Discovery is an allocated period of time
where you explore the problem space
before any design or development takes place.
Discoveries and look very different from one project
to the next in terms of the time it takes,
who's involved and what the outputs are at the end.
Many organizations claim to be doing discoveries,
but are they doing real ones?
Here are five common misconceptions about discoveries.
Number one, discovery is not a synonym for user research.
Some teams say they're doing a discovery
if they carry out any kind of research
in their design process.
For example, usability tests.
Now, research is an important part of a discovery
but that's not all we're doing in this phase.
Instead, discovery is about learning about all aspects
of the problem so we can define it
and frame it appropriately.
This sets us up to solve the right problem
whether through technology, people or process
or a mixture of all of these.
On the other hand, if there's no research
then how can we discover anything?
This brings me onto misconception number two.
Discovery is not a discovery if there's no user research.
Now this unfortunately happens too often
when unrealistic timelines are set
or when clients or business areas
make it really difficult or impossible
to recruit target users.
The problem with not doing firsthand research
is that the only thing you'll be doing
is stating what you already know
or what you think you know
and making decisions on incomplete information.
And that is a very risky position to be in.
Misconception number three.
Discovery is not a one-person job.
Now discovery work in a lot of teams
often falls down to one person.
A lone UX designer or user researcher.
They go out, perform some research
while other people are deciding on technology
or business requirements.
What ends up happening is they need to consolidate
insights about the problem with what has already
been decided to do about it,
which doesn't really make sense a lot of the time.
It also means only one person
truly understands the problem space.
Rather than the full team
who are dedicated to working on it.
Misconception number four,
discovery is not a validation exercise.
The key is in the word discovery.
To discover is to learn something you didn't already know.
Therefore the philosophy around this phase
is to have an open mind about the problem space
and seek to learn about it.
Only then will we begin to know
what the problem really is and the best way to solve it.
Unfortunately many teams decide on a solution,
then perform a discovery to validate their assumptions
about users, what their needs are
and whether the solution is a right one.
Now this is really bad research practice.
And it's ultimately a waste of time and money
because you're either not gonna do anything about insights
that invalidate your assumptions.
Or you're too blinded to see contrary insights
in the first place.
Misconception number five.
Discovery is not a design sprint.
Now design sprints are effective
at producing designs very quickly
and rallying stakeholders effectively.
But workshopping and ideating is not a discovery.
We shouldn't be thinking we can sit
in workshops all day and have
a real understanding of the problem.
Also the goal of a discovery is not to produce
high-fidelity prototypes.
But instead it's time to do all
the necessary work so that the team
really understands the problem
and the best way to tackle it.
So what is a real discovery?
This phase involves carrying out research
with people who are affected by this problem.
Like user interviews, diary studies,
ethnographic-style research.
It also includes activities like exploring
available technology, defining and framing the problem
to be solved, uncovering what are successful outcomes
for the organization and so on.
Given the breadth of different activities,
a real discovery takes a multi-disciplinary approach.
It's a team effort.
And lastly, it's a mindset
that we don't know all the answers.
So we need to take some time to properly investigate it.
You can learn more about discoveries
in our one-day course at our UX conference.