back to Practices
Discovery

The Discovery Process

Understand and define the most acute problems before diving into a solution

Length

2 Weeks

Participants

Key decision maker, relevant subject matter experts, core team, champion skeptic, neutral facilitator

Why Do It
  • You will uncover previously unknown pains
  • You will reveal real problems from your users
  • You will validate assumptions
  • You will surface risks up front and better prepare for them
When To Do It
  • When you are preparing to build a new product or feature
  • Before you start to build any solutions
How To Do It
  • Assumptions workshop
  • Personas workshop
  • User Interviews
  • Research Synthesis
  • Problem Prioritization
  • Insight Prioritization

Introduction

Every product journey begins with the discovery process. This usually occurs over a fast-paced, two-week period during which you will learn as much as possible about the product space, the users, the business drivers, and any existing technology or technical constraints.

During the discovery process, your teams will prioritize the key problems representing the highest business and user value so that this information will inform potential solutions during the framing process.

Assumptions Workshop
  • Generate assumptions for 3-5 minutes among the team
  • Divide assumptions into 2 equal groups of most important and least important assumptions
  • Create 2x2 for most important assumptions with “High” and “Low” risk on the y-axis and “Know a lot” and “Know little” on the x-axis
Personas Workshop
  • Generate persona for 5 minutes among the team with the following information
    • Name
    • Demographics
    • Behaviours
    • Needs & Goals
  • Present personas
  • Align on persona representing the user of your product
User Interviews
  • Select lead interviewer who will facilitate the interview - usually the product designer
  • Delegate 1-2 note-taker for the interview session
  • Reach out to users and schedule interview slots
  • Create user interview goals, assumptions, questions and script
  • Conduct the interview and take notes
Research Synthesis
  • Use the notes taken during the user interview to group into similar categories, such as:
    • Day in the life
    • Pain points
    • Goals
    • Good to know
    • Magic wand
    • Actions
  • Review the assumptions created for the interview to discuss and document whether or not the interviews validated or invalidated each assumption
  • Identify actions to take and findings and/or assumptions to re-test
Problem Prioritization
  • Gather all problems discovered from user interviews
  • Create a 2x2 for with “High” and “Low” frequency on the y-axis and “High” and “Low” user pain on the x-axis
  • Identify the top 3-5 problems surfaced from the user interviews
Insight Prioritization
  • Gather all insights discovered from user interviews
  • Create a 2x2 for with “More Useful for Making Product Decision” and “Less Useful for Making Product Decisions” frequency on the y-axis and - “Greater Opportunity Size” and “Smaller Opportunity Size” on the x-axis
  • Identify the top 3-5 insights surfaced from the user interviews
Result
Discovery replaces risky assumptions with user-backed data on the top problems and insights for creating a solution during framing.