The Value of a Discovery Process

Many of those reading this are likely to have encountered a consultancy’s Discovery process — a stage in a project or pre-project, during which the consultancy attempts to grasp the project scope and the environment in which delivery will unfold. Typically, it’s also when the consultancy outlines their ways of working, learns about the client’s and shows how they’ll improve or transform the client’s business through their work.

At Counter, we also conduct a Discovery process, generally during our initial conversations, to determine if we’re the right fit for the project. But that’s where the similarities end. As our name suggests, we take a Counter approach to Discovery. Here’s how, the reasons why and the true value of a Discovery process.

What is the True Value of Discovery?

While writing this blog, I found myself asking, “What is the true value of a discovery workshop?”. Of course, there’s a structure and agenda to follow, but the real value lies in the human connection. 

It’s about bringing together teams from two different organisations to see if they can forge a strong working relationship and support each other’s success.

Ultimately, this is what I aim to achieve from a discovery workshop. I want to walk away feeling confident that we can deliver a service that truly meets the client’s needs, while also ensuring our engineers will have an environment in which they can thrive. At the same time, we must be open to the possibility that the workshop could reveal, for whatever reason, that a successful partnership isn’t feasible for either side.

How We Deliver a Discovery Workshop

Firstly we need to understand how to create an environment where everyone is committed to achieving a successful outcome. It begins with an honest assessment of the situation, which initially means assessing viability and credibility. Our aim is to thoroughly understand the organisation and determine if we can genuinely meet their needs. We focus on asking questions about project understanding, the development environment, and the existing team structure, without jumping ahead to solutions.

The feeling (and I do believe we operate on feelings) we look to create is one where the client recognises our credibility and skills through the depth of our understanding and the considered follow-up questions we ask, beyond the initial brief.

At Counter we embed tech teams within a client’s business, so rather than telling our clients how we can “digitally transform” them (yes, I said it), instead we focus our understanding on how that client works. We know we can add value through our diverse experiences and technical expertise once we’re working with them, but we definitely won’t prescribe changes before we’ve fully grasped their current systems and operations.

But, Can Counter Deliver Real Value?

But what do we really mean by ‘value’? If you look at the nuts and bolts of value from the client’s perspective, it’s about trying to figure out a few things: 

• Firstly, it’s about trying to determine if the cost of using Counter to deliver a project will be of better value than other options that are potentially on the table. 
• Secondly, it’s about trying to determine whether the cost of using Counter to complete a piece of work will enable the client to unlock a source of revenue faster than other options. 
• Finally, it’s about trying to determine if using Counter to solve a particular problem will save more in the long term, than the cost of using Counter.  

If the answers to questions like these are “Yes”, then our discovery process will get us closer to understanding whether Counter is the right fit to the client’s needs. 

So, Why all the Questions?

For us, it is about understanding. Our consultants genuinely care about understanding what it’s like to work in the client’s your environment and are dedicated to gathering the right information. This commitment stems from a key difference that sets us apart from other consultancies: at the end of our engagements, our Counter consultants have the opportunity to join the client’s team as full-time employees.

With that in mind, we want our engineers to be fully committed to our client’s goals and aligned with their organisation’s mission, confident in our ability to deliver. To provide accurate information to potential teams, we must first understand the needs and context of all parties involved and that is where the value of a Discovery process comes in. 

Discover Clarity 

Discovery is about clarity. If we are clear with each other, Counter and the potential client set off on a great foundation for a long term relationship. Building this clarity with empathy fosters genuine human connections.When people work with clarity, they know where they stand. If we can deliver and listen with compassion, then I believe that is the true value of our discovery process.

And, ultimately what we want to uncover during our discovery process is whether we can create an environment where everyone on the team is winning. That means the client as well as our Counter consultants. If we can do that, then we, at Counter, will be able to say we add real value.