Done this? You’re way ahead of most wannabe digital startups

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been thinking about what a Discovery process is and how it works in the early stages of digital product development. We’ve given you prompts and examples to help you define your audience, the problem you’re solving and how to fill in the gaps in your research. (Read Parts One, Two and Three here). Let’s start bringing it all together.

If you’ve been following along and doing the work, you should be able to complete the missing lines in the statement below. See if you can fill in the gaps:

I want to create

__________________________

for

__________________________

because

__________________________.

This will enable

__________________________

If you can answer this, congratulations. You’re already well on your way to being able to articulate your vision for your app, and that’s no small feat. If you’d like an informal discussion of how to take the next step, get in touch.

Before we wind up this series, here are some points to check in with:

Pay attention to any biases you hold personally, or which might have come about unavoidably through your research. Perhaps you’ve only been able to interview people from a narrow ethnic group or interest group. Make a note of any areas of your research where this might be the case.

Check whether you’ve flipped your thinking from the way YOU do things to the way the user will experience things. Your research should already be training you to spot the difference between the way your ideal user expresses their wants and needs, and they way you do internally. Do they match up? Where can you find any differences?

Think about whether your time and financial expectations are realistic. Consider, if you haven’t already, developing and launching an initial version of your app with limited and specific functionality. This will let you test your ideas more quickly and safeguard you against spending thousands on an app that may not have market appeal.

Be open to learning to think differently. Thinking is easier when you have something concrete in front of you, granted, but training yourself to work with abstract ideas and rough sketches is a good practice to get into because you’re able to be more objective: slick mockups are seductive and sometimes allow you to miss important considerations.

Be open to your idea completely evolving. Stay connected to your passion for the idea and, most importantly, those your idea will help.