All of us have experienced the thrill of discovery. It is one of the most exciting and compelling experiences that one can have. The discovery of a new web site, a new person, a foreign destination, an unknown product, a panoramic view - all of these are thrills that we relish and share with others. Discovery is part of the human experience.

For an organization, discovery is equally compelling, exciting and important. New opportunities are what drives growth and the creation of new value. Unfortunately, all too often, organizations ignore the process of how they discover and leave it to the chance, serendipitous moment. All too often, organizations chase opportunities that turn out to be false ones and end up spending time and resources on dead ends. It doesn't have to be this way.

Imagine being able to identify new opportunities outside your current business focus that you know are significant and relevant. Imagine knowing that you have explored all of the nooks and crannies of a new domain and have found the best opportunities. Imagine creating literally hundreds of potential opportunities and having a reliable method for identifying the few that are the most important.

All of these things are possible using a structured process of Opportunity Discovery.

Principles of Exploration

Exploring to find new Opportunity Hypotheses (OH) creates the 'raw material' for the OD process. Exploring involves coming up with initial OHs that are based on something discovered. Creating an OH does not involve detailed analysis or in depth research. It only involves finding something of interest, as indicated by one or more pieces of evidence or 'indicators'. OH's shuld be 'easy' to find and an experienced scout is normally able to create three to six OH's ready for review in 10 hours of exploring.

Some of the first principles of creating OHs are:

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Opportunity Discovery is an organized means whereby new areas of value can be identified. It consists of a structured process and the methods, tools and techniques that allow an organization to fully explore a new (or even existing) domain to find future potential. The Opportunity Discovery process is a precursor to doing market research or creating a business case. It is a process that instead identifies the specific situations, concepts and ideas that warrant market research or a business assessment. As such, the Opportunity Discovery activities are the earliest phase, front-end activity that an organization can and should undertake after defining strategy and the scope of strategic options desired.

To understand the Opportunity Discovery process consider another famous exploration and discovery activity that happened in 1804 - 1806, the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In this expedition, the 'Corps of Discovery', set out to explore the vast territory of the Louisiana Purchase. Their mission was to map, inventory and discover what was out there. They had very little idea of what they would find other than the general notion that the territory they were about to explore was one that was rich with interesting, significant and valuable things. Their job was to bring back as complete and detailed a picture as was possible using limited resources and within a fixed time frame. There was no way that they could (or should) do a comprehensive survey of every last meter of the entire territory. They had to find the 'good stuff' and do it quickly.

In looking at the task facing Lewis and Clark, one realizes that it is very similar to the task facing many organizations who wish to discover new opportunities. The task is to explore a large and unfamiliar domain quickly and comprehensively and find the 'good stuff' that can be the source of future value. In Lewis and Clark's case, the 'good stuff' were natural resources, interesting sites, native peoples, and just plain knowledge about the lay of the land and what was out there. For an organization, the 'good stuff' is the unmet needs and desires of future customers, clients or constituents, the source of future value. How did Lewis and Clark go about their journey of exploration and discovery and how should an organization do the same?

The basic principles of the Opportunity Discovery Process are rapid and broad evidence-based searching using indicators and evaluators following an iterative deepening and refinement methodology. In plain Lewis and Clark terms, this means covering a lot of territory quickly to identify potential items of interest and then to spend increasing amounts of time and resources looking at these specific items of interest if it is warranted (i.e. if the evidence says that there is something there). For example, scouts in Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery would rapidly cover a lot of terrain and find specific sites that seemed to be interesting for whatever reason. Some time would then be spent at those sites and a decision would be made whether to move on or to spend even more time investigating the site. Some days the Corps would cover a lot of ground, other days, it would cover only a little or even stay in one place. In this way, the Corps, and by analogy, the Opportunity Discovery Team, focuses attention on the most promising potentials and spends as much time investigating as is warranted by what they are discovering.

In summary, what evidence-based Opportunity Discovery allows you to do is:

• Search large new domains
• Build a portfolio of options
• Use the ‘wisdom of crowds’
• Iterate and dive deeper for evidence
• Create a continuous pipeline
• Find all the best opportunities

The Opportunity Discovery Process is described here in detail. This description is intended to be a guide to those who are interested in undertaking a comprehensive, structured and effective means of finding new opportunities based on real evidence of unmet needs and desires. The various components of the process are:

• Opportunity Domain Definition and Selection - what is an opportunity domain (white space) and how do you select a good one?
  
• Opportunity Discovery Process - a high level description and introduction to the overall process
  • Process Framework - describes the various components of the process and their relationship and timing
    
  • Opportunity Hypothesis (OH) - The structure and content of an hypothesis and the OH meeting format
    
  • Opportunity Statement (OS) - The structure and content of a statement and the OS meeting format
    
  • Opportunity Profile (OP) - the structure and content of a profile and the OP meeting format
    
• Opportunity Discovery Methods - The methods, tools and techniques employed in the process
  
  • Iterative Deepening Method - The underlying mechanism for developing and maturing new knowledge
    
  • Searching and Exploration Methods - methods to do evidence-based exploration
    
  • Knowledge Synthesis Methods - Ways to gather, organize, synthesize and understand the knowledge being acquired
    
  • Decision making Methods - Ways to choose which opportunities to spend more resources on

The OD process overcomes many of the front-end problems and issues that companies run into when looking for new opportunities. The features and attributes of the process make it ideal for cost effective identification of opportunities that can be significant for your organization. What this early stage process doesn't do is to tell you how to precisely address the opportunity. This question is answered by the subsequent opportunity assessment method and tools.

This process has proven itself effective for all types and sizes of organizations. It is the most complete, detailed, comprehensive and effective process available for undertaking the very earliest phases of determining the future of the organization.