Why Discovery Projects Drive Success
The Discovery phase of a project is critical, yet often bypassed in the haste to ‘get on with’ a project, and meet an ambitious deadline. Ironically, this haste more often than not has a detrimental effect on a project timeline as it creates additional work down the line.
Let’s explore how taking the time up front to fully understand the work ahead has the power to drive success in a way that launching into a project without Discovery simply can’t.
What is Discovery?
Sometimes referred to as the Scoping phase, Discovery is a crucial element of successful projects as it provides an opportunity to clearly define the vision, goals and scope from the outset.
Key Discovery objectives include:
Stakeholder definition – fully understanding who should be involved in the project development, from sponsors, product owners and administrators to end-users.
Understanding business goals – ensuring the aims of a proposed solution are fully understood, the problem to be addressed or goal to be achieved, such as improving productivity or boosting revenue.
Agreeing how to measure success – ensuring there is a clear vision of the end product enables setting specific goals to define project success.
Defining the user journey – identifying the target audience, understanding the different user types and their needs to ensure a user-centric focus for the project.
Prioritising Requirements – understanding must have, could have and nice to have requirements in order to define the MVP (Minimum Viable Product), and potential for future enhancement.
Creating a Roadmap – defining a realistic project timeline, with specific milestones, deliverables and timescales.
Why is Discovery Necessary?
The benefits of a Discovery include:
- Ensures clarity of the project scope and goals, enabling a more accurate delivery plan
- Drives decision-making based on data rather than assumptions
- The upfront time taken to full understand the work helps to mitigate risk
- Helps ensure higher ROI (Return On Investment)
- Enables the creation of a user-centred experience
- Avoids the need for making costly changes during advanced stages of the development process
What is the danger of skipping the Discovery Phase?
Undertaking a Discovery can never fully negate risk, but has been proven to help significantly reduce it.
Skipping the discovery phase of a project can result in:
- An evident lack of measurable expected results which would inevitably cause extensions to project duration. Thus leading to uncertainty or a delay to the release of the product.
- An absence of clear goals or requirements, meaning a lack of direction, ultimately increasing associated project costs.
- No clear, realistic timelines, meaning the development phase can easily extend, postponing product launch and failing to meet expectations.
- Misunderstandings that lead to confusion further down the line, wasting both time and money.
So, in conclusion, why prioritise Discovery?
By remaining firmly focused on asking the right questions and challenging assumptions, Discovery is a great opportunity to add value and find the best possible outcome.
To create the most user-centric product to meet the needs of the end user, Discovery seeks out an effective and efficient process right from the start. This approach limits unexpected changes, manages ambiguity and ultimately delivers optimal performance.
At Switchstance, we follow this process to gain the best possible outcome for our clients. If you have an idea that could benefit then get in touch to discuss your needs further.