AI Discovery
You have ambition. You don't yet have a plan.
A Discovery phase translates ambition into a concrete plan - validated requirements, a clickable concept, an effort estimate, and a roadmap. We get it off the ground before you commit budget to building the wrong thing.
We run discoveries for -
- ideas that sound right but haven't been pressure-tested yet.
- teams that need stakeholders aligned before development starts.
- projects where nobody can yet say what an MVP actually includes.
- organisations that want a roadmap, not just a hunch.
- decisions that are too expensive to get wrong.
An idea everyone agrees on, but nobody has scoped.
Ambition without a validated plan is just an expensive guess.
Every stakeholder has a slightly different picture of what "the project" actually is. Feature lists exist in someone's head, not on paper. Budget gets discussed before scope is defined, which means it's either wrong or it's a guess dressed up as a number. Development starts on assumptions, and the assumptions turn out to be wrong six weeks in - by which point changing direction is expensive. Discovery exists to make the expensive mistakes cheap, before a single line of code gets written.
Who is this for?
This is for founders, product owners, and decision-makers who have a clear ambition but not yet a feasible plan. The moment is usually before an RFP, before a budget commitment, or before a development partner is chosen. You need a validated concept and a realistic roadmap before you can confidently move forward and before anyone signs off on a number.
Clarity & Focus
A validated concept and sharp requirements, so every stakeholder is aligned on what's being built and why.
Realistic Plan
A concrete feature list, an architectural proposal, and a roadmap with a prioritised MVP - based on honest value and effort estimates.
Informed Decision-Making
Everything you need, concept, design, cost, roadmap, team recommendation, to confidently decide on the path forward.
Risk Reduction
We open the hood and understand the project thoroughly before you commit, so the expensive mistakes happen on paper, not in production.
What to expect
How we turn ambition into a decision you can act on.
Scoping
We start with an introduction call to define the scope of the discovery and agree on approach, input, and timeline.
Analysis
We map the current situation - context, business ambitions, objectives, processes, stakeholders, challenges, technology, and data.
Vision & Concept
We define the desired outcome, develop the core concept, build a clickable mockup or design, and shape an architectural proposal.
Plan & Roadmap
We estimate value and effort per feature, define a prioritised MVP, and build a roadmap - with a team proposal if relevant.
Presentation
We present the findings: cost estimate, roadmap, team proposal, and clear advice on concrete next steps.
The team beside you
You work with analysts, designers, and architects who've run this process before. Discovery typically runs over one to two months, with active involvement from your decision-makers, process experts, and, where possible, end users. The result isn't a deck nobody reads. It's a plan you can hand to a development team and start building from.
Where it sits
In our Digital Acceleration Framework
In our Digital Acceleration Framework, Discovery sits at the very start - before strategy becomes a concept, and long before a single line of code is written. It's where ambition gets pressure-tested into a plan you can actually commit to. From here, the work moves into Platform Development or Process Automation, depending on what the Discovery reveals. Design, build, run and defended in Europe.
Not sure if Discovery is the right step yet?
Some projects need a full Discovery. Others just need a scoping conversation to figure out what's actually missing. We'll tell you honestly which one you need.
Free 30-minute consultation
A 30-minute call to scope your AI Discovery and decide if it's the right next step.
What we cover in the call:
Your ambition and where it currently stands.
What's already defined, and what's still a guess.
The stakeholders and information we'd need involved.
Scope, indicative investment, and timing.
What you leave with:
A clear yes or no on whether a Discovery fits.
A first read on what's actually unclear or unscoped.
A rough idea of effort and timeline if you go ahead.
If a full Discovery isn't the right move, we'll tell you that too.
The questions you're already asking.
Discovery is a structured phase where we turn an idea or ambition into a validated, feasible plan - including requirements, a clickable concept, effort estimates, and a roadmap. It's the step between "we want to build something" and "we know what to build and what it costs."
Typically one to two months, depending on complexity and how quickly we get access to the right stakeholders and information.
Often, yes. An RFP describes what you think you want - Discovery tests whether that's actually feasible, what it would cost, and whether the scope holds up under scrutiny. It's cheaper to find gaps now than after a contract is signed.
Active involvement from your decision-makers and process experts, and where possible, input from the people who'll actually use the result. The more context you can give us upfront, the sharper the output.
You receive a complete plan: validated concept, feature list, architectural proposal, roadmap, and cost estimate. You can take that plan to any development partner - including us, but it's not a requirement.
No. A quote assumes the scope is already known. Discovery is how you get to a scope you can actually trust a quote against.