There are numerous entrepreneurs who have encountered some difficulties while running their startups or scaling current businesses. And the main reason lies in poor planning or misunderstanding of the market trends (during the implementation, your idea may become hopelessly outdated). In order to prevent any predicaments, it is desirable to conduct a discovery phase with business analysis.
What is a Discovery Phase?
When you come up with some business idea, the first things you usually wish to know are:
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What is your target audience?
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Where is your place in the market?
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Who are your competitors?
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What budget do you need?
So, the Discovery Phase is the product launch stage that will help you get answers to the questions listed above. However, the discovery phase is not just marketing research as you might think. This stage is actually more technical because solution architects, senior developers, UX/UI designers, business analysts, subject matter experts, and other specialists are involved in the research process. Therefore, in the end, you’ll receive a comprehensive presentation with the following additional information:
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User needs in the conjunction with your business goals (what customer needs you’ll be able to cover);
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The functionality of the future solutions taking into account your budget, market trends, and services of your competitors;
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Recommendations about tools you had better use to save money and present a well-working solution, which will be able to outrun other market players;
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Roadmap with detailed user experience;
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Business objective model if you are not aware of what you should focus on in order to succeed.
Moreover, the stage may even include the creation of MVP (minimum viable product). But let’s focus on the business analysis of the discovery phase.
What About Analysis?
Every discovery phase involves a business analyst because all gathered data must be structured and presented in a meaningful way. Only a specialist with extensive experience and understanding of the development process and different approaches is able to correctly analyze and interpret the information. Perhaps, the market you are interested in is in a state of stagnation. You may think the glass is half full but actually, it is half empty. So, the task of our business analysts is to warn you about all possible challenges and estimate the viability of your product.
After getting our findings, you’ll be able to shorten the time to market and choose a certain path to fast growth. Business analysis within the discovery phase is the only way to develop a product in accordance with your initial ideas (an analysis eliminates situations when the results don’t meet your expectations).
What Can Be Analyzed During the Project Discovery Phase?
First of all, you should understand that the discovery phase is a very personalized stage of the development process. There is no a silver bullet: every project is unique. What one client requires, another does not need. This is why our business analysts approach the discovery phase with maximum responsibility, giving themselves completely to your project.
We are able to list just some areas, which are always analyzed at the beginning of the product implementation:
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Client’s pain. One of the main marketing rules declares that every product should solve some customer’s problems. The more these problems are tackled, the more beneficial the product can be. The analysis conducted by us will show you the possible demand for your solution;
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Competitors. Sometimes the market is oversaturated: there are a lot of players with great services, so a new product won’t be able to satisfy the needs of a “spoiled” audience. Also, we can’t fail to mention the price dumping resorted to by strong companies: you may not have even a chance to compete with them;
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Market trends. Are you sure your idea is relevant and fresh? Maybe, you are going to use outdated tools and technologies. Our business analysts within the discovery phase assess the products potential and warn entrepreneurs if necessary;
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Technologies. Thanks to our senior developers involved, you’ll get an extensive list of tools, which will be used. We’ll help you save money by advising cost-effective solutions.
Conclusion
According to statistics, about 15% of all startups die because of insufficient planning and underrating different risks in the market. 45% of ideas are too expensive to implement. It is impossible to have a complete vision about creating and then promoting your product without the discovery phase. Perhaps, the longread “Discovery Stage, or What to Do If You Need an Agile Project Analysis” will answer some of your questions.
