Discovery Workbook — DoR (Definition of Ready)

This is a checklist of things that are needed in order to start a Discovery successfully. If you need to sell a Discovery, please see the previous article “Discovery vs Inception”.

“PRODUCT TEAM” PREREQUISITES

• Discovery Champion — accountable representative to ensure access to stakeholders and tools nominated;
• Shared Purpose — get buy-in to purpose and need for Discovery;
• Discovery Space — final location for deliverables to live;
• Accounts Setup — accounts and access to systems provided.

“DISCOVERY TEAM” PREREQUISITES

• Context check-up — (e.g. company history, budgets, investments, commitment, previous attempts, expectations, cultural fit, … );
• Need evaluation — evaluate “Discovery vs Inception”;
• Discovery Explained — explain “Discovery vs Inception” to stakeholders;
• Stakeholder map — map your contacts and their connections;
• Team setup — onboard cross-functional team:
• (IF POSSIBLE) who can speak stakeholder native tongue;
• (IF POSSIBLE) with previous discovery experience;
• (IF POSSIBLE) Skilled facilitator, UX, Tech, Product.
• Relevant documentation — request product and technology docs.

JOINT PREPARATION

• Arrange joint checkpoints — book “Playback” and “Touch Base” meetings (see “Hands-on” section);
• Agree tooling — ask where to store documentation: suggest using a white boarding tool for remote work (e.g Miro);
• Output list — agree core output documentation.

NEXT STEPS

• Kick-off — start the Discovery!

Disclaimers:

• This articles and the series was written together with Simon Shepard;
• This article is the first one in a series entitled “Product Discovery Workbook”;
• The articles were written based on work done @ Equal Experts, so it’s written mainly from a consultancy point of view, but they can be either used in any “product” company.