Agent.MD: Discovery Phase
Phase Overview
Phase: Discovery (Phase 1 of 5)
Purpose: Research and understand the problem space, users, and context before defining solutions.
Duration: Typically 1-3 sprints
Mindset: "Learn and explore" - Focus on understanding, not solving
HCDAgile Discovery Principles
In the Discovery phase, we prioritize:
- Deep Empathy: Understand users' needs, motivations, and pain points
- Open-Minded Exploration: Avoid jumping to solutions
- Diverse Perspectives: Gather insights from multiple stakeholders
- Context Understanding: Learn about the environment where solutions will be used
- Evidence-Based Insights: Ground understanding in real data and observations
Primary Goals
- [ ] Identify and understand target users
- [ ] Map the current state and user journey
- [ ] Discover pain points and unmet needs
- [ ] Understand context and constraints
- [ ] Build empathy with users
- [ ] Gather qualitative and quantitative data
- [ ] Identify stakeholders and their interests
Key Activities
User Research
- Conduct user interviews (5-15 users minimum)
- Perform observational studies
- Review existing user data and analytics
- Create or update user personas
- Map user journeys and touchpoints
Stakeholder Engagement
- Interview key stakeholders
- Understand business objectives
- Identify constraints and requirements
- Map stakeholder landscape
Context Research
- Analyze competitive landscape
- Review industry best practices
- Understand technical constraints
- Assess organizational capabilities
Data Analysis
- Review existing metrics and data
- Identify gaps in understanding
- Synthesize research findings
- Document insights and patterns
Deliverables
- Research Plan: Outline of research activities and timeline
- User Personas: 2-4 representative user archetypes
- Journey Maps: Current state user journeys
- Research Synthesis: Key findings and insights document
- Opportunity Areas: Identified areas for potential solutions
- Stakeholder Map: Visual representation of stakeholder landscape
AI Agent Instructions
Your Role in Discovery
As an AI agent in the Discovery phase, your role is to:
- Help analyze and synthesize research data
- Identify patterns and themes in user feedback
- Draft user personas and journey maps
- Organize and structure research findings
- Suggest questions for user research
- Assist with competitive analysis
Research Questions to Explore
- Who are the users and what are their goals?
- What problems are they trying to solve?
- What is their current process/workflow?
- What pain points do they experience?
- What workarounds have they created?
- What would success look like for them?
- What constraints do they operate within?
Working Approach
- Be Curious: Ask follow-up questions to deepen understanding
- Suspend Judgment: Avoid evaluating or proposing solutions yet
- Seek Patterns: Look for themes across multiple users/sources
- Stay Grounded: Base insights on evidence, not assumptions
- Embrace Ambiguity: It's okay not to have all answers yet
Prohibited Actions
- ❌ Do not propose solutions or designs in this phase
- ❌ Do not make assumptions about user needs without data
- ❌ Do not skip research to "save time"
- ❌ Do not focus only on technical feasibility
- ❌ Do not ignore outlier users or edge cases
Success Criteria
The Discovery phase is complete when:
- ✅ You have talked to at least 5-15 representative users
- ✅ Clear patterns and themes have emerged from research
- ✅ User personas are validated with real user data
- ✅ Key pain points are well understood
- ✅ Opportunity areas are clearly articulated
- ✅ Stakeholders are aligned on findings
- ✅ The team has deep empathy for users
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- Solution Jumping: Proposing solutions before understanding the problem
- Confirmation Bias: Only seeking data that confirms assumptions
- Narrow Focus: Talking to only one user type or stakeholder
- Surface-Level Insights: Not digging deep enough into "why"
- Analysis Paralysis: Over-researching without synthesis
- Ignoring Context: Not understanding environmental factors
Transition to Define Phase
You're ready to move to the Define phase when:
- Research insights are synthesized and validated
- Team has shared understanding of user needs
- Opportunity areas are clearly identified
- Stakeholders are aligned on findings
- You have enough data to define the problem statement
Tools & Templates
Research Templates
- User interview guide
- Observation notes template
- Persona template
- Journey map template
- Research synthesis framework
Analysis Tools
- Affinity mapping for theme identification
- Empathy mapping for user understanding
- Stakeholder mapping for relationship visualization
- Competitive analysis matrix
Example Research Questions
About Users:
- What does a typical day look like for you?
- Walk me through how you currently
[perform task] - What's frustrating about the current approach?
- What have you tried to improve the situation?
About Context:
- What tools/systems do you currently use?
- Who else is involved in this process?
- What constraints do you work within?
- What would ideal look like?
About Impact:
- How much time does this take currently?
- What's at stake if this doesn't work well?
- Who benefits from solving this problem?
- What would change if this were better?
Resources & References
Research Methods:
- IDEO Design Kit: Human-Centered Design methods
- Nielsen Norman Group: UX research best practices
- Gov.UK Service Manual: User research guidance
Templates:
Remember: The goal of Discovery is not to have all the answers, rather to ask the right questions and deeply understand the problem space before moving to solutions.