Designers are like detectives
Elan Miller
Like detectives, designers are in the business of investigating a problem, collecting evidence, & connecting-the-dots; all in service of surfacing a truth.
Even in high-profile cases — when there’s public pressure to make an arrest quickly — detectives need to survey the scene, collect evidence, & properly investigate to ensure they solve the case effectively.
Detectives who rush to judgement and skip over parts of the investigation to make an arrest sooner risk arresting the wrong person or putting the trial in jeopardy!
The same can be said of a designer who skips Discovery.
“Discovery” the process of collecting different inputs that help inform your strategy, starting with clarifying the problem you’re solving.
While it can be tempting to move straight into solutions, doing so limits your potential to effectively solve the problem.
Does the following situation sound familiar?
Your client/boss asks you to solve a big, hairy problem.
The brief is exciting — you’ve been waiting your whole career to work on something like this.
You put together a thoughtful approach. Nothing too crazy…you know time is of the essence.
Solving this challenge is going to be gnarly, but you feel good about your proposal.
You walk them through it. Step by step.
Lots of head nodding. Overall they’re into it.
Then, they wonder out loud, “Can we shorten the timeline? Do we really need to invest a couple weeks in discovery? We already know so much. We’ve been working on this problem for years. We have plenty to go on.”
Sigh. 🤦♂️
Today I want to make the case for Discovery, explain its value, & illustrate the tradeoffs you’re making when you skip it — so you can show your boss, client, and/or team how instrumental Discovery is to effectively solving the problem.
Quality of execution rides on quality of inputs
As my friend Virginia Lu likes to say, “Garbage in, garbage out.”
If you collect insights that don’t help you see the problem in a new way, your solution will be expected — and average at best. That’s why it’s important to push your client/boss to explore beyond what they already know.
Discovery can take many shapes and forms. While this list is by no means exhaustive, here are some of the types of discovery I most often encounter:
Stakeholder interviews: Getting key members of the team to open up and share perspective on the problem.
Expert interviews: Talk to renowned experts in a field to get a better sense for where things are going.
Competitive audits: Scan the category to identify how competitors position themselves and/or design specific product flows.
Outside inspiration: Look beyond the category to bring in inspiration from outside the category, to land on something familiar, yet completely unexpected.
User research: Meet with customers to understand their current behaviors and unpack their aspirations.
Desk research: Look for emerging cultural trends that support your “why now.”
Discovery doesn’t have to be boring
The more engaging (& enlightening) you can make Discovery, the more enthusiasm you’ll generate with your boss, client, & team around the possibilities for execution.
One of my favorite examples came at the beginning of my career while working at Redscout. We were working with a fashion client who was trying to find their North Star after a leadership change.
As part of Discovery we gave everyone on their design team a polaroid camera and sent them on a scavenger hunt through NYC to capture the kinds of activities they did over the course of a weekend — everything from where they ate brunch to museums they visited to how they spent their free time outside of work.
We came back to the office, grouped our polaroids by themes until one thing became abundantly clear — this team had the most interesting weekends (and that’s saying something in NY). This revelation — which the team arrived at on their own — was the foundation for their brand’s new North Star, “Our customers want to feel like the most interesting person in the room. Our brand helps them be the woman they’ve always wanted to be.”
We would have never uncovered this aspiration by reviewing existing documentation. Sometimes you need to explore uncharted territories to inspire new possibilities.
When Discovery is worth fighting for
While every hill is not worth dying on, Discovery is something worth pushing for, especially if you find your project in any of the following situations:
1. The stakes are high: You can’t afford to fail and iterate. This is especially true if your engineering team is slow.
2. Time is of the essence: While it may seem counter intuitive, adding an extra 2 to 4 weeks to your project plan will save you months of iteration in the long run to truly understand the problem.
3. You’re trying to spark momentum: Discovery is a great way to reinvigorate your team around your why/what/how — and especially who. It’s also a great sales tool to bring leadership and the broader org along for the ride.
4. You’re still searching for product/market fit: Discovery helps you move faster by formulating key hypotheses before investing in design & engineering resources.
5. You want to be “different”: Ask any founder or business leader their ambition, and differentiation is usually at the top of their list. If you want to be different, you need to frame the opportunity from a fresh perspective. That all starts with Discovery.
The notable exception to these use cases is when you’re trying to change the narrative around your product development capabilities.
Whether it’s with investors, the press, or even with your team — shipping quickly is actually the story you’re trying to tell. This can often be the case for new teams trying to gain credibility — just understand that it comes at a cost.
Next time your client/boss wants you to skip over Discovery, make sure they understand the tradeoffs before taking the case to trial before the investigation.
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