Jobs to be done, story mapping, and a scope you can defend.
The most expensive software is the software nobody needed. We find the smallest release that proves the idea, map every step of the job it replaces, and write down what stays out and why, so the first version ships in weeks and teaches you something.
What it covers
Jobs to be done
What progress the user is trying to make, learned from what they did last week rather than what they say they want.
User story mapping
The whole job drawn out as a map, so the first release is a thin slice across all of it and not a pile of features from one corner.
Hypotheses with a result inside two weeks
Each assumption stated, a way to test it named, and product analytics wired in so the answer arrives with numbers.
Continuous discovery
Discovery does not end when coding starts. It runs alongside delivery, so the roadmap changes when the evidence does.
How we do it
A discovery sprint, two weeks
Interviews, the story map, the thinnest first release, and the risks ranked: value, usability, viability, feasibility.
Prototype what is uncertain
Where a risk is real, a prototype or a fake door answers it before engineering time is spent.
Scope in writing
What is in version one, what is out, and the reason for each. This is the document you take to your board.
Analytics from the first release
Matomo, Segment compatible, vendor agnostic. Every release ships with the instrumentation to judge it.
- 1
A discovery sprint, two weeks
Interviews, the story map, the thinnest first release, and the risks ranked: value, usability, viability, feasibility.
- 2
Prototype what is uncertain
Where a risk is real, a prototype or a fake door answers it before engineering time is spent.
- 3
Scope in writing
What is in version one, what is out, and the reason for each. This is the document you take to your board.
- 4
Analytics from the first release
Matomo, Segment compatible, vendor agnostic. Every release ships with the instrumentation to judge it.
What you get
- A user story map of the job
- A ranked risk list and the experiments that retire the top ones
- A written first release scope, with what stays out and why
- Wireframes or prototypes where a risk needed one
- An analytics plan and the events to instrument
Where we have done it
view.com.au: engagement rose with the rebuild. Pageviews a visit went from 2.02 in July 2022 to 3.19 in July 2024, measured on the analytics pipeline we built.
view.com.auTalent Carriage: every step, old and new, drawn out in a user story map before any build. The first version was still wrong, and the map is what made rebuilding it cheap.
Talent Carriage
Questions we get asked
How long does discovery take?
Two weeks to start. Long enough to map the job, rank the risks and scope the thinnest first release, and short enough that nobody is paying for a study while the product waits. Then it becomes continuous. Discovery runs alongside every release, so what we learn from real users in month two changes what we build in month three. The first two weeks buy a direction, not a finished plan.
We already know what we want to build.
Is this design?
What does it cost?
Also under product development
Talk it through
Tell us what you need from product discovery.
Thirty minutes with one of our architects. We will tell you whether it is a pilot, a build, or not worth doing yet.