The Discovery & Definition Approach is a process for project planning that aligns vision, requirements, and expectations between sales and production. It consists of three phases: 1) Discovery involves meeting stakeholders, interviews, assumptions challenges, and pre-discovery research. 2) Definition includes additional research, prototyping, wireframing, specifications, and risk analysis. 3) Playback presents outputs like wireframes, user journeys, and a full project brief and proposal. The approach aims to bridge any gaps between initial discussions and project delivery through collaborative workshops, questioning, and de-risking technical aspects in early phases.

1. The Discovery & Definition Approach
to Project Planning
David Lockie
Founder & Director @
@pragmaticweb

2. Hello,
can you build me
a website?

3. Sure,
what’s your budget
and timescale?

4. $20k,
we need it live next
month. I’ll send you
the brief.

5. What the
agency’s
thinking:
PayPal
WordPress
WooCommerce
Canvas
Theme
Some CSS
30 day
warranty

6. What the
client’s
thinking:
With a bit of
Facebook
That thing that
Youtube does
Search like
Google
Unlimited
lifetime support
Amazon
Related
products like

7. Client brief Client budget

8. Sales ProductionWeirdish, wild space

9. Sales Production
Discovery & Definition
Aligns vision, requirements and
expectations to bridge the gap
between sales and production.

10. Discovery & Definition structure
Discovery Definition Playback
1 2 3

11. 1 Discovery
Meeting with
stakeholders
Q&A interview
Challenge
assumptions
Pre-discovery

12. Pre-discovery
Set up your project docs
Choose your team
Create D&D project plan
Review brief
Transcribe answers from brief to
your own project docs
1
2
3
4
5

13. Meeting with stakeholders
Get key stakeholders in the room
Schedule breaks and be comfortable
Use workshop tools like post its and
flipcharts
Run a retrospective about existing site
Sketch some wireframes
Post its User journeys
Flipcharts User profiles

14. Q&A Interview
Ask questions about:
1
2
3
4
5
Functionality
Ongoing requirements
Business objectives
Internal resources
Integrations
Content
Design
UX
Budget
Timescales

15. Challenge assumptions
The main thing people do on your site
Sign up Buy View Book
Device majority view the website on
Desktop Mobile Tablet
Do you require eCommerce?
None Products Services Subscriptions
Integrations
Social media Data Capture Eventbrite
Mailchimp Bespoke
Key KPIs or targets
Visits Members Transactions
Capacity planning
Mean monthly traffic Peaks
Lots of logged in users?

16. 2 Definition
Research
Prototyping /
feasibility
Wireframing &
UX
Tech specs

17. Research
Get to know your client and their customers
Go to the market to see if an existing plugin and/or theme combination will suit
Look at competitor websites, audit and benchmark
Use advertising tools to help profile customers - e.g. Adwords for keyword
research, Facebook for profiling

18. Prototyping / feasibility
De-risk the tech
Install WordPress and throw a default theme and some key plugins together
Perform gap analysis against requirements
Zoom in on missing components and interfaces and specify / assess

19. Sitemap, wireframes, user journey planning
Product
Adds product
to cart
Yes No
Continues to
checkout£
Product
Add to cart

20. Tech spec
Types of product: Simple
Capacity planning: Lots of logged in users
Shipping rules: Download-only
Currencies: £
Taxes: EU VAT
Payment gateways: PayPal
1
2
3
4
5

21. 3 Playback
Present
wireframes
Demonstrate
user journeys
Discuss risk
register
Full project brief
& proposal

22. Present wireframes
£
£
£
Cart 1
2
3
5
3.2.1
Cart
Mobile/Tablet/Desktop
/Cart
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Messaging hierarchy

23. Demonstrate key user journeys
£
£
£
Cart
£
Product
Add to cart
Thanks for your order
Click here to download
your products
Success email

24. Discuss risk register
Risk Likelihood Impact Mitigation
You miss your
deadlines
High High
The go-live date may need to be
pushed back
You ask for
something out of
scope
High Low
Depending on the request, we may
need to adjust cost and timings or
push the request to a backlog for
another phase of work

25. Full project brief & proposal
Proposal and brief comprising of:
UX Spec
Tech spec
Risk register
Cost
Project plan
by
Proposal and brief

26. What are the outputs?
Soft
Ways of working
Trust
Understanding
Hard
Wireframe specification
Technical specification
Full project plan & proposal

27. Sign on the dotted line?

28. Tips for running successful
Discovery and Definition meetings
This is consultancy, bill for it
Maintain pace, take breaks
Go wide, then deep if time
Bring cake
Ensure key people attend
Tailor D&D to project size

29. Thank you & questions
by David Lockie
Founder & Director @
@pragmaticweb
d@pragmatic-web.co.uk