diff --git a/junit-platform-engine/src/main/java/org/junit/platform/engine/EngineDiscoveryRequest.java b/junit-platform-engine/src/main/java/org/junit/platform/engine/EngineDiscoveryRequest.java
index 1348d8a88f86..c01806f65b04 100644
--- a/junit-platform-engine/src/main/java/org/junit/platform/engine/EngineDiscoveryRequest.java
+++ b/junit-platform-engine/src/main/java/org/junit/platform/engine/EngineDiscoveryRequest.java
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ default EngineDiscoveryListener getDiscoveryListener() {
 	}
 
 	default OutputDirectoryProvider getOutputDirectoryProvider() {
-		throw new JUnitException("OutputDirectoryProvider not available");
+		throw new JUnitException(
+			"OutputDirectoryProvider not available; probably due to unaligned versions of the junit-platform-engine and junit-platform-launcher jars on the classpath/module path.");
 	}
 }