A discovery phase is an opportunity for the digital team to get to understand the project better. Discovery should be understood as a core element of the project initiation and planning phases, bridging the gap between these two. It is about researching and defining the scope of the project. In particular, it involves activities such as сarrying out user research, establishing goals and defining success, оutline the value proposition, understand the broader context of the product’s use.
During the phase, you need to come up with certain deliverables that might vary according to the project size, complexity and degree of urgency. Here they are:
- Discovery phase proposal. A development process proposal based on Discovery conclusions will help ensure that the project team will create a product that meets all the client’s requirements and needs.
- Software requirements specification. This is a document fully describing the project, feature set, recommended tech stack and architecture outline.
- Customer Journey Map. This is a visual “map” of user interaction with the product, which includes all the intended points such as his/her thoughts, emotions, goals, motives, fears on the way to achieving the result.
- Business Model Canvas. A conceptual description of the business model of the future product for the MVP is created in the form of a diagram describing all business processes.
- User Flow. To determine how the user will interact with the interface of the new product, a User Flow is created in the form of schematic screens of the software solution and the transitions between them. Thus, user behavior scenarios are designed through visual interface prototypes.
The main activities:
1) Carrying out user research.
The client usually talks about the strategy, goals and vision. But when it comes to the user, they are often less well informed, simply because they don’t have frequent contact with the users or just don’t care. The research has to consist of two parts:
- You need to carry out the user research itself,
- You need to visualize what you’ve learned, so all stakeholders have the same ideas in mind.
Traditionally this research has been shown as personas. The main focus should be on the goals, tasks, questions, pain points users might have. Of course, we shouldn’t just be focusing on the user’s goals; we also need to consider the organizational objectives too. One of the best ways to get the right information is Customer Journey Mapping and Business Model Canvas.
2) Finding new ideas, establishing goals and defining success.
Without clear goals and definition of success, the project will be rudderless and vulnerable to scope creep. However, most importantly, without clear goals, stakeholders will have no way of assessing whether or not the project has been successful. It’s a good idea to come up with the key performance indicators to measure success criteria.
3) Outline the value proposition.
Stakeholders are so focused on objectives, and user experience professionals on users’ needs, that nobody stops to ask what value the service provides to consumers and whether that matches their actual needs. The discovery phase should define two aspects of the value proposition, the benefits it provides and the features that allow it to deliver those benefits.
4) Understand the broader context of the product’s use.
The broader context of a digital project might vary depending on the nature of the service. However, typically this includes:
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- Internal environment. It can include things like technical limitations or compliance issues, it can also refer to internal politics that might derail the project.
- A review of existing related services. If there is an existing version of the service, it makes sense to review this before proceeding with a redesign. Also, it is worth looking at other platforms or services that relate to the project. That might be technical platforms that preceded or follow the service you are redesigning.
- Competitive analysis. What is the competition doing, and how will your digital service position itself in the broader marketplace?
- External influencers. Are there external people or factors that will influence the project. For example, are there partners you work with, regulatory bodies to consider or industry figures/bodies you need to impress?
Having determined all the details at the beginning of the project, the client receives a number of advantages. Here are the main ones:
- Clarification of the idea and essence of the project based on real analysis.
- Identification of some aspects of the project that were not considered initially.
- Understanding user expectations and concerns based on research on competitor products.
- The opportunity to get an expert assessment of the project and methods of working on it, as well as consideration of alternative solutions and technologies.
- Drawing up a clear list of user stories for the project.
- Decreased the possibility of costly additional edits and changes on the fly.
- Striking a balance between customers’ business goals and the interests of the end-users of the product.
- The ability to understand how the developers meet the customer expectations, how comfortable the partnership is and make the final decision on further cooperation.
An additional advantage for the client is receiving a clear technical description of a project and an estimate of the required costs. Through the Discovery phase, you may lay the foundation for effective work and, as a result, provide high-quality software solutions tailored to the individual needs of the client.
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