Build What Matters: Becoming a Discovery Pro | #ATLTechWeek
Most products don't fail because teams built the wrong thing badly — they fail because teams never figured out the right thing to build in the first place.
This session moves you past "build and pray" and into real discovery: talking to stakeholders to find the actual pain point, mapping outcomes with Opportunity Solution Trees, and testing ideas fast with low-fidelity prototypes — plus a few ways AI can speed up the discovery process itself.
You'll walk away knowing how to:
Run stakeholder interviews that surface real customer pain points, not surface-level requests
Map outcomes using an Opportunity Solution Tree
Validate ideas quickly with low-fidelity prototypes before writing a line of code
Shift your team's focus from delivery to discovery
Use AI tools to move faster through the discovery process
About BPM
This session is produced by the Building Product Managers (BPM) Network, a community of product leaders from different backgrounds who are passionate about advancing in their careers.
About the Speaker
A.J. Agnus leads Responsible Innovation at Axon, driving practices that enable responsible product development within product teams. A.J. previously worked as a Senior Product Manager on Axon's Justice product, focused on streamlining discovery for district attorneys and defenders in the criminal justice system. Before Axon, A.J. worked on Product & Operations teams at Google, Elastic, and Observable. A.J. also drives both global programming and the local Dallas chapter of the Black Product Managers Network, and holds a BBA in Management Information Systems from The University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Analytics from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Below are parking options and directions to Atlanta Tech Village, located at 3423 Piedmont Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30305.
PROMINENCE PARKING DECK
3699 Lenox Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30305
Parking rate information: https://prominenceinbuckhead.com/pages.aspx?p=Parking
Walking directions to ATV (Walk time: approximately 8–10 minutes):
1. Exit the parking deck onto Lenox Rd NE.
2. Head south, then turn onto Piedmont Rd NE.
3. Continue south on Piedmont Rd NE for about 0.4 miles.
4. Atlanta Tech Village will be on your right at 3423 Piedmont Rd NE.
TOWER PLACE PARKING DECK
3340 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30326
Parking rates:
- 19 minutes or less: Free
- 20–30 minutes (and/or each additional 30 min): $3
- 2 hours: $12
- 3–6 hours: $18
- 6–24 hours: $24
Walking directions to ATV (Walk time: approximately 3–5 minutes):
1. Exit the parking deck toward Piedmont Rd NE (the Tower Place complex sits directly adjacent to Atlanta Tech Village).
2. Head toward Piedmont Rd NE and Atlanta Tech Village will be just a short walk away, on the same block.