Play: A Discovery

When to run the play

It starts once a project contract is signed and the team have been properly briefed using a Team Kick-Off. It lasts until the client approves a Method Statement: the output of a Discovery phase.

Example from a project with Discovery + waterfall style Production

What Is A ‘Discovery’?

Before you commit to building a digital experience, you need to understand the problem that needs to be solved. Then you need to design a solution that solves that problem.

That means learning about:

• your users and what they’re trying to achieve
• the thing that the client wants to change or make happen
• any constraints you’d face — for example, because of technology or time
• unforeseen opportunities — additional features or services of great value

A Discovery is simply a period of time that allows a cross-functional team to solve these unknowns. They do this through investigation, research, and ideation.

Once a set of creative ideas has been produced that meets these needs, we then use the practical constraints of a project (time, budget, resource) to select the most valuable, and least risky.

How long a Discovery should take

There’s no set time period for a Discovery, but around 4 to 6 weeks is typical. Let the purpose of your discovery dictate how long you spend on it.

If you’re working on a problem that no one’s researched before, you might need a bit longer. If it’s a problem you know a fair bit about already, you might be able to have a slightly shorter discovery.

Who You Need

Roles are defined according to the problems you need to solve.

We need to agree on what the client wants, what we need to achieve to do that, and how it relates to the real world — we need a Strategist

We need to understand how and where this thing will be built — we need a Technical Lead

We need to define the key messages we want the user to think about — we need a Copy Writer

We have data but we don’t know what insights we should show, and how they should be presented — we need an Information Designer

We need to understand how users will interact and what this thing will look like — we need an Interaction Designer / UI Designer (you can have 1 person with multiple ‘roles’)

We need to understand how we’re going to deliver this thing — we need a Producer

Rules

• Do not start Discovery until the client has confirmed the objectives of the project
• Do not start a Discovery until the client has been onboarded to the process
• Do not start Discovery until the team has has an Internal Kick-Off

Step 1— Define the problem

At the start of your discovery, you might be presented with a pre-defined solution or told you’re building a specific thing.

Before you start your research, you’ll need to interrogate that solution and reframe it as a problem to be solved. This will help you better understand what your team has been set up to achieve.

Break down assumptions and ask lots of questions. Reframing the problem also includes agreeing on what is not part of the problem.

For example, a problem is not: “We need to build an interactive map to show people where our contact centres are”. It’s probably something like: “How can we make it easier for people to find their nearest contact centre if they need to book a face-to-face appointment?”

Step 2— Research

This step has various names; UX research, user research, audience research. Regardless, it is about understanding people and empathising with them. You need to gather insights about what they need, to be able to start any effective design project.

Step 4— Design & Technical Approach

Once the research has been done the team can begin to source inspiration and ideas from as far wide as possible. The focus initially should be on capturing the breadth of possible solutions.

Then the ideas need to be refined by a process of dependability, value and feasibility. This will produce the most successful solutions and experiences. Each person in the team plays their part and is equally required to voice their opinions and contribute. This is important for prescribing the best solution possible from the team working on it.

Step 5— Complete Discovery

Your discovery is finished when you are clear on what you’re building, where it will live, and your confident you can do it in the time and budget you have.

Typically we do this using a Method Statement, which is the output of a Discovery Phase.

Example Contents page from a Method Statement

You can request examples of Method Statements from the Producer you’re working with.