. They prevent teams from building based on gut feel or the loudest voice in the room.

Source: Atlassian Product Discovery handbook

Insights come from many sources:

• Support tickets and customer feedback

• Sales team input on market needs

• User research and customer interviews

• Product analytics and usage data

• Competitive analysis

• Market research and industry trends

The key is making insights easily accessible when prioritizing work. Keep them connected to ideas in your product backlog so the context is always available during discussions.

Work with a small group of "lighthouse users" - customers who represent your target market and are willing to provide detailed feedback. Ten engaged users giving rich feedback is more valuable than shallow input from thousands.

Good lighthouse users are:

• Clear communicators

• In your target market

• Strongly affected by the problems you're solving

• Open to new ways of working

• Willing to use early versions and provide feedback

Balanced Investment Strategy

Don't just build whatever features customers request. Balance investments across different buckets to create a sustainable product.

RUF Framework

• Reliability - Making sure the product works consistently

• Usability - Improving existing features and workflows

• Features - Building new capabilities

Source: Atlassian Product Discovery handbook

3 Bucket Planning

• Metrics Movers - Initiatives that improve key business metrics

• Customer Requests - Addressing user needs and pain points

• Delighters - Innovative features users don't yet know they want

The right mix depends on your product's maturity:

Review this allocation quarterly and adjust based on current needs. Some periods may require more investment in reliability, others in new features.

Effective Prioritization

Make prioritization collaborative but controlled. Define clear roles:

Creators (product team)

• Drive prioritization process

• Own the product backlog

• Make final decisions on priorities

Contributors (sales, support, etc)

• Provide insights and feedback

• Share customer needs

• Vote and comment on ideas

Stakeholders (leadership, others)

• Need visibility into priorities

• Review strategic alignment

• Provide context on business goals

Use simple frameworks like Impact vs Effort or RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) to structure discussions. The specific method matters less than having a consistent way to evaluate trade-offs.

Review priorities continuously rather than annually. Regular small adjustments work better than big yearly planning cycles. Set aside time weekly to review new insights and monthly to check strategic alignment.

Building Better Roadmaps

Different stakeholder groups, from leadership to customers, have unique questions and concerns. To address these effectively, product teams require multiple roadmaps.

With Jira Product Discovery and Released, this process becomes seamless. You can easily create various versions of your roadmap without having to start over each time or update all of them whenever changes occur. See a live example

To avoid the repeated question of “when is feature A going to ship?”, it’s essential to make roadmaps self-service. Everyone stakeholder group should have access to their own roadmap through a portal that provides the information they need.

Leadership roadmaps

• Focus on goals and outcomes

• Show investment areas

• Communicate strategic bets

• Indicate certainty levels

Product team roadmaps

• Show problem spaces

• Indicate sequencing

• Connect to team missions

• Track progress toward outcomes

Customer-facing roadmaps

• Clarify commitments

• Manage expectations

• Enable consistent communication

• Show value progression

Now/Next/Later

Avoid dates and timelines that create false certainty. Instead, use formats like Now/Next/Later to show:

• Now: Active development, high certainty

• Next: Validated opportunities, medium certainty

• Later: Early exploration, low certainty

The best roadmaps focus on outcomes over outputs. They explain not just what you'll build, but why it matters. Keep them up to date and easily accessible to prevent constant questions about status.

Read the Mastering Roadmap Communication With Stakeholders guide for a deep dive on roadmap communication.

Key Principles for Success

• Start with clear outcomes that connect to business goals

• Separate strategic product discussions from tactical delivery planning

• Validate assumptions early through customer research

• Balance investments across reliability, usability and new features

• Ground decisions in insights rather than opinions

• Create focused roadmaps for different audiences

• Review and adjust continuously based on learning

Product development is a journey of continuous discovery and iteration. Success comes from staying focused on outcomes while maintaining the flexibility to adapt based on what you learn along the way.

Build trust with consistent processes for gathering insights, making decisions, and communicating plans. But don't let process become more important than progress. Keep things as simple as possible while still moving deliberately toward meaningful outcomes.

The goal isn't perfect execution of plans - it's consistently delivering value to customers and the business. Focus your discovery process on that north star.

Thanks to Atlassian for publishing the excellent handbook.