Discovery

Purpose

Discovery is used to understand the problem before committing to a solution.

The goal is to learn enough to decide whether to proceed, stop, reshape, or move into alpha.

Key Questions

Discovery should answer:

• Who are the users?

• What are they trying to achieve?

• What problem are we solving?

• What constraints exist?

• What policy, legal, security, technical, or operational factors apply?

• What has already been tried?

• What data or evidence exists?

• What risks are most important?

• What options should be explored in alpha?

Discovery Activities

Typical discovery activities include:

• stakeholder interviews

• user research

• process mapping

• current-state analysis

• technical discovery

• data discovery

• security discovery

• supplier and dependency mapping

• risk assessment

• opportunity assessment

• high-level roadmap creation

Discovery Outputs

Discovery should produce:

• problem statement

• user needs summary

• stakeholder map

• current-state assessment

• constraints log

• risks and assumptions log

• options assessment

• alpha recommendation

• initial roadmap

• commercial recommendation

Exit Criteria

Discovery is complete when:

• the problem is clearly understood

• key user needs are identified

• constraints and risks are visible

• there is enough evidence to decide whether to proceed

• alpha objectives are defined if proceeding