Discovery Report
A good discovery report can be shared by your stakeholders and used to make strategic decisions elsewhere in the organisation. It’s helpful for you as a design team, as it forces you to collate your findings in a concise way making it easier to start your design work.
Download our example Discovery report: Example Discovery Report
- 01
Analyse your findingsThere is no ‘right’ way to analyse your findings, but it’s helpful to bucket the output of your discovery in the following ways:
Context - Anonymised data outlining what areas of the business you spoke to or observed.
Challenges - Things that your audience find difficult at work with relation to the problem we’re trying to solve.
Barriers - Things that would hinder them from engaging with a potential solution.
Wish list - Things that would make their working life better or remove the problem.
Key quotes - Quotes from your audience that back up the above.
COM-B - You can do a COM-B analysis on your data to make some educated guesses about the causes of common behaviour patterns. - 02Key findings
Highlight your key findings and context at the top of the report.
Use infographics where appropriate and ensure the report looks and feels premium. Make reference to the problem statement where you can as this shows the intention behind the discovery work. - 03Tell your story
Weave a compelling narrative with your data so that what you’re reporting on is relatable to those reading it.
Stakeholders who read your report should be taken on a journey - such as: The problem is... the causes are... we know this because... - 04Make recommendations
Sum up your findings and make recommendations to address this. Back this up with quotes and direct insights where you can. Check out the example below.
"Retail staff in the midlands are frequently unable to hit defined sales targets in line with other UK stores. (On average 15% lower upsell rates.) Many retail staff in the midlands experienced a poor onboarding experience post-COVID. (7 out of 10 interviewed staff reported that they don’t recall attending their induction.)
We believe this has led to a lack of training which is impacting performance. (Performance is on average 7% lower in these affected stores, with turnover 9% higher than the UK average.)
We suggest reviewing the training materials and updating the onboarding experience to increase engagement and performance in the affected stores."
Any recommendations you make at this stage should be high-level and allow you to assess the appetite of your stakeholders before you start the design phase.
SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE…
The best discovery reports are useful and shareable, and are often referred to years later on other projects.
You want to demonstrate the value of your discovery work, and anyone that reads it should immediately get a view of why there is a problem and what you think can be done to address it.
This helps position your learning team as experts, leading the work, and not just order takers.
