The last decades have made mental health problems much more visible than before. People talk about mental illness more, consider them more seriously, and the infrastructure for dealing with symptoms has grown significantly.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, in 2020 one out of five adults in the United States live with mental illness. It is about 53 million people only in the USA who regularly feel discomfort due to their psychological state. All of them need some assistance — whether it’s attending a psychiatrist in their neighborhood, taking pills, or trying to improve themselves on their own.

All these people would win from having some kind of app that would help them reduce struggling and increase happiness levels. That’s what mental health apps are about — bringing calm to people’s lives and making them happier. If you want to create a startup and think about what exactly you should do — mental health apps are definitely something to consider as they are not only in demand, but also bring good to this world. 

Mental health apps bring even more awareness to mental health issues in people’s lives, and more people start taking preventative steps to decline mental health problems before it develops into something serious.

Aspects to Consider When Developing a Mental Health App

Despite many downloads, some mental health apps on the modern mobile market have a low number of active users. Only half the battle is won by releasing a successful app receiving user retention. Then you have to win consumers’ loyalty, which is simpler to achieve with a fundamental understanding of critical specialty KPIs that you should consider straight during the development: 

Expertise

When it comes to finding answers for mental health issues, including specialists and providing data with a scientific foundation is always a win-win situation. People are becoming more careful when it comes to their own health. Thus, they are choosing solutions that are supported by data, statistics, and studies.

Business leaders should remember that therapists have already developed strategies for managing specific problems. These approaches are covered by medical testing held by practicing doctors. Thus, consider real-life statistics when deciding how to design a mental health app. Your product should be helpful at the maximum but at least not harmful or scientifically unfounded at the minimum. 

Human Support In-App

Entrepreneurs who are developing mental health apps should ensure that the in-app support is appropriate and provided by licensed therapists. In an emergency, doctor help may be crucial. Therefore, business owners that care about their customers’ safety and well-being ensure professional help and 24/7 medical support are available within their apps.

Relevant Content

Apps for mental wellness must provide accurate and up-to-date information, as even tiny errors could endanger a patient’s well-being. Unfortunately, a lot of apps that support mental health offer stale advice, incorrect therapy recommendations, etc. Business owners must continuously update material to prevent this misunderstanding, ensuring that clients obtain knowledgeable assistance.

Intuitive Design 

The design of a mental health app should adhere to UI/UX guidelines that emphasize simplicity and minimalism. Extensive details and vivid colors shouldn’t be used because they can exacerbate disorders. Additionally, pay particular attention to how sound affects your in-app experience. Avoid using loud, abrupt sounds and choose tranquil, calming music or the sounds of nature instead.

Interactive Tools

Incorporating self-monitoring features typically influences a person’s progress because they learn to self-monitor potentially hazardous situations, recognize triggers, maintain control over mood patterns or sleep patterns, and develop appropriate reactions. Thus, all types of interactive diaries, tools for self-discipline, and fill-in charts will be popular with users. 

Praising Inspiration

Motivation triggers are crucial when considering how to create a mental health app because their users typically suffer from severe psychological conditions that cause sadness, anxiety, and a lack of drive. Users feel better when they receive little prizes (in-app cash, stickers, or badges) since they become more motivated. Gamification components also motivate users to complete tasks they are unsure of. Remember that users may become discouraged if they do not receive the desired reward.

Features You Must Include in a Mental Health App

In-depth mental health app design can lessen the stress on therapists and psychiatrists, enable mental health providers to reach a wider audience, and keep a constant relationship with their patients to better understand their mental condition and present needs. It’s also important to realize that users can be of any age and come from any background. Making a mental health tracking app’s UX as user-friendly as feasible is crucial. The following features are key to developing a successful and modern mental health app:

Registration and Profiles

The addition of sign-up and profile elements is the first stage in developing a mental health app. Given that the signup procedure is a user’s first encounter with your app, it should be simple and straightforward.

In contrast, the profile settings should have all the data required to use the app, such as complete name, contact information, age, gender, disorders, long-term illnesses, allergies, intolerances, etc. Additionally, if experts use this patient profile, you might want to add a file-uploading feature so that users can attach test results and reports.

Self-Monitoring

Apps for mental health can also be used for tracking general well-being and monitoring mental health issues. This tool might be helpful for keeping track of things like eating habits, mood swings, symptoms, physical activity, thoughts, and sentiments. Data can be examined by users themselves or by experts. To make self-monitoring simpler and more practical, you can also include a calendar and a checklist.

Diary

Every mental health app seeks to enhance its users’ quality of life. The diary function makes it easier to write down ideas and allows users to express feelings. The diary must offer features for regular typing, drawing for people who express their feelings better with graphics, and audio notes for people who prefer speaking and those with dyslexia and dysgraphia. Additionally, think about enabling note-sharing with a specialist via the app or another platform.

