Discover

The start of a project is marked by an initial idea or inspiration, often sourced from the Discover phase

The objective of the Discover stage is to act as a ‘phase of divergent thought’, where the designers and other project team members keep their perspectives wide to allow for a broad range of ideas and influences. In this stage of the design process, the company is asking a question, posing a hypothesis or identifying a problem by analysing market data, trends and other information sources.

During our in-depth study of the design process in eleven global brands, we found that LEGO refer to this stage of the process as Exploring, Microsoft call it Understand, while Starbucks have coined the term Concept Heights.

It is worth noting, however, that in practice an element of discovery takes place throughout the design process, aimed at taking into account new information, user needs, competitive contexts or challenges that arise as the project progresses.

Initial influences and inspiration

Companies begin the design process when they want to develop a new product or service, or refine an existing one. The initial influence or inspiration for this can be triggered in a variety of ways. It may involve picking up on social or environmental trends, the launch of a competitor product or service, or tapping into the ideas of staff or networks.

Within the company, the originator of an idea or suggestion could be a product manager, CEO, designer, user research, or even a customer. Indeed, companies like Whirlpool encourage all of their employees to take part in corporate innovation.  In contrast, Alessi may be approached by a well-known designer who is seeking a collaborative venture, or Virgin Atlantic's design head may receive a speculative email from the Chief Executive.

Wherever the initial idea comes from, the design process in general and the Discover stage in particular provide a framework within which to process the initial ideas or inspiration. The Discover stage helps to identify the problem, opportunity or user need that should be addressed, and introduces the space within which design can provide a solution – the playing field for design. It is important that the design process used in the company allows for ideas to be captured and developed in this way, and fosters this type of creative environment among designers and other staff.

Information sources

We've seen that the initial influence or inspiration for a project could come from key individuals – such as the design leader in the company. It can also come from the need to regularly update or change a product or service. However, the design process most commonly begins with teams finding their initial inspiration in information about user behaviour. Indeed, the most formalised sources of inspiration and information are the outcomes and interpretation of market research and data, observation, primary research or ideas that have been generated in formal or informal settings by members of the team.

This often takes the form of three key sources of information:

• Use of market research
• Generating user research (such as ethnography and observation)
• The involvement of a bespoke design research group

While their focus and settings differ, the design teams in all the companies we visited share a user-driven mentality, which is apparent in the up-front phase of enquiry and gathering of initial research into the behaviours, needs and perceptions of users. This information is digested by multi-disciplinary teams during the design process, including researchers, designers, product manager, engineers, research and development experts and developers.

All this research and knowledge-gathering activity creates an enormous amount of information. Managing that information is another key challenge that many of the companies in the research are addressing in creative ways.

Limitations of research

While most companies used the research methodologies described above, it was generally acknowledged that such methodologies were not without their limitations. Some designers expressed concerns about whether consumer feedback could ‘take you to the next level’ when it comes to product and service development. 

While consumers can react to what exists and relate back to what they know, some designers felt that consumers are less able to contribute to the development of completely new product or service concepts for the future. Indeed, academic studies of design-inspired innovation have noted Alessi’s Juicy Salif lemon squeezer by Philippe Starck as a product where the design has not relied on ‘classic market analysis based on surveys of focus groups’, due to a belief that ‘radical innovation of meaning is not pulled by the market [but] results from a vision about a possible future’. Design teams in companies like Virgin Atlantic Airways and BSkyB conduct user research at a stage where a prototype is well developed, rather than involving users at the concept development stage.

The outcome of the Discover stage of the design process is a project brief for a design project, and signifies the practical start of the design process.