A successful software discovery phase can be the difference between a successful or failed project – and the time to get it right is now. There are many pieces to an effective software discovery phase, including getting your stakeholders on board with your approach, determining how to incorporate future user feedback, and preparing your team to address any issues that might arise in development or production. Here are seven tips to help make sure you’re doing everything possible to set your software discovery phase up for success.
1) Consider your stakeholders
As the software discovery phase service wraps up, it’s important to take a step back and reflect on the stakeholders that have been impacted. Identifying and prioritizing your stakeholders will help ensure that you’re delivering what they need.
1) Customers – The most obvious stakeholder to identify is the customer for your product. Customers are looking for products that solve their problems and provide them with value. It’s important to consider how customers will use your product, so you can design accordingly. 2) Potential Partners – Identifying potential partners early on in software discovery phase will give you time to build relationships before you release your product. Potential partners may include content creators, advertisers, distributors, resellers or strategic partners who can help bring awareness and grow your business faster once it launches.
2) Gather information about existing systems
A successful software discovery phase begins by gathering information about existing systems. In order to do this, it’s important to be as detailed as possible when asking questions about current systems. This will enable you to get a good understanding of the current processes and identify areas where there may be gaps in the process.
– What is your company’s current process for managing new software requests?
– How does your company track new software requests?
– How does your company handle changes to existing software requests?
3) Research industry trends
One way to find what people are looking for is to research trends in your industry. What is the latest thing that people are using? Is there a new technology that people seem to be talking about? Trends will help you learn more about what your potential customers want.
4) Conduct user interviews
User interviews are an essential component of any software discovery phase. It’s important to have a clear understanding of who your potential customers are and what their pain points are so that you can develop a product that will solve those issues for them. The following steps should be taken when conducting user interviews:
1) Identify the personas (or user profiles) for the target customer group. Who is your target customer? Do you know their age, gender, education level, occupation or industry? What problem does your product address? 2) Conduct the interview by asking open-ended questions and follow up on responses to get as much detail as possible. 3) Remember to take notes so you don’t forget anything! 4) Make sure you ask questions about specific features of the product.
5) Define your objectives and workflow
While every software project is different, there are a few things that all discovery phases have in common. The first step is to identify the problem you’re trying to solve and determine what needs to be built. Next, come up with some preliminary designs based on your research. After that it’s time to reach out to potential users and get feedback on your ideas! This phase can be a little daunting but with the right guidance, you’ll be ready for anything.
6) Map out your data flow diagram
The seven steps of a software discovery phase are: 1. Evaluate the feasibility of your idea; 2. Create prototypes, wireframes and mockups; 3. Test with users; 4. Analyze results; 5. Iterate on process and repeat steps 1-4 until you have a final prototype or product to launch; 6. Design for different screen sizes; 7. Launch your product or service for feedback and iterate again based on what you learn from customers and stakeholders.
7) Create mockups of screens, reports, and views
The discovery phase is all about figuring out what features will work best for your customers. The more time and effort you put into this phase, the more likely you are to find a product that people want and will be happy to pay for. That’s why it’s important to keep track of any and all feedback you get during this stage. This can be as simple as using a Google form to ask for feedback on a feature idea, or as complex as building an in-depth prototype so users can interact with it before any code has been written. What’s most important is that once someone gives you feedback, take time to understand what they’re saying, even if it’s not what you wanted to hear, and don’t forget to thank them for their input!
