Project Discovery: What It Really Is and Why You Need It
The more time you invest in defining the project, the better it’ll go
According to Greek philosopher Plato, the beginning is the most important part of the work. Said over 2,000 years ago, these words are still true — even if we are talking about such matters as the Discovery stage for digital products.
No matter the level of the team and regardless of the industry, stakeholders expect pretty much the same thing all the time. While CEOs and Product Managers want great ROI and ARR along with cost-effectiveness, CTOs are about getting supportable and scalable projects in the end.
But is it possible to satisfy the needs of all the stakeholders while keeping the project scalable and efficient at the same time? This is exactly the question we work on during the Discovery stage.
When You Need a Project Discovery
Before talking about the Discovery stage, let’s recall the basics and see what is meant by the Project Discovery stage in our company.
A Project Discovery phase or stage in the process of collecting and, in some cases, producing data that is essential for the working process along with processing open questions to make sure there are no faults or misconceptions before the development process itself is initiated. This stage aims to find out the way to meet the expectations of all parties.
Project Discovery is a separate stage in SDLC (software development lifecycle) for most of the projects. It is required and strictly recommended in the following cases:
- All the data you have is just the general understanding and market research of your idea — nothing more. In this case, product-related data should be collected and created from scratch. This includes user stories, use cases, wireframes, and a UX mindmap.
- Even though your company does have a certain amount of use cases and user stories, there’s still no clear vision of the project and how it all will work. In this case, we often offer the clients UX prototyping as a good solution, to begin with.
- You want to implement a set of non-common requirements, such as AI-based matching algorithm integration or a specific SDK. In this case, you will work with our senior dev team so all the requirements will be implemented — no matter how sophisticated they are.
- You have collected all the data needed, there’s a clear vision of the project, and there’s no need for deep and profound research from our side. In this case, there will be just an onboarding session with our team so you will get a realistic estimate based on the data you have.
If your case is not mentioned, don’t worry. We go through the Project Discovery stage with every client because it provides huge benefits for the project in general. Let’s see a list of the advantages it brings you as a stakeholder.
How the Project Discovery Phase Will Help You
The Discovery stage is one of the ways to ensure a smooth workflow and check whether the client and team are on the same page before the development process starts. It also allows us to answer directly the top questions:
- What are we building?
- What do we have to build what is intended?
But the Project Discovery process has other benefits for clients:
- Defining the scope of the work along with time and budget estimation. Thus, cost expectations can be managed before the work begins and the risks will be lowered. Also, the team gets a clearer vision of what kind of product will be developed.
- All the areas of uncertainty in the project are eliminated. We develop a comprehensive solution to each task, executing it with a clear and transparent workflow.
- The Project Discovery phase provides you with some material deliverables (mockups, a prototype, user stories, and use cases) that give you and us the full vision of your product. It can even be presented to investors and early-stage angels during pre-seed and angel pitches.
- Finally, for both teams, it’s a kind of test drive that helps our customers to decide whether we’re a good fit for future cooperation or not.
It seems everyone stays happy after all. CEOs will get a clear picture of how we’re going to optimize and deliver the project at the most reasonable price and within the most reasonable time frame. CTOs, on the other hand, will be ensured that the development flow is refined and involves only the best scalable technologies and approaches.
Typical Discovery Stage Workflow
Now, taking into consideration all our experience, we can definitely say that every Project Discovery phase follows more or less a typical scenario. Yes, some stages in this scenario can be omitted or eliminated, but the essential ones are still the same. According to our personal statistics, the typical workflow looks something like this.
1. Onboarding
An onboarding session via Skype, Zoom, or any other tool is the first thing we do when the client reaches us and provides at least a brief description of the project. During this session, the team asks questions and tries to get as much data as possible to achieve a basic understanding of the project. The whole process is controlled and conducted by the manager.
Note: The manager is a good listener, so their main task is to make sure that all the parties get what they want and that the stakeholders are satisfied with the working process and the progress.
During the onboarding phase, we create a rough estimate based on the data we have collected before. So the client gets a draft of the time and budget calculations.
2. Business research
This stage is when a business analyst enters the game. Use cases and requirements are prepared during this stage in close cooperation with the client to ensure the main goals and target audience are specified correctly.
Note: Like a wizard, a business analyst has the superpower to turn any idea into a technical form, aligning the raw idea with the business goals, writing documentation, and so on.
3. Story building
During this stage, the client meets another member of the team — a Product Manager. He creates the Project Charter, a document, containing all the data we have and all the info the client has provided, and complements it with a user story. A user story is the basic and the most common pattern the users follow while using the app. So they allow you to see the app from the perspective of the end-users.
4. Prototyping
As soon as it is reported that all the needed data is set into the Project Charter, UX-Designer starts his work, creating a so-called UX-mindmap. In simple terms, it shows the way user stories and uses cases will be realized on different screens.
