If you work with a digital product, you've probably heard statements like:

"A great user experience will shape your product's success" or "See how product discovery can make or break your product!!"

But, dang, is it true? Do those things have this kind of power?

First and foremost, we must recognize that each product's needs are unique. So, if we look at a specific discovery process, some companies may need it and benefit more than others.

That's why it's critical to tailor your discovery and UX processes properly. That way, you get more for less. (Calculating ROI for Design Projects in 4 Steps)

UX and Discovery Processes 101

There are countless UX frameworks and ways people work with them around the globe, and trying to explain them all would be irrational, so, for the sake of this article's size and this blog's layout, I'm going to focus on the ones we use most here at Vinta. You are welcome to reach out if you want to learn more about something that wasn't mentioned here. 😊

Why pay UX experts when I can test my product for free?

Have you ever done a drawing that looked a-m-a-z-i-n-g, but then after a few weeks you look at it again and think: "Gosh, it's hideous"?

Well, that's basically the danger of measuring a product's usability among a few internal stakeholders: bad things might go unnoticed due to bias and group thinking. (Don’t let these cognitive biases ruin your product decisions) (Groupthink in UX Work) 

And you might think it's something that happens among beginners, but it's actually common among big companies. I've had experiences with big deal clients where they would hire me as a designer and then ask: "Why am I spending money on research? You should just deliver the interface." Because they already had an idea that they chewed on previously, without any discovery process: that usually resulted in a feature that was rejected by users and then sunset. Big money loss.

That's why you might want to hire Product and UX people. Engaging in an initial product discovery round doesn't need to be a lengthy process, and it can significantly mitigate risks and enhance the chances of success.

If you're looking to invest more in the long term, hiring dedicated UX professionals offers advantages beyond internal evaluations. They can ensure product features are easily validated through quick prototyping, which also supports sales and customer success. They can also bring a significant impact on the development flow, guiding engineering teams to deliver strategic value by ensuring we're building the right product. Want to learn more? Check out "Why Should Every Software Development Team Have a Product Designer?".

But is it just to support product decisions?

Not really! While product discoveries are excellent for mitigating risks and clarifying your product idea and market fit, they can also help optimize budget effectiveness if we consider their deliverables: Prototypes can save you hours of programming time that would otherwise be wasted if you jump into development before validating features.

Per Forrester, organizations who invest in UX have lower customer acquisition, support, retention, and market share expenses: When compared to their peers, the top 10 companies leading in customer experience outperformed the S&P index with close to triple the returns. The research shows that, on average, every dollar invested in UX brings 100 dollars in return. That’s an ROI of a whopping 9,900 percent.

User experience and product discovery contribute to many other success stories. Jeff Bezos invested 100 times more into customer experience than advertising during the first year of Amazon. Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia credits UX with taking the company to $10 billion. Tom Proulx, co-founder of Intuit, was one of the pioneers of usability testing, emphasizing ease of use in his products. (Good UX Is Good Business: How To Reap Its Benefits).

Well, I am an early-stage founder and already have an MVP, do I need a product discovery process?

If you're looking for fewer risks, greater investments, and product growth, using a product discovery process for an existing product might be quite helpful: executing a discovery process can be extremely valuable in helping your product stay on track, avoid losing momentum, releasing things at the wrong time, or getting out-competed. (The Top 12 Reasons Startups Fail)

Being consistently focused on the market and the product increases investor confidence in your company. Discovery deliverables (such as metrics, market insights, and prototypes for new features) are an excellent method to prove you've validated value, usability, and feasibility risks, attract new investors, or keep existing ones interested. 

Initial Discovery vs. Continuous Discovery

Product discovery can be done in two ways:

• Initial discovery is the best way to answer particular questions about the product, market, or provide a specific deliverable (such as a high-fidelity feature design for sales and developers);
• Continuous discovery: This one seeks to cohabit with existing processes while enhancing them and their outcomes by keeping stakeholders aligned, keeping product goals in mind, and fitting them with market needs.

