Making Discovery Work: Getting Client Buy-In and Building Your Skills
In our recent training, Jeff Patton presented a structured discovery process centered around story mapping and personas, neatly packaged into about a week of time. Some people in the training worried that their clients wouldn’t be willing to commit to this level of involvement.
Let’s tackle this concern from two angles: how to get a client to the table for serious discovery work, and how to get practice so you’re ready when that opportunity arrives.
Approaching Your Client
Engineers are pretty good at figuring out why things won’t work. Your objections are ready: The client already has a nice requirements doc. They’ve already kicked off the project. They’re extremely busy and couldn’t possibly make time for this. The schedule is tight enough already. They’ll be put off by the note cards and the drawings and the paper prototypes and walk out.
If you approach your client with that mindset, you will fulfill this destiny.
Reframe the Conversation
What if you approached it with this mindset instead:
If we don’t figure out the real goals of this project, we could waste hundreds of thousands of dollars. We could hurt rather than help someone. We could completely miss that market opportunity.
Delivering this message requires some skill, but if your brain and heart are in the right place, you’re much more likely to succeed. Here’s a sample opener:
“The requirements document you provided looks great. There’s a ton of valuable information there, and we will definitely dive into it. I’d like to supplement this with some discovery sessions where we talk with you and your team about the project. In our experience, these sessions provide real depth to the requirements, help us understand the ‘why’ instead of just the ‘what’, and save our clients time and money. We have a fairly painless process for this that I can tailor to your needs.”
Translate this into your own words and give it a shot. Be confident—you are taking care of your clients.
Getting Practice
We aren’t all in a position to offer this to a client right now. What can we do to practice so we’re ready when the opportunity presents itself? Here are a few ideas:
1. Apply techniques to current work
Pick a portion of an existing project you’re working on and use one of the relevant techniques (story mapping, personas, paper prototyping, etc.). Afraid that it will take time away from development? What are the chances you’ll learn something important about your project that completely dwarfs that time investment?
2. Use internal or pet projects
Apply the discovery process to an internal or personal project. You don’t necessarily have to move on to actual development afterwards (though your stakeholders will probably be excited by the end of it!).
3. Reverse-engineer past projects
Story map or model the users for a project you’ve already completed. This is a low-stakes way to practice the techniques.
4. Prototype with anyone willing
Do paper prototyping for an imaginary product with volunteers in the cafeteria at work. Or your kids. Or your parents.
5. Test your understanding
See if you actually know the desired outcomes for your current project. Once you realize you don’t, go learn them.
The point is simple: don’t wait for the perfect opportunity. Build your discovery skills now so you’re ready to lead with confidence when it matters most.
