Comments on: Help! My Designer Wants a “Discovery Phase”

By: Deciding Between In-House, Design Agency or Freelancer | Studio Notes - Musings on design matters, technology and culture

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:55:39 +0000

[...] a “discovery phase” that enables them to get up to speed with the business and user goals. While this is a necessary step in order to design what’s right for the company and customer, this sometimes frustrates [...]

By: Tips for Startups | Studio Notes - Musings on design matters, technology and culture

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 01:46:58 +0000

[...] Posts: Why Some Startups Fail Design Thinking 101 Help! My Designer Wants a “Discovery Phase” AKPC_IDS += "417,"; [...]

By: Dan McKenzie

Dan McKenzie — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:34:41 +0000

Thanks everybody for the feedback and great comments!

By: Barbara Bix

Barbara Bix — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:42:05 +0000

Agreed! The more we know about users the better. Deep insights into prospects’ and customers’ buying behavior helps design better products, develop better messaging, and as you point out easier to use interfaces. Too often, we spend too much time “talking” and not enough time listening to those we need to persuade. Imagine if we first knew their most pressing concerns and how they preferred to do business. Makes you wonder why such a small portion of the B2B budget is devoted to marketing research…

By: Dillon S

Dillon S — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:42:09 +0000

A good way for new designers to have room for the discovery phase without frustrating the client is to charge flat. As a new commercial designer I find this time crucial to create a polished finished product, but I do not want to frustrate or risk loosing my first clients as they are crucial to my portfolio, and will assist me in getting future work.

Another good tip for new designers is find open minded clients, even if it means making less money. My first small business project I took for free because my client allowed me the space to grow into the project, and made and in the long term I created a good reference & added on to my portfolio.

By: Naomi Synstelien

Naomi Synstelien — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:59:36 +0000

Great article and follow comments!

By: mikeo

mikeo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:48:04 +0000

we are going through a re-design and the discovery phase, or whatever you want to call it, is above all the most important aspect. first it gets the ball rolling and secondly the designer can get a feel for how the final product should look like and operate. skipping this step and the rest of the project is going to be hitting a moving target.

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:46:24 +0000

Great article, I think I will pass this onto my general manager at our studio as well. I find I do this naturally when putting together a proposal for a prospective client, but it can be dismissed as much by management within the design studio as with the client (usually on the basis of cost). It has been the downfall of many projects that this phase is neglected which then generates extra development costs later on when the client asks for usability features etc, that could have been planned for in the first place…

By: David

David — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:45:20 +0000

Every project I’ve worked on with a discovery phase turned out to be a complete success. But I can’t say the same about every project that didn’t. This may be a result of budgets and/or mature clients (affording the luxury of this phase). But I still think it’s an interesting observation.

By: Angela

Angela — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:45:11 +0000

Good idea Chris. Most clients are business professionals, and they can relate to terms that sound more related to what they do in business. Saying “Discovery” may sound vague to them, but calling it a “Business Analysis” might more accurately describe it in their terms.