Product Discovery with Internal Customers - All Things Product Podcast with Teresa Torres & Petra Wille
Listen to this episode on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts
In this episode of All Things Product, hosts Petra Wille and Teresa Torres dive into a common challenge faced by internal product teams—relying on stakeholder meetings instead of proper discovery practices. Why do so many teams collect requirements through meetings rather than observing real user behavior? How can product teams better differentiate between stakeholders, end-users, and sponsors?
Petra and Teresa break down why internal tools often fall into the requirement trap and share actionable strategies for conducting effective product discovery, even when your users are colleagues. They explore how to leverage internal access, the importance of story-based interviews, and how to optimize internal processes without stepping on toes.
Tune in to learn:
✅ Why requirement meetings aren’t enough for internal product teams
✅ How to map stakeholders and distinguish users from influencers
✅ The power of story-based interviews for uncovering real needs
✅ How to leverage internal access to users for continuous discovery
✅ Practical steps for navigating process optimization and organizational dynamics
If you’re working on internal tools or leading a product team that serves colleagues, this episode is packed with insights to help you move beyond stakeholder requirements and deliver impactful solutions.
Topics Covered:
- Internal product teams often fall into the trap of collecting requirements through meetings, leading to solutions that don’t fully address user needs.
- The key challenge: Blurring the lines between stakeholders and end-users.
- Story-based interviews are crucial for understanding real user behavior and uncovering hidden pain points.
- Petra emphasizes the importance of stakeholder mapping: Identifying users, informed stakeholders, and sponsors.
- Teresa explains why internal teams have a unique advantage—proximity and access to users—and how to leverage it for continuous discovery.
- Process optimization is sensitive territory. Who owns the process? Who’s responsible for improving it?
- Outcome thinking can help navigate stakeholder opinions, focusing on results rather than prescribed solutions.
- Internal teams must rethink how they approach product discovery and avoid assuming their situation is “different” or exempt from best practices.
Resources & Links:
- Follow Teresa Torres: https://ProductTalk.org
- Follow Petra Wille: https://Petra-Wille.com
Mentioned in the episode:
- Story-Based Customer Interviews Uncover Much-Needed Context
- Assumption Testing: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started
- Stakeholder mapping, as covered in Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders by Bruce McCarthy
- Opportunity Solution Trees: Visualize Your Discovery to Stay Aligned and Drive Outcomes
- Continuous Discovery Habits Community
- Shifting from Outputs to Outcomes: Why It Matters and How to Get Started
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