Discovery is a deliverable, not a sales meeting
The test of whether a discovery phase was worth paying for is simple: could you take the output to a different supplier and get a comparable quote from it? If not, you bought a pitch.
Ours is built so you can. That is deliberate — it means the price we quote afterwards has to stand on its merits.
What we do during the week
- Watch the process being performed, by the people who perform it
- Interview the awkward cases — whoever handles the exceptions, month end, the difficult customer
- Check the systems — what APIs exist, what they cost, what they actually expose
- Sample the data, because the state of it changes the plan more than anything else
- Measure the baseline so the benefit can be proven later
The five things you receive
- A written specification of workflows, roles, rules and exceptions, in plain language
- An architecture outline: what is built, what is bought, what it integrates with
- A risk register naming what could go wrong and what we would do
- A phased plan with what is in phase one and what deliberately waits
- A fixed price with the assumptions it rests on written down
The most valuable hour of most discovery phases is spent watching someone do the job rather than asking them about it. The gap between the two is where projects fail.
What it costs
| Expected build | Discovery | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| £15k–£40k | £1,500–£4,000 | 3–7 days |
| £40k–£100k | £4,000–£10,000 | 1–3 weeks |
| £100k+ | £10,000–£25,000 | 3–6 weeks |
Roughly 5–10% of the expected build. We credit it against the build if you proceed with us, and you keep the documents either way.
Sometimes discovery says do not build it
The volume does not justify it. The process is not stable enough. An off-the-shelf product does 80% of it for a fraction of the price. We have reached all three conclusions and said so.
That is a successful discovery. It cost you a week instead of a quarter, and you have a written reason you can show anyone who asks.