Project Discovery Phase Services

Bridge your idea with its technical implementation, assess and mitigate risks, and find out how much product development may cost with a project discovery phase.

Project discovery phase

Helping existing businesses and startups with a project discovery phase

The project discovery phase is a way to better understand your own expectations and plans, create thorough documentation for your software business, study competitors’ products, identify and minimize risks, and get more definite time and cost estimates for your project.

Clockwise Software helps both innovative startups and well-established businesses achieve the results they expect from software development with a project discovery phase.

What’s your scenario?

I want to build a startup from scratch

Go from a simple idea to an initial prototype, UI/UX concept, startup development plan, proof of concept, and up-and-running MVP. During the project discovery phase, we organize the development process in a smooth, simple, and optimized way to minimize costs and maximize value.

I want to improve an established business

Do you plan to level up your company with a software solution? During the discovery phase, our team dives deep into your business processes, analyzes methods to upgrade and automate them, provides you with competitor analysis, and comes up with a killer strategy to make your company better.

I want to upgrade an existing product

To maintain your position in the local market or a specific industry, you need to constantly upgrade your software product with unique, user-oriented functionality. A project discovery phase by Clockwise Software will help you study users’ preferences, prioritize must-have features for new releases, and make your business stronger.

Why your business needs to start with a discovery phase

The better you understand your idea, your expectations, and the market situation as well as your target audience and their pains, the more successful a product you can build.

Starting with a project discovery phase, you can get to know your IT consulting partner before delegating critical engineering tasks to them. You can make sure your team is experienced and that you can trust them with long-term contracts and efficient cooperation.

The Clockwise Software team will help you:

Decide how to meet demand

Even the best ideas fail if there’s no market demand. And even the most innovative companies collapse if they’re started at the wrong time. We help you collect information about the situation in your target market, align your vision and plans with users’ hottest demands, and build a product investors will believe in.

Get definitive estimates

Do you have a potential development partner who is estimating a development cost of $500,000 or even more? Is someone telling you that building software is extremely expensive? Get rid of your misconceptions and find out exactly how much you need to invest at each stage of your product’s growth.

Identify risks before they strike

One wrong step may cost you your entire business. Starting with project discovery, you can identify risks hidden in your target market and desired technical implementation, ensure you avoid the most dangerous, and plan life-saving actions in case risks are realized.

Avoid meaningless expenses

We’ll use our experience and expertise to find the most affordable third-party integrations, APIs, cloud subscriptions, templates, and other tools to optimize your project development costs and cut unnecessary expenses. Project discovery with Clockwise Software is the way to ensure your MVP will be launched in the most cost-effective way.

7 main stages of the project discovery phase

Here’s how we organize project discovery at Clockwise Software:

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Describe goals

Tell us about your idea. Together, we’ll discuss details, goals, and any questionable points and build a business model canvas for your project.

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Connect your product to demand

We’ll analyze how you can meet users’ existing demands with your product.

Benefits of the project discovery phase with Clockwise Software

Defined solution for users’ demands

Analysis of your target audience, target market, and competitors

In-depth vision of your idea

UI/UX design and brand vision

Technology stack and software architecture approach

Product prototype

Definitive time and cost estimates

Full awareness of possible technical risks and ways to mitigate them

Starting point for optimized MVP development

Project discovery team

Your project discovery team will consist of as many specialists as you need. You may either work with a single professional or hire two or more discovery specialists.

As the owner of the product idea and the initiator of the development process, you’ll play the role of product owner on the project discovery team. Your team may include the following specialists:

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Clockwise Software team roles

Project manager

The Clockwise Software project manager oversees project progress to ensure your goals are met on time and within budget. Along with leading and coordinating meetings, the PM develops and executes your project strategy based on defined project success metrics.

Project discovery phase deliverables

The number of documents you get at the end of the product discovery phase depends on your particular case, business specifics, expectations, and needs. We will never waste time on deliverables you don’t need, and you’ll never need to invest in documentation that makes no sense for your project. We focus only on the essentials:

Business/Product Approach

Lean Canvas
Value Proposition Canvas
SWOT Analysis

BA Approach

Requirements elicitation sessions / Stakeholders interviews
Business Requirements Document
Use Case Scenarios
WBS
BPMN Diagram
Non-functional Requirements
Roles & Permissions Matrix
User Story Map
Business Data Diagram

UX/UI Design Approach

Wireframes (Low/High fidelity)
Moodboard + UI Concept
Clickable Prototype
Usability Testing sessions
UI Kit

Technical Approach

Technical Stack
Risks Register
High-level Architecture Diagram
Architecture decisions report
Entity Relationship Diagram
3rd-party APIs Analysis

Delivery & test Approach

Delivery Approach & acceptance criteria
Communication Plan
Test Plan

Roadmap/Quote

Team Composition
Estimate
Development Plan
Product Roadmap

Start the discovery phase with Clockwise Software

Choose your scenario and find out how the discovery process will look like and what is the approximate duration of the project discovery phase:

I have initial documentation

If you have something more than an idea, we’ll set up a meeting with a project manager and business analyst, who will carefully study your requirements, vision, and existing documentation. During this meeting, we will clarify project details, explain how a discovery phase may help you, and decide on the next steps. Together, we will improve your existing documentation. We will also work with you to create other deliverables essential for your particular project before development starts. A UI/UX designer will create wireframes for your project, and a software architect will develop an architectural approach. Deep research and thorough preparation help us provide more accurate time and cost estimates. The project discovery phase with Clockwise Software makes the entire development process more predictable and less risky.

I have only an idea

During an initial call, our sales manager will ask you to describe your idea and vision. The sales manager will then describe how exactly your project may benefit from discovery phase services, and you will be able to discuss a list of deliverables with a project manager. After the call, we will create a proposal for development and continue the workflow with iterative project and requirements discussions, deliverables presentations, and development of wireframes and the architectural approach.

Our discovery phase service in action

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Testimonials

Heiko Roth

Co-Founder, COO at Agilea Solutions

Nevada, USA

We’ve found a great team with good expertise and value. Clockwise Software has been able to plan a great project with a limited budget. They’ve adhered to that plan, making us trust their work in every sprint that we start with them. The team has been able to deliver and be cheerful and friendly despite being in the middle of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine — it’s been genuinely inspiring.

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Would you like to find out more about the project discovery phase?

Feel free to contact us!

hello@clockwise.software