Why Startups Need Discovery Sprint?

Discovery Sprint is a time-boxed series of meetings led by the product analyst. It brings together participants from different teams to collaboratively generate product solutions: from incorporating legacy code to sketching the core functionality when all you have is an idea. This is the process of synchronization requirements and execution by the team. In the way of discovery, it is possible to agree on everything that has to be implemented and this is way better than just fixing something in the development stage.

A Product Discovery Sprint is the first step of the Agile development method — a philosophy that emphasizes the value of interaction, data-driven decisions, and cyclically, as opposed to linear development. It’s very well known in the field of IT in high-level corporations like Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. So the discovery sprint is a very common thing in the case of professional best practices.

Quite often we work with many startups and founders and many of them come to us to get estimates for implementing some ideas.  Thus,  they have the idea but basically, they need to implement it, maybe there is already some MVP.

But why is the discovery sprint so unpopular in the field of the development of new IT products?

• Many founders come to IT from other industries, where other methods of work could be more popular. It means that it is better to set up requirements in the beginning along with fixing the costs. Every IT project is unique and Product Owners want to stand alone from other competitors. It will be impossible to prepare to fix documentation in the beginning without having the experience of implementing your project.
• Many believe that this is for free. Somebody from the IT industry can do this, and some companies and teams are making it but in our experience, it’s saying that this team really needs money from Product owners(PO) and Founders. Any kind of proper work has to be paid.
• PO wants to put more responsibility on the shoulders of the team or a company. They don’t want to take big risks on a project’s success. This way will not last long because you are in one boat means another concept of work.
• Founders don’t understand developers. They think that if they agree with the estimate then it will always work like that. But basically what happens – once they commit the cost and the devs start implementing, founders will fail up with expectations because no matter how deep is the technical documentation, in the beginning, you will need to have developers who will be synchronized with you and your project. It means that it is better to invest little time in the team than just make a lot of paperwork that can be thrown away once you are in the active development sprint.

Why not follow the best practices? That is what we do at ROCKETECH and why it makes us different.

How are we solving that issue and providing quality results with a discovery sprint?

• So the requirements will be changed anyway and better to focus on the process of continuously improving them.
• Small steps together small amount but big evidence and effort in the project.
• We share responsibility in a partner way with our methodology and process.
• We are making a much shorter gap between promise and implementation. We allocate parts of the future team into the discovery stage.

Main benefits:

• More efficient use of time, cost and resources.
• Agendas are not blocked for a full week.
• Discovery Sprint is performed in small iterations during the week.
• Easier to coordinate.

Make great projects and make discoveries not documents. Check our portfolio and see the best cases of ROCKETECH.