Product Discovery Process: Validate Ideas Without Significant Investments

Product Development

Product Modernization

May 30, 2025

Product Discovery Process: Validate Ideas Without Significant Investments

Artkai's product discovery process is essential for building a successful and innovative digital product. Every year, our portfolio is replenished with 15-20 new projects with a wide range of industries and product types, from fintech platforms to enterprise applications. Each of them goes through a successful discovery phase, where we help define the product vision, test ideas with real users, align stakeholders, and build a clear, actionable development plan.

This article will share our practical experience and insights on how the discovery phase lays the foundation for product success. We will discuss common pitfalls to avoid. We will show a real-world app which we developed for our client’s financial well-being and how well-executed discovery delivers high results and innovative solutions.

How to approach product discovery step-by-step

At Artkai, we approach the product discovery process or audit, depending on the specifics of the project as a critical foundation. We will guide you through this path and show you the main parts of the product discovery, using a real case as a practical basis. So, without further ado, let's get started.

Discovery Kick-off. How we did it for Red Rocks

Our client, Red Rocks Credit Union, is a financial institution that deals with mortgages, refinancing, lending, and savings management and provides banking-as-a-service.

The first step in communication was that the company representatives approached us with a request to develop a mobile application that would help target B2B business clients increase the productivity of their internal employees with the help of a convenient financial application that would facilitate routine financial processes.

The client's main goal was to develop the concept of a "Financial wellness journey made easy." However, the client did not have a clear product vision or well-formulated requirements for the program's functionality and customer feedback.

Our product team proposed applying the product discovery to test numerous hypotheses and ideas, immerse themselves in the target audience's context, and formalize stakeholder expectations. This allowed us to minimize risks, collect technical requirements, and analyze the feasibility of specific approaches.

We started the product discovery process with a kick-off meeting with the client's company representatives, our business analyst, our system architect, and our UX/UI designer.

At this stage, we managed to:

Identify the client's expectations and the main goals of the product.
Formulate a list of hypotheses for their testing.
Identify pain points at the business level and the user feedback level.
Set technical, time, and organizational boundaries.
Agree on project managers, expected results, and communication channels.

Results and documentation

Product Vision synchronized all stakeholders, set the direction for the team of designers and developers, and became the project's basic strategic tool.
A discovery agenda and roadmap with a clearly defined and agreed-upon work order for both parties are needed.
There are business requirements that the product should implement, namely increasing engagement, optimizing social programs, etc. This is necessary to determine the criteria for the product's effectiveness by metrics and track ROI.

Such a strategic start gave the project a solid foundation, which allowed us to move on to deep research and gradually transform an abstract idea into a product.

Analysis/Research

After analyzing the kick-off meeting and its results, we moved on to the central analytical block of the product discovery - user research.

In our approach, this step is implemented in three main layers of work depending on the project's specifics: Stakeholders Interview & Results Analysis, Desk Research / Domain Analysis, and Competitors Analysis. Let's look at what business value each of these parts carries.

Stakeholders Interview & Results Analysis - involves clarifying goals, business requirements, and tasks and their synchronization. After the agreement, the team can proceed to further actions.
Desk Research / Domain Analysis - lets you update customer behavior information and establish a background for a new product hypothesis.
Competitors Analysis- This can be divided into two directions: an analysis of competitors from the marketing and strategic sides. This analysis provides an offensive and defensive strategic context to identify opportunities and threats.

What we did for the client Red Rocks

We interviewed stakeholders and employees, performed ideation workshops, and desk research. During the interviews with stakeholders, the main tasks were identified: creating KPIs to measure employee engagement in the system, digitizing internal programs, and making them convenient to use in a single system.

The interview with employees, in turn, provided the basis for user feedback and obtaining new valuable insights. As a result, it was determined that the company's employees lack an analytical vision of their finances and management, experience difficulties in planning and distributing the budget, and need an environment for managing their financial situation. Therefore, after that, our team formed a list of hypotheses that needed to be tested.

