Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value

Teresa Torres establishes her professional background and the motivations that led her to write this book. The narrative begins in 2013 when Torres served as a product and design team leader at a San Francisco startup. Despite leading what appeared to be an ideal professional situation—working with talented colleagues, mentoring promising young staff members, and creating meaningful value for customers—Torres made the unexpected decision to resign. Her departure stemmed not from the typical startup burnout caused by long hours or rushed deadlines but from the persistent challenge of advocating for customer-focused product management in a founder-led organization. Torres expresses frustration with executives who made strategic decisions without customer input, sales representatives who demanded features without consideration for overall product strategy, and colleagues who prioritized competitor analysis over customer needs.

Torres traces her commitment to human-centered design to her undergraduate education at Stanford University. After graduating, she spent 14 years in various roles, consistently encountering resistance to human-centered business practices. This persistent disconnect between her educational ideals and industry realities ultimately prompted her career transition.

Rather than continuing to effect change one company at a time, Torres redirected her efforts toward a broader impact by becoming a product