Discoveries are crucial to a designer’s toolkit, but why do they sometimes feel like a slog? Dive into the ins and outs of the discovery process, learn to navigate everyday challenges, and pick up practical strategies to guide your teams toward effective results.

1. Murder on the
dancefloor: the death
of disco
How discos go wrong and how we might fix them
Jon Roobottom, Design principal

2. Jon Roobottom
Design principal
jon.roobottom@madetech.com
madetech.com/ucd
linkedin.com/in/roobottom
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We work with clients in UK government, local authority and
the health and care sectors, for example…

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Discoveries!

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⚠
Minimum Viable Talk

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In Discovery, we define the
problem to be solved

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We risk making services
no one wants, uses or
have no impact.

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What does a good
discovery look like?

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People Context Outcomes
The three pillars of disco 🕺

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People
Who has this problem?
What exactly is the problem?

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Context
How do we know that this is
problem?
What constraints exist that
make it hard to fix this problem?
What's already happening to
try and solve this problem?

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Outcomes
What is the policy intent?
What’s the “business” need?
How do we measure success?

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Why discoveries
go wrong

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Four types of problem*
* That I’ve seen recently; there will be more!

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1. The smuggler
2. The doppelganger
3. The director
4. The ghost

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When solutions are
smuggled in as problem
statements

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We need to build a
dashboard so users can
see social housing
available in their local
area.
😭 Bad

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What problems do people
face when finding
somewhere to live?
✅ Better

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We need to digitise this
service to save money
supporting users
😭 Bad

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What problems do people
face with this service that
lead them to seeking
support?
✅ Better

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1. The smuggler
2. The doppelganger
3. The director
4. The ghost

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When the work has been
done already

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1. The smuggler
2. The doppelganger
3. The director
4. The ghost

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Stakeholders direct
the work without
considering the user

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1. The smuggler
2. The doppelganger
3. The director
4. The ghost

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Key people are missing,
or don’t know what to do

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How might we fix
discoveries?

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How might Made Tech
deliver products and
services that help
improve people’s lives?

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Should all discoveries
be the same?

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No!

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Can we organise
discoveries into
categories?

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Yes (probably)

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Open-minded
Opinionated
Some work has happened
Lots of assumptions
Research isn’t valued
We’re at the start
Few assumptions
Research is king

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Open-minded
Opinionated

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Open-minded
Opinionated

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(early thoughts on…)
Discovery
Toolkit

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Engage the client Write SoW Start the work
Client partners and
UCD principals have
framing conversations
early.
Discovery decision
tree
Pre-SoW workshop
SoW starter
templates.
Inception workshop

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Engage the client Write SoW Start the work
Owned by client partner Owned by the
account team
Owned by the
delivery team

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Where next?

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Now Next Later
We formed a working
group across design,
research and delivery.
Conduct research into
what types of disco;
what works, what
doesn’t
Prototype & test disco
decision tree
Run pre-SoW
workshops where
appropriate.
Ideate and test.
Publish Discovery
toolkits.
Toolkits for Alpha
and Beta

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Thank you
madetech.com/ucd