Work in Progress

What is work in progress?

Work in progress (WIP) refers to the number of items, opportunities, or tasks that a team is actively working on at the same time. The principle of limiting work in progress comes from kanban and suggests that teams will achieve greater throughput and impact by focusing on fewer items at once rather than spreading resources across many concurrent efforts.

Teams are often overly optimistic about what they can accomplish when splitting attention. For example, assuming a designer can spend 50% of their time on one project and 50% on another sounds reasonable, but in reality, neither project will make nearly as much progress as hoped.

How does limiting work in progress apply to product discovery?

For product teams using opportunity solution trees, limiting work in progress means working on one small opportunity at a time. This approach:

• Helps deliver value iteratively
• Allows teams to explore multiple solutions for that single opportunity
• Enables better compare and contrast decisions
• Prevents spreading resources so thin that no opportunity gets adequate attention

While some teams successfully work with one opportunity at each stage (ideation, assumption testing, and delivery), many teams take on too many opportunities simultaneously, which reduces their impact in all areas.

Why is limiting work in progress difficult?

It takes a leap of faith to trust that you can have more impact by limiting work in progress and focusing on one thing at a time. Teams naturally assume they can accomplish more by working on multiple things simultaneously. But when businesses are willing to make the harder decision to prioritize and allocate resources fully to what matters most, they get significantly more throughput.

Learn more:
- Why There’s No Single “Right” Way to Do Discovery: Part 1
- Opportunity Solution Trees: Visualize Your Discovery to Stay Aligned and Drive Outcomes

Related terms:
- Opportunity Solution Tree
- Target Opportunity
- Compare and Contrast Decisions

← Back to Discovery Glossary

Last Updated: October 25, 2025