Vinta has successfully conducted both of these for our clients. Here's a sneak peek at our case studies:

Initial Discovery at UN

Challenge

The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) approached Vinta to understand how to AI-power their social protection platform, with over 15,000 resources. Their detailed requirements paper included various AI integration proposals for their platform. They aimed to apply AI, especially large language models (LLMs), to improve database material, simplify contributions, and empower users to access current, relevant, and trustworthy content. They required the most efficient way to fulfill these aims.

Vinta's team quickly chose our Product Discovery Service to meet their demands. We achieved their goals by ideating a scalable and user-friendly platform that uses artificial intelligence to dynamically extend and improve information accessibility, minimizing development risks and investment costs and raising success odds.

Product Discovery Experience

Vinta gathered a Product Manager, Principal Product Designer, Lead Developer, and UNRISD project leader as Product Owner. In three weeks, we prototyped a polished, cost-effective solution.

Our Product Discovery, using our patented methods, involved remote workshops, thorough technical assessments, and an MVP ideation. We strategically limited meetings, while maintaining alignment, to honor the client's availability. At the end of the journey, we aligned the product scope, prioritized key features, and eliminated development risks to maximize budget effectiveness.

By the end of our engagement, we had reduced their initial lengthy requirements document from a broad list of functions to a strategic roadmap with concrete milestones and an estimated timeline. Our outputs will bring the socialprotection.org platform to the Generative AI era.

‍Continuous Discovery at Splendid Spoon

Challenge

NYC healthy food delivery startup backed by Danone, Nicoya, and Torch Capital, Splendid Spoon offers weekly plant-based, vegan, and gluten-free subscriptions. A few years ago, they were growing fast, with some glowing appearances on Business Insider and Cool Hunt. They needed new features to make their platform more personal for each user and automated delivery processes to scale country-wide. At that point, they approached Vinta to build a custom solution as their prepackaged marketplace didn't support such unique capabilities.

We worked directly and transparently with Splendid Spoon to build the new platform with a team of experts. The product team could adapt, iterate, and respond to consumer feedback throughout development by maintaining consistent communication channels and an open scope.

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Evolving the product to meet demand

By keeping a continuous discovery as the product and demand expanded, we discovered that the subscription flow was preventing the product from growing even further. 

We had questions: what was making users abandon it? Was it weak usability? The pricing system? To answer these, we conducted usability testing with volunteers who fit their buyer personas and revised the user flow based on the findings and analytics review.

After revising the user flow, a high-fidelity prototype was developed and live-tested with real users via Lookback on mobile devices. The design was finalized after several rounds of testing, and metrics such as churn rate, user time on checkout, and popular menu options were monitored after implementation.

By the end of the three-year partnership, Splendid Spoon's platform was transformed to support both recurring and prepaid plans, aligning with their evolving business requirements. Our continuous product discovery method enabled both quick and impactful adjustments, resulting in clear objectives and development timelines. 

Close collaboration and open communication helped identify and address specific pain points, enhancing productivity and the user experience. The project's success underscores the value of continuous product discovery and iteration in developing a robust, user-centric platform.

‍Key Takeaways

All companies have different needs; thus, UX and discovery procedures must be customized for the best ROI. This approach identifies product usability biases, improving design and the user experience. Designer perspectives improve functionality, user-friendliness, and market alignment, speeding prototyping, sales, customer success, and strategic engineering value. 

Product discovery can reduce development time, improve the user experience, and boost income. Continuous discovery avoids momentum loss, mistimed releases, and out-competition by creating market-relevant products. It delivers analytics, market insights, and feature prototypes to keep investors interested.

Continuous discovery interacts with existing processes to improve outcomes by aligning stakeholders and product goals, whereas initial discovery answers particular queries or produces high-fidelity feature designs. 

Vinta case studies demonstrate these: A product discovery helped UN create an AI-driven platform for socialprotection.org, enhancing functionality and value while reducing development risks and costs. Splendid Spoon's continuous discovery strategy adapted its platform to its evolving business needs, ensuring scalability and competitive advantage.