How We Run Project Discovery

In 4–8 weeks of project discovery, we save clients from months of wasted development time and hundreds of thousands in rework.

$30K+

client cost savings

<10%

CPI/SPI variance

99.89%

work acceptance rate

Scenarios that call for a discovery phase

Have an idea but need help shaping it:

Founder, early-stage startup

Planning to build an e-commerce app, similar to Amazon. Need help developing an MVP.

COO, logistics company

We want to build a mobile app for employee scheduling. Have some thoughts and references, haven't done specs or design yet.

Have done some prep but need clarity:

PO, proptech company

We have wireframes, need help with finalizing the scope and building the product.

Co-founder, marketplace

Looking for help building a job-matching platform for creatives. We’ve worked with a designer and have a basic UI kit + early flows.

Have a product but need to fix or rebuild it:

CTO, health tech product

Our current app is live but was rushed. Thinking of rebuilding from scratch.

CEO, B2B SaaS

The current version is live, but we're hitting limitations. Looking to re-architect and add new features.

First step:
Scope clarification and ballpark estimates

Duration: ~1 week

Cost: Free

Before we talk about contracts, we hop on a few free calls to help you get oriented.

Our BA, PM, and sometimes a designer or tech lead join in to ask about your goals, vision, and what you already have, whether it’s a rough idea, slides, or something more. (And don’t worry — we sign an NDA so your project details stay confidential!) Next, we turn all of this into a rough breakdown: key blocks, major tasks, and initial tech assumptions. On the next call, we have a draft structure to show and can ask sharper questions to refine the scope.

Tetiana

Business Analyst

“Most of the time, clients don’t show up with a neat list of business requirements. It’s usually some screenshots, spreadsheets, rough mockups, or just a list of features they have in mind — and that’s totally fine. That’s what we’re here to unpack.”

Mykyta

Business Analyst

“I listen and build a picture of how the system works or how you imagine it should. That becomes the skeleton of the product: we break it into blocks, outline the big tasks in each one, add the tech bits — everything we need to start seeing where the dev time will go.”

This way, before we talk about continuing our partnership, you’ve got a rough work breakdown structure (WBS), risk register, and tech approach, as well as ballpark estimates — just enough to get a sense of what the road ahead looks like.

At this point, you look at the early plan, the ballpark estimates, and the direction. And if it clicks, we move into full discovery: the part where we map every detail and give you maximum accuracy.

Next step: Full discovery phase

1. Define feature specs

In this step, we take the rough WBS and zoom in. First, we refine the functionality list, making sure we've got all the features users need.

Then a business analyst goes feature by feature, defining what each one must do, how it should do it, and what data it involves. We write it all down, prepare supporting diagrams, and validate everything with you once the documentation is ready.

Oleksii

Business Analyst

“To ensure we're solving the right problems and hitting your business goals, we first identify who on your side will validate the requirements. Once I've got specs for a feature set, I walk those stakeholders through everything: explain the logic and answer questions to confirm that the specs reflect how you see these features solving your pain points and delivering business value.”

Eugenia

Project Manager

“The more clearly we define product requirements at the start, and the earlier our team can clarify all related details, the more we avoid ambiguity, rework, and unnecessary delays later.”

2. Create wireframes & UI kit

Design starts with low-fidelity wireframes to plan what screens are needed, how they connect, and what should be on each one.

Once they're in place, we switch to UI. We put together moodboards, pick the direction with you, and shape the visual style. When you're happy with the look, we turn the low-fidelity wireframes into clickable UI screens so you can see how your product will feel.

Tetiana

Business Analyst

“Design and business analysis can run in parallel. I map out functionality, while the designer explores how it translates into the UI/ UX through wireframes. A designer can flag issues in flows and product structure early, like when a feature would fit better in another section of the system.”

Yana

Design Lead

“When design is ready, I make sure developers get everything they need: all layouts, components, and variables, a full design system. It's all in Figma, with extra notes where needed. So they don't waste time guessing or pinging me every 5 minutes.”

3. Plan for risk mitigation

What do we consider a risk? Lots of things: integrations, complex logic, vague requirements — the list goes on. We usually start listing risks when we're preparing a rough estimate, even before the discovery phase.

