Discovery is the initial phase where we align with the client on what needs to be built, why, and how. Scoping turns that understanding into a clear plan with estimates, milestones, and acceptance criteria. This page explains our approach.

Discovery Activities

1. Stakeholder Interviews

• Who: Product owners, end users, technical leads, business stakeholders.
• What: Goals, pain points, constraints, success criteria.
• Output: Notes in GitHub Discussions or Notion, shared with the team.

2. Requirements Workshop

• Format: Collaborative session (in-person or remote) with whiteboard, Figma, or Miro.
• Focus: User stories, workflows, edge cases, integrations.
• Output: Prioritized backlog with epics and stories.

3. Technical Assessment

• Existing systems: APIs, databases, auth, deployment pipelines.
• Constraints: Performance targets, compliance, security, scalability.
• Output: Architecture diagram, risk register, tech stack proposal.

4. Risk Identification

• What could go wrong? Third-party dependencies, data migrations, user adoption, regulatory requirements.
• Mitigation: Proof-of-concept spikes, parallel development, early testing.
• Output: Risk table with likelihood, impact, and mitigation plans.

Scoping Outputs

After discovery, we produce:

• Project brief — Executive summary with goals, scope, success criteria.
• Backlog — GitHub Issues with user stories, acceptance criteria, estimates.
• Timeline — High-level milestones and sprint plan (1-2 week cycles).
• Budget — Time & materials estimate or fixed bid, depending on contract.
• Risks & assumptions — What we know, what we're assuming, what we'll validate early.

When Discovery Is Short

For small projects or when requirements are already clear:

• Half-day workshop instead of multiple sessions.
• Minimal documentation — just backlog and timeline.
• Start fast — move to first sprint within days.

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