5 Benefits of Starting a Design Project from the Discovery Stage

Getting started with a new product from scratch is something like buying a new Lego set: very interesting but mostly confusing at first steps. You get a bunch of pieces laying in front of you and the end result is depicted on the box. Here comes the question: are you brave enough to jump into construction without a step-by-step instruction?

Same way a trained design team won’t launch Figma without running a research, getting requirements, approving a concept, and building a roadmap. All this deliverables are born in the Discovery stage. Let’s dig into which benefits does this stage bring to the stakeholder and what problems can it solve.

1. Saving time = saving budget

Yes, a thorough discovery takes time and costs money. But missing this stage will bring everything into chaos. Looking for solutions at the same time as doing design will make the team go round the same features and constantly changing them. And let’s not forget about extra workdays for development. In the end the project will take more time than if the discovery was done properly.

2. A shared vision of the product

Developers, designers, and stakeholders should synchronize. This will turn the cacaphрony of the development process in the harmony of an orchestra. To find the common vision of the product we ask a lot of questions during discovery. Often we hear stakeholders say “Wow, I never thought about that”.

3. Loyal users

An important part of discovery – a deep analysis of potential users. You do realize that you and your user are not the same? You do realize it, right? Insights from interviews and surveys can help understand the real pains and goals of users. All of this lays the foundation of products with high NPS and CRR scores.

4. Competitive ability

Many stakeholders are well aware of their competitors. However, it is important not only to know your competitor’s strong and weak points but also to form a plan how to outrun them. For this we do brainstorming sessions and come up with the most useful and unsuspected features.

5. A clear action plan

Today almost everybody knows what a MVP is but not everyone follows this principal. We had our fair share of interactions with lean-approach enthusiasts. This guys, despite knowing the process, tried to bring more and more features to the product. The end goal of discovery is a roadmap with clear requirements and right priorities.