Product Consultancy I Sales Enablement I DesignOps I Scoping

Defining and aligning on discovery improvements to increase sales

Combating the lack of understanding and negative perception clients have about the discovery process.

WHAT’S BIG NERD RANCH? Big Nerd Ranch is a Product Consulting company that was struggling with selling and conducting client discoveries. They had a lack of understanding, expectations and clarity impact our clients trust and value in the BNR discovery process. BNR’s lack of consistency, documentation, communication and organization has lead to misalignment.

Full case study ~5 min read

2022

DURATION: 3 Months

PLATFORM: Internal Process Improvements

ROLE: Lead Experience Designer, Big Nerd Ranch

PROBLEM:
Recently several projects had been scoped and sold inaccurately, causing a loss of revenue, extended timelines and very unhappy clients. Come to find out this has been an ongoing problems with little to no investigation into the “why” behind it.

SOLUTION:
Conduct a design-led discovery of our internal processes to uncover the root problem and align cross-functional teams in developing effective solutions.

IMPACT:
A more clearly defined and communicated discovery process will affect client and internal team alignment — resulting in more successful outcomes. With an easy understandable discovery process will lead to better sales materials and client value — ultimately leading to more sales.

How BNR positioned and sold discoveries

  • Help clients understand what needs to be built to solve the problem

  • A time to do deep learning

  • Discovery examines the intersection of what users, business and product needs

  • Understand the background and what at a high-level they want us to do

  • It’s the framework of a project

  • Help us understand our users

  • Define scope, backlog of activities and the roadmap

Define scope, backlog of activities and the roadmap

A discovery is a preliminary phase that involves researching the problem space, framing the problem(s), and gathering enough evidence and initial direction on what to do next. They are crucial to setting projects off in the right direction by focusing on the right problems and building the right thing.

NN/g Nielsen Norman Group
World’s Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

Pain Points

What we did..

  • Conducting a series of stakeholder interviews with 13 team members across 3 teams

  • Mapped out the "current" workflow to understand the current process

  • Conducted an analysis of previous discoveries; went well/what didn't

  • Reviewed and leveraged existing documentation across both P202 and BNR teams

What we learned..

  • Clients have a negative perception because they don't understand the value and outcomes from a discovery

  • No one really agrees the current process is the right process and most said there was no process

  • Overall lack of communication and documentation beginning with tech sales through a discovery project to a delivery project

The anatomy of a successful (and unsuccessful) discovery

What makes a successful discovery…

  • Clients have an understanding of product development, value design before building it

  • Using the same team from discovery to delivery

  • Works well when its not tied to a budget or timeline

  • Strong Project Strategists are essential for Discoveries, especially complicated/ambiguous ones.

  • When clients know how we work and we know how they work

What makes a unsuccessful discovery…

  • Client does not have a PO or lacks understanding of the role of a PO

  • Discoveries are sold to mitigate risks

  • When clients thought they had everything they needed, but we disagreed

  • We use discoveries to scope projects

  • Clients needed lots of coaching and tend to be stubborn

  • Hard to articulate what that discovery phase was going 
to be — lack of a plan and to ambiguous

  • PS’s are 50% billable so they don’t want to get too involved because they don’t have the time

Connecting the dots

3 Areas of focus

  • • Its unclear what work needs to be done in 
a post-discovery project.

    • Unclear if the discovery is perceived as a project.

    • Clients needs to understand what a discovery 
is and why it’s beneficial.

    • Clients experience discovery fatigue. The same conversations happen multiple times.

  • • We rely on the SOW to tell us what we need 
to know.

    • We’re focused to investigate and find our own 
way when onboarding.

    • To much variation and not enough of a consistent 
process.

  • • Clients don’t understand the value, outcomes 
of a discovery.

    • Sales leaves, then we have to re-educate.

    • Educate on product ownership. Show them 
the BNR way of doing things.

Types of Discovery: Which Fits Best?

PRODUCT IDEATION:
Client with an idea needing further product
research, stakeholder validation, product or feature exploration and market fit before designing and building.

PRODUCT VALIDATION:
Client with a basic understanding of what needs to be done based on light research but needs further research, audit, validation and expertise.

PRODUCT DISCOVERIES:
Client has an existing product and has done a significant amount of research, validating needs and preliminary user testing but they need help getting to the next level.

She has expert skills and very experienced in all things UX
 and UI. I'm particularly impressed in her workshop skills. She has a long list of methodologies in her toolbox, and is adept at choosing the right one for the job. Her facilitation skills are fantastic and yielded solid design deliverables to build upon for the Discovery project.

Matt Raufman
Principal Experience Designer, Big Nerd Ranch

Getting real

Prioritized focus areas and began creating testable assets.

What we’re creating….

  • Playbook for communicating and selling a Discovery, including questions, checklists, and strategy guides.

  • Standardized BNR Discovery playbook with a defined process

  • Templates for Discovery deliverables

  • Client-facing discovery report

  • Executive Summary/Discovery Diary (internal source of truth)

  • Handoff guidelines for transitioning from sales to delivery phase

  • Rollout strategy and next steps, feedback loop for continuous improvement

Our goals

  • Well defined Discovery documentation

  • Alignment on strategy and execution of the Discovery process

  • Clear communication of the Discovery process

  • A successful execution of the Discovery process with a plan to iterate as needed

  • Improvements to our tech sales process

  • Confidence that our clients value, trust and want to invest in our recommended solution

  • Indirect improvements to the BNRs project process

  • Recommended solutions that users desire and are viable to clients

Crafting a clear, impactful process

  • Well defined Discovery documentation both internally and externally

  • Alignment on strategy and execution of the Discovery process

  • Clear communication of the Discovery process along with defined roles and responsibilities

  • A successful execution of the Discovery process with a plan to iterate as needed

  • Improvements to our tech sales process and SOW strategy

  • Confidence that our clients value, trust and want to invest in our recommended solution

Outcome

A more clearly defined and communicated discovery process will affect client and internal team alignment — resulting in more successful outcomes. With an easy understandable discovery process will lead to better sales materials and client value — ultimately leading to more sales.

Caught your eye, didn’t it?!