#7 – When Discovery Meets Real Life

Simone Pinto
4 days ago
3 min read

This post is part of the series From Vision to Value, exploring how systems-led discovery helps any idea become a reality with clarity, direction, and momentum.

On paper, discovery looks clean: interviews, prototypes, quick tests.

In reality, it’s political, cultural, and full of contradictions.

Every founder knows the moment when the “validated idea” hits the wall of organisational friction.

The problem isn’t poor research. It’s that the research stopped at the surface.

That’s where Systems Thinking comes in.

Not as theory, but as a way to see the mess clearly enough to move through it.

Systems Thinking Changes the Game

Most discovery frameworks assume the problem is already defined.

Systems-led Discovery assumes the opposite:

clarity is what you’re discovering.

It works because it treats every product environment as:

Social: full of competing worldviews and incentives.
Contextual: shaped by politics, culture, and timing.
Ambiguous: open to multiple “truths” that need mapping, not erasing.

This matters.

A McKinsey study found 70 percent of digital transformations fail due to organisational resistance, not technical faults.

The 101 Framework exists precisely for that 70 percent.

Systems-Led Discovery Simplified for Product Teams

Here’s how Systems-led discovery translates into everyday product discovery:

Enter & Express the Situation. Start with stories, not features. Listen departments, partners, regulators, and customers.
Tool: facilitated discovery workshops that surface pain points in people’s own words.
Map the System (Rich Picture). Sketch the reality - workflows, blockers, emotions, politics. Don’t tidy it up yet.
Tool: whiteboard sketches or FigJam maps.
Define Purpose (CATWOE). Distil what the system is trying to achieve and for whom. Customers | Actors | Transformation | Worldview | Owner | Environment.
Model the Ideal System. Imagine what “good” would look like if everyone’s purpose aligned.
Compare with Reality → Identify Gaps → Make Feasible Changes. These become your roadmap for prototyping — not just features, but behaviours and relationships.
Prototype Alignment, Not Just Functionality. Build a MVJ (Minimum Viable Journey) that tests how well your concept fits the ecosystem.

A Case from the Field

While building a data platform for a global coral-restoration programme, the team kept asking users:

What reports do you need?

No one could answer — because no one had ever done it before.

Each stakeholder had a different definition of success:

the nursery manager wanted stability,
the scientist wanted structure,
the planner wanted foresight.

Traditional discovery would have drowned in contradictory interviews.

Using systems-led discovery, we mapped the full journey across those roles, aligned data flows, and built a lightweight MVJ that let each group see itself in the system.

The outcome wasn’t a perfect product.

It was a shared understanding of what progress looked like — momentum built on alignment, not assumption.

The Real Reason Products Fail

Teams often celebrate early validation only to watch adoption stall.

Interviews said yes; reality said no.

Why? Because:

Procurement vetoed rollout.
Regulators changed the rules.
Culture resisted the shift.

A Forrester survey found only 34 percent of MVPs reach scale.

The missing ingredient isn’t effort or speed — it’s systemic awareness.

Systems-led discovery surfaces the invisible blockers before they derail you.

Consultant’s Takeaway

Robust discovery isn’t about slowing down.

Its about building momentum that lasts.

Founders: It clarifies purpose and prevents expensive detours.
Product teams: It turns discovery into a living strategy, not a to-do list.
Innovation leaders: It ensures experiments are politically and culturally survivable.

When you understand the system, you stop guessing why things stall and start steering them forward.

Final Word

Thiel hunts for secrets.

Lean prizes speed.

Checkland reminds us that systems decide what survives.

That’s why Systems-led discovery is the missing lens that makes discovery work in the real world.

Ready to see your system clearly?

Book a Systems Discovery Call and I’ll guide you through a Rich Picture + CATWOE session tailored to your idea.