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Tool + guide · September 2026 · 7 min read

The opportunity solution tree

Outcome, opportunities, solutions, tests. Four layers with a strict meaning each — and one of them is written wrong in most trees you will ever see, including the example below, on purpose.

Short answer

What is an opportunity solution tree?

A structure from Teresa Torres linking what you build to an outcome: one measurable outcome at the root, customer needs below it, several possible solutions under each need, and a cheap test under each solution. Its value is that it makes gaps visible, not that it looks tidy.

The short version

  1. An opportunity is a need in the customer’s words. “Add a CSV export” is a solution with the need deleted.
  2. One solution under an opportunity means the decision was made before the tree was drawn.
  3. A solution with no test under it is a commitment, not an option you are weighing.
  4. Opportunities come from interviews. Invented ones produce a tree that is perfectly shaped and entirely fictional.
Check your tree ↓

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Build the tree, and let it point at what is wrong with it

This is not a drawing tool — there are plenty of those, and none of them tells you that you have written a solution in the opportunity layer. The example below contains that mistake on purpose.

  • Opportunity
    • Solution
      • Test
    • Solution
      • Test
    • Solution
      • Test
  • Opportunity

    ⚠️ “Add a reporting dashboard” reads like a solution — it starts with a verb of building. An opportunity is a need, a pain or a desire in the customer’s words. Ask what this feature would have fixed, and put that here instead.

    ⚠️ “Add a reporting dashboard” has exactly one solution under it. One branch is a decision already made, drawn as a tree. The method earns its keep when you compare three.

    • Solution

      ✖ “Charts page” has no test under it. A solution nobody plans to check is a commitment, not an option.

2opportunities

4solutions

3tests

3things to look at

The notes sit under the lines they refer to. Errors are structural and worth fixing; warnings are prompts to reread a line, not verdicts on it.

Paste into your discovery notes.

What this cannot know. Whether your opportunities are real. The wording test is a prompt to reread a line, not a judgement on it — language is too varied to catch reliably, and a tree can be perfectly shaped and entirely invented if the opportunities never came from a conversation with anyone.

That is the part that has to happen elsewhere: customer interviews are where opportunities come from, and the Mom Test is how you keep them from being compliments.

Test the idea behind it →

A tree is only as good as the interviews its opportunities came from. A 15-minute session ends with a written GO / WAIT / NO-GO and the reasoning behind it. Free tier, no card.

The four layers

1

Outcome

One, and measurable

A number you are trying to move, not a project you are trying to finish. “Improve onboarding” can be neither reached nor missed; “40% of new teams import data in week one” can be both. Everything below the root is judged by whether it plausibly moves this.

2

Opportunities

Needs, pains and desires — in the customer’s words

This is the layer that decides whether the tree is worth drawing. An opportunity is a complaint: I cannot, it takes too long, there is no way to. It is discovered in interviews, not invented in a meeting, and it never names a feature.

3

Solutions

Several per opportunity, always

Ways you might address the need. The point of the layer is comparison — one solution under an opportunity is a decision you already made, drawn as a tree. Three is where the exercise starts paying.

4

Tests

One per solution, before you build

How you would find out whether the solution works, as cheaply as possible: a fake door, a manual version, five conversations. A solution with no test under it is not an option you are weighing, it is a commitment you have already made.

The mistake in most trees

Almost every tree drawn in a real company has solutions sitting in the opportunity layer. It happens quietly, because the wording sounds reasonable:

Written as an opportunity

“Add a CSV export”

One solution fits under this, and it is the one already in the sentence.

The need underneath

“I cannot get my data out when my accountant asks for it”

Export fits. So does a scheduled email, and a read-only login for the accountant — which might be better and cheaper and nobody would have reached it.

The difference is not stylistic. Writing the solution into the opportunity layer deletes the alternatives before anyone sees them, and the tree then documents a decision instead of helping make one.

The practical test: could more than one solution sit under this line? If not, you have written a solution. Ask what it would have fixed, and put that there instead.

What the tree cannot do

It cannot make up opportunities. The method assumes you are already interviewing customers regularly. Without that it produces a well-formed diagram of your own assumptions, which is more dangerous than no diagram at all because it looks like research.

It cannot choose for you. Comparing three solutions is the work; the tree only makes sure the three exist and that each has a way to be checked.

It cannot survive a wrong outcome. Everything hangs off the root. An outcome that measures your activity rather than customer value will produce a tidy tree full of things nobody needed.

And it is not a roadmap. It is deliberately a picture of not having decided yet. Turning it into a delivery plan discards the part that made it worth drawing.

The tree is only as good as the interviews

Opportunities are discovered, not designed. If the ones in your tree came from a planning session, the structure is sound and the content is invented.

A 15-minute session works through your idea across seven criteria, including whether the problem is real and whether anyone will pay, and ends with a written verdict and the reasoning behind it.

Put evidence under the opportunities →

15 min · free tier, no card

Frequently asked questions

What is an opportunity solution tree?+
A visual structure from Teresa Torres for connecting what you build to a business outcome. The root is one measurable outcome. Below it sit opportunities — customer needs, pains and desires. Below each opportunity sit several possible solutions, and below each solution the tests that would show whether it works. The value is not the drawing; it is that the structure makes gaps visible.
What is the difference between an opportunity and a solution?+
An opportunity is something the customer needs; a solution is something you would build. “I cannot get my data out when my accountant asks” is an opportunity. “Add a CSV export button” is a solution — the same thing with the need deleted and one answer already chosen. The test is whether more than one solution could sit under it. If only one can, you wrote a solution.
How many solutions should sit under each opportunity?+
More than one, and three is the usual target. A single branch means the decision was made before the tree was drawn, which removes the entire benefit — the method earns its keep by making you compare options you would otherwise never have written down.
Where do opportunities come from?+
Interviews, and nowhere else that is trustworthy. An opportunity invented in a planning meeting is a guess wearing the customer’s voice, and a tree built from those is perfectly shaped and entirely fictional. Continuous small-scale interviewing is the practice the method assumes you are already doing.
Is an opportunity solution tree the same as a user story map?+
No. A story map arranges work you have decided to do along the path a user takes — it is a planning artefact for a known solution. An opportunity solution tree sits earlier: it holds several competing solutions per need and is explicitly about not having decided yet.
Is this checker free, and does my data leave the browser?+
It is free and requires no account. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing you enter is sent to us or stored anywhere.

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