As for the ideation workshops with the client, we evaluated hypotheses regarding their practical transformation into features, discussed the methodology for using gamification for the target audience, such as using rewards in the application, etc., and began to structure journey maps.

In parallel with the above activities, we conducted desk research, analyzing American charity platforms and services since the future product was supposed to contain similar functionality. We also studied behavioral models in competitors' products and compared them regarding functionality, market positioning, and UX solutions.

It should be noted that we also created a design concept for the future product within the product discovery. The visual solution of the main screen with a basic user flow allowed the client to better imagine the system's final appearance and discuss the interface architecture even before the start of the full design phase.

As a result, we discovered a unique niche for positioning the future product on the market—a B2B product with charity programs and adaptation to the user's financial well-being.

Documentation and business value our client got

Interview Insights & Summary. It contains data on key user pain points and needs, potentially critical questions, and categorized tables, which contribute to forming a product focus for the discovery process.
Client Vision Sketch. It contains the initial concept created by the design team, with options for interaction levels for different user roles. This valuable document gives the entire team an idea of the product's external side.
Domain Analysis Report. The project included a description and state of the general market and the potential relevance of the product in it, the specifics of business models, the behavioral aspects of respondents, the structure of industry products, and legislative specifics.
Competitor Comparison Matrix. It contains summarized parameters of similar services on the market, comparing their social functions, interface structures, and gamification elements. It also demonstrates how the new product can compete with them.

Formalization/Scoping

The next step for our product team was to transform the collected thorough research into a complete product model. Therefore, after scoping work, we prepared a set of artifacts for the core of the iOS application, with 400+ screen variations.

What was done and what business value we delivered

Customer Journey Mapping for user focus groups. Typical scenarios of using the application were visualized. This allowed our team to analyze the behavioral logic of users and explore critical touchpoints with the product business goals.
Information Architecture, with a clearly defined structure of screens and how they're connected in the final solution, allowed us to guarantee to the client that all essential steps were included in the process. It also made it possible to avoid inconsistencies between modules and reduce the risks of high budgets and long time frames during the implementation phase.
Low-fi Wireframes are a robust visual base with goal creation screens, registration, etc., for technical assessment and UX/UI design. This also allowed testing at an early stage of UX and saving budgets.
The Solution Architecture was presented as a high-level integration diagram, a list of external APIs, major data entities described, and relationships between them. Of course, this made it possible to understand the limitations and technical stack even before the start of the development process and build a real technical plan.
Backlog, which contained a formed list of functions, ranking tasks by priority, which made it possible to estimate the volume of work. Which also became the basis for dividing the implementation into development phases. Based on the backlog, we also provide product roadmap and team allocation details.

Closure and start of the production

The step in product discovery is when our delivery team and client representatives synchronize to fix budgets and start product delivery. This final step in the discovery process confirms the correctness and relevance of the hypotheses and the selected alternative. It also forms a discovery package and ensures all approaches are justified and efficient.

For our client, we conducted a final product discovery presentation, where we presented the main artifacts and their value. We also presented the logic of solutions with use cases for the application and provided a roadmap for product implementation and development, focusing on priority, relevance, and feasibility.

We also presented a complete estimate of the cost and required resources. Our Discovery Package contained an agreed-upon product vision, practical and theoretical research results, an architectural model, wireframes, a prioritized backlog, a team structure, and a delivery roadmap.

In general, the business value of this stage and the entire discovery process allowed the client to start developing a new product on the market without the risk of gaps, unsuccessful strategic decisions, and high investments. Also, using the discovery stage as a service provided a powerful, solid basis for attracting investors to the project since there was an implementation plan with predicted results and division into specific phases.

The following section will consider how a well-chosen team effectively achieves high results. We will discuss the roles required for the discovery process and how a well-chosen team can affect the final results and customer feedback.

Gathering an ideal team to perform discovery

The discovery process for Artkai is always a team effort involving a combination of technical vision, competent project management, and analytics. As a result, this provides our clients with a foundation for development, investment, increased profits, and successful decisions.

