An opportunity solution tree (OST) is a visual map of how a team might reach a desired outcome, created by Teresa Torres and central to her book Continuous Discovery Habits. It has four levels: the outcome (a metric), the opportunities (customer needs and pain points from research), the solutions that could address each opportunity, and the assumption tests or experiments that evaluate each solution.

An opportunity is a customer need, pain point, or desire: 'new users don't know where to start'. A solution is one way to address it: 'role-specific getting-started files'. The test Torres recommends: a real opportunity admits several possible solutions; if you can only imagine one answer, you've framed a solution as an opportunity, and the tree will quietly stop generating options.

A product outcome: a customer behavior or sentiment you can measure, like weekly active collaborators or search completions per user. Not a feature ('launch the new onboarding') and ideally not a raw business metric ('increase revenue'), since teams can't act on it directly. This template's root is Increase MRR with activation as the focus branch beneath it, which shows how a business outcome gets translated into product outcomes.

A roadmap communicates what you've decided: features, sequenced over time, for stakeholders. An opportunity solution tree shows how you're deciding: the outcome you're chasing, the customer needs that could move it, and the competing solutions still in play. The tree comes first; an outcome-based roadmap can be read straight off it once branches get bets placed on them.

Weekly, in rhythm with continuous discovery: Torres's practice assumes ongoing customer interviews, and the tree absorbs what they teach every few conversations. New quotes become opportunity evidence, dead solutions get pruned, finished experiments mark branches proven or killed. The version on this template evolved the same way inside Whimsical's growth team. A tree last touched a quarter ago isn't discovery; it's decoration.