During discovery, we update the risk register: revise what we assumed earlier with more realistic assessments, add new risks, and write out mitigation and contingency plans.

Bogdan

Project Manager

“If there's any integration in the product, we'll definitely add it to the risk register. If it's something well-known like Stripe, the risk is low, around 5%. But if it's a local system with poor documentation, the risk can go up to 50%. It really depends on how much is unknown.”

Andrii

Project Manager

“If a feature you want is quite specific and we haven't built anything like that before, we can build a proof of concept during discovery. It helps us check if it's technically doable, find edge cases, and see if it can work the way you expect before we commit to building it.”

4. Decide on the tech approach

We pick the technical approach once the product scope is clear. Our software architect reviews system specifications, constraints, and scaling needs and makes decisions on the architecture, hosting service, and development frameworks that make sense now and will work later.

Once the approach is ready, we present it to you: what technologies we have chosen, why, and how they will support your goals.

Dmytro

Tech Lead

“If the app allows it, we go with what's most efficient for us to build with and support, like Nest.js, React or Vue.js, and AWS.

But if you have specific tech preferences — for example, using Google Cloud Platform as a hosting service — we'll align the setup with your needs and internal ecosystem.”

5. Provide a dev plan & budget

With the final scope in hand, our team gets together — a PM, developers, a QA engineer — to make estimates. We review requirements, look at the designs, and take into account our experience with similar functionality to arrive at a realistic estimate of the development time. Then we turn those hours into a budget.

Along with that, we break down the scope into 2- or 4-week sprints, creating a plan of what will be built when.

Bogdan

Project Manager

“A project is a living thing; change is often a part of it. We need to keep plans flexible. That's why we discuss the scope and risks with you up front. If there's a high chance of shifting priorities or scope changes, we flag it as a risk and may add buffer time when it makes sense.”

Oleksii

Business Analyst

Eugenia

Project Manager

“The more clearly we define product requirements at the start, and the earlier our team can clarify all related details, the more we avoid ambiguity, rework, and unnecessary delays later.”

Deliverables you'll get

Discovery wraps with a full toolkit for your product in the form of structured, dev-ready documentation:

Work breakdown structure (WBS)

User stories & acceptance criteria

Data dictionaries / data flow diagram

Wireframes & UI kit

Tech approach

Architecture diagram

Risk register

Development plan & timeline

Project estimate

Team composition

Communication plan

Work breakdown structure (WBS)

Tetiana

Business Analyst

“Basically, I break the product into modules and features, mapping out the work ahead. It gives you and the dev team a clear picture of what needs to be built — and helps us estimate time and effort.”

WHITE PAPER

Check 20+ deliverables

There are way more deliverables than these, but we’d be here all day to cover them. You can check out the full list

30+ deliverables, 3 cost ranges
Instant access to the PDF

The people behind discovery

Bogdan

Head of Delivery

10 y. of experience

Set up delivery with 99.88% acceptance rate

Andrii

Project Manager

8 у. of experience

30+ projects delivered

Evgeniya

Project Manager

5+ y. of experience

Managed and delivered 5 SaaS and ERP projects

Yana

Design Lead

12 y. of experience

100% UI/UX acceptance rate after user tests

Tetiana

Business Analyst

5 y. of experience

Saves $30K on avg./client with discovery

Mykyta

Business Analyst

6+ y. of experience

Shaped FinTech, entertainment, and other products

Bogdan

Head of Delivery

10 y. of experience | Set up delivery with 99.88% acceptance rate

Andrii

Project Manager

8 у. of experience | 30+ projects delivered

Evgeniya

Project Manager

5+ y. of experience | Managed and delivered 5 SaaS and ERP projects

Yana

Design Lead

12 y. of experience | 100% UI/UX acceptance rate after user tests

Tetiana

Business Analyst

5 y. of experience | Saves $30K on avg./client with discovery

Mykyta

Business Analyst

6+ y. of experience | Shaped FinTech, entertainment, and other products

Oleksii

Business Analyst

4+ y. of experience | Lead BA for multiple enterprise platforms

Mike

Solution Architect

15 y. of experience | 50+ projects with 99,99% uptime reliability

Dmytro

Tech Lead

15 y. of experience | 10+ AWS projects led

Pavlo

Tech Lead

15 y. of experience | Managed 40+ developers as Tech Lead

Yelyzaveta

Tech Lead

9 y. of experience | 10+ React projects led, 1.5+ years each

Serhii

Head of Client Relations

11 y. of experience | 98% client satisfaction rate

01 | 04

Rough time & cost estimates

Small package

From $12,000

Timeline: 3–5 weeks

Features

Work breakdown structure
Software requirements
Wireframes + UI concept
Risk register
Cost and timeline estimates