The main task of UX-Designer is to develop smooth user flows for the customers and end-users. During this stage, a clickable UX-Prototype and Wireframes are created. Thus the team’s vision of the product will be visualized. However, it is the way to make sure the TA will understand the product and will be capable of using it.
In the end, this mindmap will be turned into a clickable Marvel-Prototype.
5. Technical Research
It’s important to keep in mind that work in the team flows in parallel, meaning that while a UX-Designer is doing his deed with the mindmap and prototype, the Senior Tech-Team is working on his own research. This research aims to provide us with a profound understanding of solving challenging tech tasks. It can be literally anything, from a non-common SDK to an AI-based matching algorithm.
Developers test different solutions to eliminate the most sophisticated and trickiest parts of the project. The simplest prototyping and minimal UI is enough for now.
6. Providing a detailed and accurate estimate
When all the previous steps are completed, the client has a clear and transparent vision of the project. In turn, we can make a realistic estimate, moving to the development itself. It is, basically, the last step for the Discovery process, which is supported by the Project manager from A to Z.
The mission of the Project Manager is to make sure that the team has achieved all the goals and aims, scheduled for the Discovery Stage. After that, the parties involved can start working on the project planning and further execution.
As it was pointed out at the beginning of the article, in some cases stages can be omitted if it is considered to be reasonable. As a result, the cost of the whole Discovery Stage changes.
Let’s have a look at a couple of examples to make it clear:
- Stages 2 and 3 can be skipped in case a client already has well-developed user stories and use cases. So we jump straight to the next stage.
- In some cases, only step 2 and 6 are made. It happens when the client already has almost all needed for work.
- The rarest case is when we do only steps 1 and 6. It is possible only when the client already has all the needed data and is ready to start the development process.
How Much Time Does It Usually Take?
It is impossible to say exactly how much time this phase takes, simple because it depends greatly on the complexity of the project and the scope of work. It can be either a couple of days or a couple of weeks. But average timeframes are the following ones:
Depending on the complexity and the scope of work it may take from a few days to a few weeks:
- 1–3 days for small projects
- 1–2 weeks for the medium size project
- 3–4 weeks for huge complex projects
But we always try to complete the Discovery stage in 1 sprint. It usually takes up to 2 weeks.
How Much Does It Cost?
Discovery Stage requires a lot of work, including research, brainstorming, requirements writing, conducting market analysis, creating wireframes or a prototype, and many, many more. So it is indeed the work we do for the customer. And, in turn, the following rule becomes pretty much in hand:
Project Discovery Stage cost is calculated as well as it is done with the development stage. The number of hours is multiplied by the company’s rate.
For example, the customer is working with the team, having a $35/h rate. The Discovery stage was estimated as the one that takes one week or casual 40 hours. So 40 hours multiplied by $3535*40 will be $1400. The formula is straightforward.
Can the Discover Stage be omitted? Well, it can, but shouldn’t be. The thing is, a false start will cost you more because you will have to deal with the issues related to the absence of a proper understanding of the project. And we mean not just money, but such things as attracting investments and improving user satisfaction.
Celadon Project Discovery Case Study
As we have mentioned, our experience allows us to offer you an example of the Discovery Stage which was conducted before the development phase. So, a Dubai gym owner sent us a request to develop an app. We were provided with solid business research and a detailed project charter, so the client decided to take it all from the core. The Discovery stage was processed so we could pinpoint 2 main tasks before jumping to the development itself:
- Create a simple UX-prototype so the client can see how his vision and idea will be implemented. He could also see the Mobile Version of the product. We used it for providing the client with an accurate estimate later on.
- Prepare the optimal tech stack, implement several dummy-integrations for this purpose, and be able to adequately estimate the project cost.
It is important to mention here that the plan was our initiative, and the client welcomed it. The plans like that are good for pre-testing, as well as prove that we are the team worth working with.
There are 3 roles in the Discovery Team:
- A Developer responsible for integration and finding solutions to the tasks
- A UX-Developer who creates the prototype
- A Project Manager who supervised the Project Discovery process. His role was also to be the bridge between the client and the team to ensure a smooth workflow for both sides.
We agreed on 2 weeks’ time frame, or one sprint, to process this stage. The benefits were the following ones.
To Clients:
- Can see the skills and the level of the team before the contract is signed;
- Have closer contact with the team;
- To see the milestones of the project and its structure in general;
- Get a realistic estimate, not just the rough version.
To us:
- Define the most complicated tasks and issues even before the development;
- To build trust with the client and make sure we are on the same page;
- To develop a roadmap so the time and the client’s resources could be used most efficiently;
- To see the real scope, structure the team so all the deadlines will be met without exceeding the budget.
So, it’s exactly how we nail the Discovery Stage.
Conclusion
We do hope that it is absolutely clear now that Project Discovery — is not just another extra-step to get more time and money. It minimizes potential risks for both customers and the team as well as maximizes the project potential. It is conducted as one of the first steps and should be processed carefully. As soon as Discovery Stage is completed we jump to MVP building, so a client will be sure that his back is protected and the risks are close to zero.
