Discipline 01 / 05
Discovery
Before anything is designed, we find out what is actually true — about the people, the market and the constraints.
Research, feasibility and a written brief. It is the shortest part of an engagement and the one that decides the rest.
Principles
What Discovery holds to
Deep understanding
Root causes, not symptoms.
- Root-cause investigation
- User behaviour and motivation
- Market dynamics
- Cultural and contextual reading
Systematic exploration
The method is chosen for the question, not the other way round.
- Research method selection
- Data collection design
- More than one perspective
- Evidence before opinion
Pattern recognition
Connections across everything that was found.
- Pattern analysis and synthesis
- Insight clustering
- Opportunity identification
Actionable insight
Findings become decisions, or they were not worth finding.
- Design opportunities
- Implementation pathways
- Value proposition
- Success metrics
Methods
How we look
Ethnographic research
Studying people where they actually work and buy.
Focus — Context and culture
Journey mapping
The whole experience across every touchpoint, drawn out.
Focus — End-to-end understanding
Stakeholder analysis
Everyone a solution affects, and everyone who can stop it.
Focus — Relationship dynamics
Competitive intelligence
The market landscape and where a position is still open.
Focus — Competitive advantage
Process
How a Discovery runs
- 01
Research planning
- Research questions
- Method selection
- Stakeholder mapping
- 02
Data collection
- Primary research
- Secondary research
- Field work and expert interviews
- 03
Analysis and synthesis
- Pattern identification
- Gap and opportunity mapping
- Validation and triangulation
- 04
Insight application
- Recommendations
- Design principles
- Roadmap and success metrics