Starting a Discovery
Start with a Goal
It's useful to start by setting a clear goal for your discovery. This will help you scope your discovery appropriately and work out when it's finished.
Define the problem
At the start of your discovery, you might be presented with a pre-defined solution or you may be exploring a newly-identified user issue.
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 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?”
So start by defining the problem you're working on. The better you define it, the better the potential solutions you'll end up with if you move on to the alpha phase.
You should also consider quantifying the value of solving the problem you've been set up to address. During discovery, that means understanding how much the problem is currently costing.
Work in Progress!
This site is a work in progress and any opinions contained here are intended to spark discussion within each discipline's community of practice.
Created: 2023-06-26