If designers aren’t participating in discovery, they are missing out on understanding what is really driving users. Here are some questions I coach designers to think about while conducting discovery:
👉 Hint: You will never hear me ask “do you like this” 👈
- What is the outcome they are trying to achieve?
- What does it mean for them to have achieved that outcome?
- Are there minor outcomes they seek to achieve along the way (base camp 1, base camp 2, summit)
- How do they currently try to achieve that outcome?
- How well do those alternatives work for them?
- What is their risk/tolerance to switch from those alternatives?
- What have they tried in the past that has failed?
- What have they wanted to try but haven’t/couldn’t?
- What happens if they don’t achieve it?
- What hacks have they put into place to achieve it?
- What hacks have they put into place to account for not achieving it?
- How much pain would they be willing to take on to break those hacks?
- How much pain would they be willing to take on to adopt new behavior?
- Who else needs to be involved for them to change that behavior?
- What processes need to change or be invented to change that behavior?
- Do they have decision making power around those processes?
- If there was one thing that could tell us we were on the path to helping them achieve this outcome, what would that signal be?
- What is the ultimate signal?
- Is this even what they are really wanting to achieve? Are we thinking too big? Too small?
- How critical is this to them? (For their sense of purpose? Accountability? Financial health?)
- When they look around, what is an example of someone that has achieved this? How did they do it?
- What existing tools remind them of the solution?
- What tools seem like the wrong solution?
- What are the anti-patterns?
- What would I expect to hear them say if we found the right solution?
- How would they pitch it to others?
- What would it take for them to invest time/social clout/risk/money into this solution?
- What would it take for them to invest it? Why wouldn’t they?
- Why do they care?