Audio and Video Content

In situations where a therapy session or immediate assistance isn’t required, including additional video and audio content options is a good idea. It may feature calming elements, mood-lifting affirmations, educational materials, stress-relieving activities, symptom mitigation or aggravation stage prevention, management of sleep loss, etc. Additionally, the video recording feature and uploading audio and video files will be useful for patients or practitioners who would like to rewatch their sessions. 

Reminders and Notifications

Include the notification feature so that users are reminded to monitor their mental health throughout the day, engage in exercise, take medication, rest, get informed when a specialist appointment is coming up, and receive encouragement for completing tasks. However, it’s crucial to avoid going overboard because, according to psychologists, too many notifications and reminders increase stress in daily life.

Our Expertise — Emotional Intelligence Case Study

Devlight has an amazing experience in mental health app development! Let us tell you about EQ — the first app in the world to foster emotional intelligence. It aims to help users develop three long-lasting skills: regulating their emotions, creating their preferred resource emotional states, and influencing other people’s emotions.

The ability to experience and communicate emotions in our interactions with others, the world, and ourselves is fundamental to being human. However, the classical education and parenting system mainly emphasizes the formation of IQ or the mental and cognitive skills developed via acquiring and applying information knowledge. EQ has always been striving to change this, and they saw us as the company that would share their vision. 

About EQ App

EQ develops and produces a range of educational programs, including seminars, lectures, and offline and online workshops. They choose thematic apps as one of the tools for information sharing. Through its products and services, the company aspires to support individuals in becoming more effective and attentive in life’s most crucial domain: interpersonal relationships.

Request

As the client reached out to us for help, they already had an app operating, but it wasn’t what they wanted it to be. Users found it challenging to grasp the app’s value and seemed discouraged from making a purchase because of some problems and an unclear content structure. Our overall goal was to raise the value of the app by making improvements and developing means for the user to easily and clearly access mental health content offered by the EQ app.

Solution

Devlight created a new app version with a fresh idea and altered the content distribution mechanism. The EQ app aids users in achieving their individual objectives, such as overcoming fears, gaining control over their reactions, or healing broken connections with loved ones.

The Designer from our team designed new UI elements and upgraded the app structure. It became clearer and more intuitive so users could explore the app easily and without being distracted. The younger audience may now find the app useful despite the fact that it touches on a number of quite complicated subjects. Studying emotional intelligence is now fun and interactive together with EQ.

Customer feedbacks

“The Devlight team actively participates in our project development and the ideas we want to implement. In some segments of our business, they think two or three steps ahead of us.” – Andrii Zibran, Co-Founder and CMO

The results of EQ mobile application

• 70K+ – Installs of app in the App Store and Google Play
• 4K+ – Monthly active users just after the release
• 200 + – Daily active users just after the release
• 7m+ – Average engagement time
• 300% – Ukrainian market users growth

Benefits of mental health apps 

Let’s outline the importance of apps for mental health. Why do people need them, what can they do better than an ordinary therapist in the vicinity, and what are their benefits?

Wider outreach

Both patients and healthcare professionals win from mental health apps. Therapists can reach more people in less time, and patients don’t need to look for a doctor in their own city, wasting their time traveling to the clinic. 

Less stress, more happiness

Depression, burning out, stress, and anxiety are one of the most common mental disorders today. They became as usual as morning coffee, and almost everyone experiences them once in a while. There is a scope of mental health apps targeting this audience: they help to reduce stress through meditation or other conscious practices. This results in a more calm, happy, and stable society.

Immediate access from anywhere

Physical visits to clinics are no longer needed to get a proper consultation with a therapist or doctor. This benefit brings out two more. Foremost, people can get help immediately and at any time, if needed. Imagine how many people need help at the darkest moments when nobody is around them. That’s when mental health apps emerge in all their efficiency. Secondly, people from remote regions and small settlements win from mental healthcare mobile apps. Living far from big cities doesn’t mean you don’t have to deal with mental health problems, but unfortunately in remote regions usually you can’t find a good clinic or a proper therapist if there is one. Mental health apps bring help to places where it is needed.

Treatment assistance

People undergoing mental health treatment need to keep in mind all the medication, doses, and when to administer them. Sometimes it is hard to handle. Some mental health apps are created to solve this problem: they are making data recording and monitoring easy and convenient. This is good not only for a patient but also for doctors and psychotherapists as later they can get the data analyzed and draw the necessary conclusions from it. 

Immediate feedback 

If the app is connecting healthcare providers with people who need treatment, it can provide immediate feedback according to the service the patient has used. This results in fast improvement of services and creating a better experience for patients with each feedback received.

Types of mental health apps

There are certain types of mental health apps. Before we continue with ideas for mental health apps, let’s quickly go through their types, each of which is intended to solve different types of problems.

