Two weeks that de-risk the next twelve months.
A structured, fixed-price process that turns an idea or a stalled project into a clear technical plan, a delivery roadmap, and an estimate you can hold us to. Most failed projects go wrong before development even starts. This is how yours won’t.
Project Discovery is a two-week, fixed-price phase that comes before development begins. Most projects that fail don’t fail at the end. They fail at the beginning, because of assumptions nobody checked, people who weren’t consulted, or systems that turned out to be harder to connect than expected. Discovery finds these problems early, when they are still cheap to solve, and gives you a cost estimate you can actually rely on.
The two weeks are structured and focused. In the first week, we speak with the key people on both the business and technical sides, map out how your processes really work, and review the existing systems the new solution must connect to, looking at the actual data and integrations rather than the documentation alone. In the second week, we test the riskiest technical assumptions, build a clickable prototype where the user experience matters most, and bring everything together into an architecture plan, a delivery roadmap, and a detailed estimate that is clear about what is certain and what is not.
Everything we produce belongs to you. The architecture plan, prototype, risk list, and estimate are vendor-neutral, so you can use them with any development team, including your own. In around a quarter of cases, discovery shows that the project should be much smaller or shouldn’t be built at all. Clients often find these to be the most valuable outcomes, and they are the reason the projects that do go ahead tend to succeed.
Everything you need to start your project with confidence, delivered in two focused weeks at a fixed price.
Stakeholder interviews
We speak with the key people on both the business and technical sides to uncover different expectations about scope and success early. Resolving them now takes a conversation. Later, it takes rework.
Process and systems mapping
We map how your business actually works with the people who do the work every day. We also review the systems your project must connect to, based on real data and integrations, not just documentation.
Early technical testing
We test the riskiest parts of your project in practice during the sprint, such as a difficult integration, performance limits, or data migration. Problems surface in week two, not month four.
Architecture plan
A clear technical design for your solution, with every technology choice explained in writing. It’s built around your real constraints and is vendor-neutral, so any team can use it.
Roadmap and estimate
A step-by-step delivery plan with a cost estimate that clearly states what is certain and what is not. Every assumption is written down, so you get numbers you can actually rely on.
Risk list
Every significant risk is named, with how likely it is, how much it would matter, and who is responsible for handling it. Surprises become planned-for situations.
No black boxes. Each phase has explicit outputs, and you see progress weekly, in staging, not slide decks.
- 01
Kickoff and interviews
Days one and two: goals, constraints, and success metrics from every stakeholder who can later veto the project, misalignment surfaces here by design.
Outputs
- Stakeholder goals
- Constraint log
- Success metrics
- 02
Domain and technical mapping
Days three to five: domain modeling sessions and hands-on audit of the systems, APIs, and data the project must integrate with or replace.
Outputs
- Domain model
- System and API audit
- Integration map
- 03
Spikes and prototyping
Days six to eight: code against the riskiest technical assumptions and, where experience is the risk, a clickable prototype tested with real users.
Outputs
- Spike results
- Clickable prototype
- User test findings
- 04
Architecture and roadmap
Days eight and nine: synthesis into the blueprint, wave-sequenced roadmap, banded estimate, and risk register, reviewed with your technical leadership as drafts.
Outputs
- Architecture blueprint
- Wave-sequenced roadmap
- Banded estimate
- 05
Readout and decision
Day ten: findings presented to decision-makers with a clear recommendation, proceed, reshape, or stop, and every artifact handed over regardless.
Outputs
- Readout and recommendation
- Risk register
- All artifacts handed over
The results this service is accountable for, the reasons clients keep the engagement running.
Fixed price, two weeks
The cheapest possible way to find the problems that kill projects.
Honest estimates
An estimate with confidence bands and written assumptions, instead of a number invented to win approval.
Risks tested early
The riskiest technical assumptions tested in code before they are load-bearing.
Early alignment
Stakeholder misalignment surfaced in week one, while it still costs a conversation.
Portable artifacts
Vendor-neutral artifacts you can take to any engineering team, including your own.
Permission not to build
A quarter of discoveries end in build less or do not build, the cheapest outcome a project can have.
Chosen for your constraints, not our comfort, this is the toolkit we know deeply for this kind of work.
- Frontend
- Next.js
- Backend & workflow
- Node.js
- Data & streaming
- PostgreSQL
- Cloud & infrastructure
- AWS
- Terraform
- Delivery & observability
- Playwright
- Design & collaboration
- Figma
- Miro
- Storybook
How we plan, price, and deliver Project Discovery.