Discover Card

Discover Cards can be used to define the activities in the Discover Phase (see Kick-off Workshop) in detail and assign team members who are responsible for the execution. Learn more about typical discover areas and questions on this page.

Content

1. Overview

2. Layout

3. Example Questions

1. Overview

We usually define questions in the following discover areas:

Today's business model
Practices & processes
Customers & users
Competitive landscape
Market structure & dynamics
Data & resources
Technological capabilities
Rules & regulations

During the Kick-off Workshop we collect these questions for each discover area by the help of Discover Cards and put all Discover Cards on a wall in our workshop room with dedicated areas for each discover category. Next to the question(s), the team chooses the method and describes how they plan to apply it to explore the question(s). Furthermore, the team decides on the format to document the output. The assigned team member can take the card to do his / her "homework" until the defined due date. Don't forget to plan corresponding activities in the Action Plan template.

2. Layout

In case the Kick-off Workshop takes place online and we use the Project Workspace or Miro Boards for virtual collaboration, we collect discover questions by the help of a Discover Board (see below) and detail these questions later on by the help of Discover Cards.

3. Example Questions

Discover Area	Questions
Today's business model	What does our current business model look like? What does our business eco-system look like? What are the biggest flaws in our today's business model? What is our revenue per customer segment? Which segment generates the highest margin? Why? What is our customer lifetime value (CLV) per segment? What are our sales channels and how much revenue does each channel generate? What are our customer acquisition costs (CAC) in each channel? What is our contribution margin per product?
Practices & processes	What are our current core practices and processes to deliver value? What "tools" do people use today? What sucks in our business practices and processes today? What (internal) routines, habits and believes do exist in our scope?
Customers & user	How do we segment our customers today? How many customers do we have per segment? How many users do we have per segment? Who are our primary customers and users today? What are surprising facts around their behaviour? What job(s) are our primary customers and users trying to get done? What does their current customer journey look like and what pains do they have?
Competitive landscape	Who are our main competitors today? What offerings do our main competitors have and how do they "perform" against ours? What strengths and weaknesses do our main competitors have? How many non-customers do we have (TAM = "total available market" / SAM = "serviceable available" market / SOM = "serviceable obtainable" market)?
Market structure & dynamics	What does the market structure look like? How do we segment the market and its players? What is our position in the current market structure? What threads and opportunities do exist?
Data & resources	What data is key in our current business? What might be in the future? Where does the data come from and is it accessible? What usage data do you already track (e.g. actual use, use of different features over time) and what can we learn from it? What resources do we need and are they accessible?
Technological capabilities	How does our technology actually work (functional principle, components)? How mature is our technology (TRL 1-9)? What makes our technology special? What are the key benefits? Is our technology patentable?
Rules & regulation	What external laws and regulations do we have to comply with? What internal rules do we have to comply with? Are there any expected changes in rules & regulations - both external and internal? What "holy cows" do exist in our company that might impede the success of our project?