Medium package

From $16,000

Timeline: 5–7 weeks

Features

Everything in Small, plus:
Non-functional requirements
Clickable prototype
Architecture diagram
Development plan

Large package

From $25,000

Timeline: 8–10 weeks

Features

Everything in Medium, plus:
Roles and permissions matrix
UI kit
Analysis of third-party APIs
Product roadmap

Get what you need, skip what you don’t

The distribution of deliverables here is just an example.

We suggest packages and deliverables based on your project size and needs.

If you want to choose a package yourself and go with a smaller one first, we’ll let you know if it’s enough to cover the scope and call out any risks before you commit.

What's next?

We will get on a call with you, and our PM will walk you through the estimate.
Like what you see and want to continue development with us? Great!
There are two paths:

You're ready to build the full product based on our estimate
You want to start with a smaller scope — an MVP

Either way, here's how we'll shift to development:

Path 1:

You're ready to build the full product

Path 2:

You want to go with an MVP

📝 Sign a contract

We'll send you a draft contract. If anything needs to be adjusted, we'll go over it and align. Once it's signed, we're good to go.

📉 Prioritize

We'll review the WBS with you and define what makes the most sense for your MVP: core features, must-haves, launch goals.

👥️ Gather the team

Usually, these are the same people from discovery. If the project needs more devs or QAs, we'll get them up to speed with project specs.

💵 Review the scope

We'll make estimates based on the new scope and show them to you. If anything needs to be adjusted, we'll suggest ways to match your budget.

🔬 Final prep before development

If we did a short discovery phase for a large app, we'll agree on a few weeks to fill in any gaps, or start development while refining the rest in parallel.

👈🏼 Continue same as Path 1

We'll prepare a contract, gather a team, fill in any discovery gaps, hold a kick- off meeting — and we're good to go.

📽️ Kick-off meeting

It's the official start. We'll get on a call — your side, our full team — to go over the roadmap again and align on the next steps.

📝 Sign a contract

We'll send you a draft contract. If anything needs to be adjusted, we'll go over it and align. Once it's signed, we're good to go.

📉 Prioritize

We'll review the WBS with you and define what makes the most sense for your MVP: core features, must-haves, launch goals.

👥️ Gather the team

Usually, these are the same people from discovery. If the project needs more devs or QAs, we'll get them up to speed with project specs.

💵 Review the scope

We'll make estimates based on the new scope and show them to you. If anything needs to be adjusted, we'll suggest ways to match your budget.

🔬 Final prep before development

If we did a short discovery phase for a large app, we'll agree on a few weeks to fill in any gaps, or start development while refining the rest in parallel.

👈🏼 Continue same as Path 1

We'll prepare a contract, gather a team, fill in any discovery gaps, hold a kick- off meeting — and we're good to go.

📽️ Kick-off meeting

It's the official start. We'll get on a call — your side, our full team — to go over the roadmap again and align on the next steps.

Testimonials

Let’s make your idea build-ready

We turn notes and half-baked specs into a clear roadmap with <10% budget variance. Tell us about your idea and we’ll help you create a plan.

hello@clockwise.software

How We Run Project Discovery

Scenarios that call for a discovery phase

First step:Scope clarification and ballpark estimates

Next step: Full discovery phase

1. Define feature specs

2. Create wireframes & UI kit

3. Plan for risk mitigation

4. Decide on the tech approach

5. Provide a dev plan & budget

Deliverables you'll get

The people behind discovery

Rough time & cost estimates

Small package

Medium package

Large package

Get what you need, skip what you don’t

What's next?

Testimonials

Let’s make your idea build-ready

First step:
Scope clarification and ballpark estimates