Mental Disorder Apps

They are generally made for patients who are already diagnosed and need to stick with treatment, but don’t want or can do it offline. Mainly, they are apps for connecting patients with healthcare providers, like an online clinic. Here one can go through a course of therapy right in the app or attend several consultations with different specialists if needed. But also, mental disorder apps can not include the second parties as healthcare providers — they can also be just self-guided programs for dealing with different types of mental illness.

Anxiety and Stress Management Apps 

In a 2020 survey, 62% of respondents reported experiencing some degree of anxiety. Thus, anxiety becomes one of the most common psychological problems among ordinary people — those we see every day in queues, at cafes, at work, and in shopping malls. It can be described as persistent, undue worries that just don’t go away. And with anxiety there is always stress — people experience it under external triggers such as conflicts at work or in personal life that often lead to anger, fatigue, and even muscle pain. People all over the world struggle to build inner calmness and mental strength, and you can help them by developing a relevant app. A distinguished stress management app will be widely recognized by people all over the world. 

Self-Improvement apps

Monitoring mood swings, empowering positive thinking, fighting addiction, sleep improvement, or just keeping oneself motivated — are some examples of what self-improvement apps could be aimed at. The most recognizable such apps are Calm and Headspace, which offers meditations, calm music, and practices for deep introspection or better sleeping. Apps of this type are usually used widely all over the world and are easy to scale even more.

Mental health app ideas

Online therapy app

These types of apps are specially designed for people with mental disorders, who need to see a therapist regularly. With this app, treatment will be accessible to everyone. People struggling with depression or psychosis can discuss their worries and problems with a qualified specialist from the comfort of their homes. This can significantly reduce patient resistance to taking the first step toward treatment. They don’t have to leave their comfort zone, they can choose from a bunch of different specialists and try different ones until they find the right one. This searching process doesn’t include traveling to a dozen different clinics, that is what makes it convenient and attractive.

Features to include:

• matching client with a therapist

Based on patients’ preferences, special needs, and disorder particulars, the app can make the perfect match with a therapist, whose qualifications will satisfy patients’ requests.

• therapists review

Making it possible for users to leave feedback to therapists they’ve spoken with will also make it much easier for newcomers to find the perfect match among all the specialists.

• video, audio, or text chat

Video chat is essential for therapy, though for some customers it will be easier to start using a less personalized and more anonymous way like texting. Aiming to create the perfect environment, we have to prepare for all situations that could take place dealing with mental disorders. 

Self-managing app for people with mental disorders

The target audience for this type of app is the same as for the previous one, but this doesn’t include direct communication with specialists. These apps come more as a supplement to a therapy that is in process, which makes it easier to deal with mental disorder symptoms. 

Before starting the development of such an application, you need to consult with specialists or invite several to your team. A person without a medical education will not be able to create a real working application that can make life easier for people with serious mental illnesses. Depression, psychosis, and schizophrenia will all have different features, and they all need to be considered.

Features to include:

• notifications

Only regular exercises will help to achieve the result. Notifications will remind the user about tasks that need to be completed.

• self-monitoring

It will help clients track their way and the improvements they make going through it

• medication tracker

People diagnosed with mental illness usually are prescribed meds. To make treatment more convenient, app can remind what pills and when the user has to consume.

The apps listed below will be aimed at mentally healthy people who want to improve their lives, track their moods, cultivate positive thinking and break bad habits.

Sleep app

Having a good quality night’s sleep is essential for having a good quality of life. But nowadays a lot of people are struggling with it. According to the Philips Global Sleep Survey conducted in 2019, 62% of adults around the world say they don’t sleep as well as they would like. And 8 out of 10 adults would like to improve their sleep. Sleep apps suggest different ways to bring more quality to your sleep and help fall asleep faster: through relaxing music, sleep meditation, or relaxing interactive games.

Features to include:

• sleep tracker

So that customers can not only feel results by having better sleep at night, but also see it on the reports.

Mood tracker app

Mood, symptoms, day-to-day activities, thoughts: through these applications, you can make your customers track anything, depending on needs and your target audience. They are useful for noticing mood swings and triggers that cause them. For a better understanding of causes and consequences, you can add to your features a detailed private journal. 

Meditation app

Mindfulness and meditation are a huge trend over the last few years and the demand keeps increasing. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the number of people practicing meditation has tripled since 2012.

Meditations help reduce stress, be more concentrated, get grounded, understand yourself and your feelings better, and reach inner calmness. These applications are still on the rise today. In 2015 the U.S. meditation market was estimated to be valued at $959 million, growing to $1.08 billion in 2016 and $1.21 billion in 2017. Annual revenue growth is expected to be 11.4%, to $2.08 billion by 2022. If you analyze the meditation apps market and find out how you can fill the unmet demand, you can definitely get your share of the market.