In this part, we will discuss the team's composition for implementing the discovery process, their role, and the results they can provide to projects.

1. Business Analyst

The Business Analyst is involved throughout the discovery phase, particularly during the kick-off, research, and scoping stages. Their key responsibilities include formalizing the client's goals, conducting interviews to analyze the current idea or existing product, structuring the requirements, and laying the foundation for the backlog and the minimum viable product.

BA creates documentation on the product vision, research phase results, customer journey map, backlog, and business requirements.

Business outcome

First of all, thanks to BA, approval cycles for certain decisions are reduced, risks with incorrect interpretation of requirements are minimized, and the product solves real problems and pain points of the customer without creating unnecessary imbalance.

2.UX/UI Designer

Designers are mainly active at the initial stages when it is necessary to do user research, monitor UX market trends, and analyze the product from a user perspective. However, the leading role in the scoping step is to turn valuable insights into logical and understandable wireframes, create clickable prototypes, and agree on the logic of the user flow. Also, the work of designers is to visualize user scenarios and information architecture for different focus groups.

Strategic impact

The design team also participates in implementing the сustomer journey map, creating lo-fi wireframes, design references, a board with maps of key customers, and a Backlog with precise estimations of times and materials.

This is necessary to test and adjust design solutions before development, to establish a basis for detailed UI/UX design in the future, and to discuss with investors.

3. Project manager

A PM is a person who is an integral part of the entire discovery process. Focuses on ensuring communication between the team and the customer. PM is engaged in the formation of the activity schedule, the timing of task execution, and the coordination of the team, as well as preparing the project plan, team composition, and allocation.

Organizational advantage

The PM is responsible for ensuring that the entire process goes according to plan, both parties have clarity and structure of the action plan, and each team member works in a coordinated manner. The PM also creates the Discovery agenda, its results, and the roadmap, which is the basis for product development.

We know that not all projects require the full team composition and, for example, the involvement of a Solution Architect, Developers, QA specialists, or sales. This primarily depends on the scale of the product and the main goal of the discovery phase, the project budget, and the complexity of the business domain. But let's figure out in which cases the addition of the team can be a profitable strategic decision.

4. Solution Architect

When a technical solution model is required, it can be involved from the scoping and research stages for technical analysis. The main tasks are to assess complexities, technical risks, and dependencies and build integration logic and API communications.

Value to the organization

First of all, prioritize, avoid costly architectural mistakes, assess potential technical challenges, and implement this in the form of technical recommendations, an integration map, a solution architecture diagram, a backlog, and basic guidelines and configurations.

5. Account Manager

Account Manager can be responsible for general support and communication with the client until the final stage of closure and the start of production. Their main tasks are to agree on commercial terms, form and present the final estimate, and provide maximum transparency regarding the terms of signing contracts. Account Manager is responsible for organizing the process and ensuring that the product brings the planned business value. He monitors whether the solutions meet the customer's value drivers.

Benefits

First, an account manager can help the customer company make a decision based on a solid foundation for product development and recommendations for further scaling the project.

As we have discussed, discovery requires expanding the team, but this depends on the technical complexity, possible risks, and scale of the project.

This will guarantee our clients, first of all, the reliability of estimates and the technical realism of solutions, build trust between the parties, and show the depth of the decisions made with the help of valuable analytical insights.

Finding a team is only half the battle. In the next part, we will share our proven best practices for implementing discovery that will help increase the effectiveness of your project.

Best practices for conducting effective product discovery

At Artkai, we have worked with over 100 companies, corporations, and startups to help them turn their ideas into market-ready products. In every case, we say that a well-conducted discovery phase is the foundation of a successful product launch.

What helps us to conduct an effective product discovery is our proven framework. This framework is a comprehensive, methodical guide designed by our team to reduce uncertainty and align teams through structured research and analysis. It covers all key discovery activities - from desk research and user insights to experience mapping, risk assessment, and roadmap prioritization. By using our framework we ensure that every product decision is based on validated data, clear goals, and strategic vision.

