What is the discovery phase?
Discovery is the first phase in delivering a service or product.
During this phase you create an understanding of;
What the product or service is?
Who is it for? Who are the users of the product or service?
Why is it important for the business and the intended audience?
What are the most important things the users of the product or service need?
Potentially how would you go about delivering a new service or product (Solution).
What does it look like?
You want to get a sense of the types of issues/opportunities you might start exploring in regards to the product or service. Based off your exploration you want create a clear picture of;
What are the knowns?
What are the unknowns?
What is the strategy to deal with the unknowns?
Outcomes
Have a clear idea of the scope of the product or service.
Have an understanding and buy in from all the senior stakeholders who understand what you are trying to prove and achieve.
Define how success will be measured and what it looks like.
Core Questions
Who are our users?
Is there any existing research data we can use?
How will we involve users during the design process?
Which users are prioritized first and why?
What questions are the users asking?
What challenges are users facing?
What are the user pain points we are trying to alleviate?
What would be a win for the users?
What do users expect to see?
What do we want to delight them with?
What actions should they take? (Call-To-Action)
What functions should we consider?
Who will be ultimately responsible for signing off the design?
What does success look like for the project?
Key Tips
Be prepared to challenge any assumption, always ask why?
Gather evidence to support your hypothesis, theory or argument.
Remain flexible and open.