You came up with an exceptional idea for a product. False modesty aside, it’s going to be a smash hit.
Naturally, you want to develop it as soon as possible. Excited with the prospect of inevitable success, you have chosen the best IT team and you want to start right away. Time is money, you can’t waste it.
Without wishing to belittle your idea, haste makes waste, and the risk of failure is quite high. According to a 2017 report from the Project Management Institute (PMI), 14 percent of IT projects fail. However, it only refers to total failures. From the project that didn’t fail right away, 31% didn’t meet the goals, 43% exceeded their estimated budget, and 49% were launched late.
Don’t let your project fail! Consider implementing the discovery phase into the development process of your product.
Discovery Phase: What is It?
What is a discovery phase, you may ask? Simply speaking, the discovery phase is a process of collecting and analysing information about the project. It precedes the development process and allows getting a well-rounded and comprehensive understanding of goals, scope, and possible limitations.
During the discovery phase, an IT team tries to accumulate as much information from the client as possible to understand their vision more thoroughly. It helps to define the objectives and priorities, as well as constraints.
Moreover, it also helps understand the intended market, as well as the end-users, their needs, and requirements.
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How Can Discovery Phase Support Your Project?
Leads to Better Solutions
As previously mentioned, the discovery phase can increase the understanding of your vision. Even if your idea sounds very promising, there’s always room for improvement.
With the help of qualified specialists, you can choose the best solutions and methods to successfully develop your product. Their objective opinion can help you focus on the most important features of your products, rejecting the redundant or potentially problematic ones.
It allows you and the team to establish project goals and development methods. An in-depth analysis of requirements and expectations will lead to a better final product.
It Reduces Risks
An in-depth understanding of your goals and requirements will help the development team to accurately estimate the time and budget needed to create the product.
According to Freshcode, the discovery phase reduces the risk of missed deadlines by 75% and the overall cost of savings can exceed 50% . The discovery phase can be decisive in success, or failure, of your launch.
Moreover, it can significantly reduce costly mistakes, misunderstandings, and unnecessary functionality.
It Makes You Understand Users
The customer is king. It’s them for whom you develop your products. When planning the development process, it’s crucial to analyse their needs and expectations.
The discovery phase helps understand the market needs, as well as the average personal preferences of your target. It helps to define who they are, what are their digital habits and expectation.
A deep understanding of your target users allows you to adapt your product to their requirements, consequently leading to an increased probability of success.
Increase the Probability of a Successful Launch
It’s understandable that you, as an originator of the project, want to have it developed as soon as possible.
However, to increase the probability of a successful launch, it’s advisable to go through the discovery phase.
The discovery phase can be very beneficial for your product as it allows you and the IT team to understand the project more and to meet the requirements of end users.
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