To make everything clear, we prepared an infographic that provides a brief overview of our discovery framework. It sheds light on our step-by-step approach and highlights the essential phases that lead to building user-centric products for businesses.

There are several successful practices that our team follows to run a strategic, insight-driven discovery phase that turns ideas into profitable solutions.

Our main practical principle is iterative development and close and constant synchronization with the client throughout the journey. We do not work on the principle of "month and done." The priority is to flexibly respond to the client's changing expectations and new ideas, synchronize at every stage, share deliverables, interact, discuss, and make decisions.

We can confidently say that this long-term practice produces positive results, builds trust and a partnership working model, and reduces the number of misunderstandings. Of course, it is not necessary without the practical side. After all, this is the key to researching the problem, formulating a vision, and agreeing on requirements.

Major risks businesses face if they skip product discovery

For many small companies, skipping product discovery often seems like a "way to save time and money," but it only shows shortsightedness. After all, it's not a formality or bureaucracy but the foundation of your idea, investments, and strategic decisions, and skipping this phase means losing the product in subsequent phases. Let's look at what skipping the product discovery phase can lead to:

Irrelevant product - there is a very low chance of success without researching an idea or similar products on the market. Signs of an irrelevant product can be a low adoption rate when fewer people use the product than expected and low retention when there are registrations, but users do not return. Also, a high bounce rate when discussing a web product is affected by a lack of feedback. The user's failure to complete basic tasks can also be a signal that the solution is too complex.
Additional development costs - without a clearly formed product vision, feature structure, and roadmap, teams fall into the trap of constant changes and refinements that were not taken into account at the start. This is accompanied by the fact that the functionality is constantly changing. Due to the lack of agreed-upon requirements, the team is rewriting already implemented parts of the product, and the number of iterations grows without results.
Missed deadlines - without an agreed scope of work, a formed structure, and requirements, you can lose time and control over the project from the first weeks. This is accompanied by the fact that planning becomes chaotic with each new request, the current plan shifts, the release is postponed, and critically essential functions are constantly delayed. As a result, this leads to the fact that the business does not enter the market on time, and the product loses its trendiness and loses competitiveness.
Poor product quality- without a customer journey map, prototyping, and initial testing, the product will not work in real conditions because it will not have a fundamental basis for what works and what does not. This is manifested in the fact that UX and design do not correspond to user scenarios, the technical implementation is unstable or too complex, and bugs, frustration, and negative feedback become more frequent. As a result, a significant part of the time is spent on post-launch fixes rather than on development, support, and refinement costs that exceed the development budget itself, and the team loses the trust of management and investors.
Endless development cycle with specialist overtime without clear MVP boundaries, an agreed backlog, and agreed expectations, the team falls into a vicious circle of constant edits, additions, and fixes. This is manifested in the fact that changes are constantly in progress and not discussed at the start, the team is overloaded, and deadlines are constantly changing, which leads to demotivation. As a result, predictability and control of the project can be forgotten, which often goes hand in hand with reputational losses.

Skipping discovery means investing money without understanding what you are building, for whom, and why. This creates risks that later cost much more: rework, disruptions, team losses, and unsuccessful launch.

Conclusions about the role of strategic product discovery

Strategic discovery is not just a phase - it's the blueprint for a successful product. It minimizes risks, accelerates development, and ensures every decision is based on real user needs and business goals.

At Artkai, we don’t just “conduct discovery”. We lead it with our proven framework that’s helped 100+ businesses validate ideas, align teams, and accelerate development. What makes our approach unique is the depth of research and hands-on collaboration present on every step. We're not just gathering data, we’re also creating product strategy and direction from day one.

And the results always speak for themselves. For example, in one case, our product discovery process helped the client cut 10% of the projected MVP budget by identifying and eliminating 3 unnecessary and costly features. In another, we helped reduce MVP development time and market entry from 3 months to just 2. All this thanks to early risk validation and clear backlog prioritization.

If you are planning to build a new product this year, we highly recommend you to contact us and start with a strategic discovery.