Self-improvement app

This type of apps is for everybody. They are really diverse and can be for any aim you can imagine: overcoming fears, breaking bad habits, cultivating positive thinking, creating new habits like reading, running, and doing breath practices. As there is a wide range of different types of these apps, first you need to answer the question about your target audience and what problem of the self-improvement field will this app solve.

Top Mental Health Apps in the Market

The best mental health applications are reasonably priced, easy to use, well made, and have few technical issues. Many of these applications offer distinctive features that make improving your general wellness fun and convenient. By removing some of the usual obstacles, high-quality therapy apps assist you in receiving better mental health care, while mindfulness applications can improve your focus and productivity. With so many options accessible today, we considered these five winners the best based on their use of evidence-based therapies, availability of frequent content updates, the range of therapies provided, prices, and individual user ratings. 

1. BetterHelp

BetterHelp is one of the most adaptable, user-friendly therapy subscription apps accessible, with reasonable prices, a broad choice of available therapists, and many communication options. BetterHelp is a wonderful option for people seeking psychological help while on a tight schedule because it provides flexible communication choices and a wide range of therapists. A monthly subscription to BetterHelp includes one talk therapy session per week with your therapist through live video, audio, or chat, 24/7, unlimited in-app texting in a “room.”

2. Talkspace

Another highly adaptable psychological treatment application we would like to emphasize is Talkspace, which has a huge selection of therapists and therapy approaches. From the less expensive messaging-only option to a plan that includes one weekly live video session combined with unlimited messaging and weekly expert-led mental health courses, you may select from a variety of membership options at a broad range of rates.

After completing a brief initial screening, you will be paired with a qualified Talkspace therapist and given a time slot. All of the company’s clinicians have undergone a background investigation. You won’t have to worry about long wait times because Talkspace therapists offer limitless texting in your personal therapy “room” five days a week.

3. Headspace

Although meditation is the main focus of Headspace’s services, the app also has tools for assisting you in overcoming daily obstacles. Targeted “SOS” sessions from Headspace specialists help people with anxiety relax in stressful situations. You can select a session to suit your particular needs, regardless of whether you’re struggling with loss, rage, or stress. If you seek more activity while working from home, fitness professionals may help you stay more present in your body by accompanying you in breathing, cardio, and movement routines. Many users love the “sleepcasts” function of Headspace, which combines ambient noises with calming stories you can listen to before falling asleep.

The premium Headspace app is available for both iOS and Android users and operates on a subscription-based model. With a monthly membership, you’ll receive a seven-day free trial; with an annual subscription, you get a fourteen-day free trial. Verified college students and families (whether or not they reside in the same household) are eligible for discounted subscriptions.

4. Sanvello

Sanvello, which is accessible on iOS and Android, offers users evidence-based support in four important areas: self-care, peer support, coaching, and therapy. It is based on mindfulness and a CBT approach. No matter where you are on the mental wellness continuum or how much care you need right now, this model will offer you assistance when you most need it.

The self-care features offered by Sanvello are intended to assist you as you navigate the typical stressors that will come your way. You can track your patterns over time — including your thoughts, routines, physical activity, sleep, and emotions — by using mood tracking to identify areas where you could make positive adjustments. 

5. Calm

Get grounded during the day with yoga, stretching, and dancing courses from Calm, and develop deeper mindfulness with a collection of thematic meditations. You can monitor your development using Daily Streaks and Mindful Minutes along the road and participate in one- to three-week mindfulness workshops.

With the Calm app’s free version, you can use a few restricted functions, like timed meditations, sleep preparation routines, one bedtime tale, and one breathing exercise. Before deciding to subscribe, you can use the free seven-day trial to try out Calm Premium. There are family and student plans available.

Primary Business Models for Mental Health App Development

If we consider the top-performing mental health applications, we’ll see that the majority of them continue to work based on membership fees. That can be explained by our subscription economy, where ownership costs increase over time. Apple acknowledges that the subscription revenue model brings in more money for apps. Nevertheless, all kinds of standard app monetization methods are now applied to mental health app development:

• Premium app versions

Paid apps use a concept similar to freemium apps, but users cannot access the app before making a real purchase in the relevant app market. If a customer purchases a certain application, some businesses might also provide bonuses or complimentary little co-products.

• In-app purchase of specific services

This means that a user must make an in-app purchase to access more features or content. Internal links that promote relevant things like books, podcasts, or workshops allow you to market and sell goods.

• Paid add-free app versions and in-app advertising in general

Keep in mind that mental health app development commercials shouldn’t ever ruin the user experience (if you prefer them to all other forms of monetization). The advertising business strategy appears to be entirely legitimate except for that. Consider integrating convenient banner ads or mixing & matching in-app promotions.

• The freemium model

Freemium continues to be one of the most well-liked business and consumer revenue models since it enables simultaneous engagement of multiple user segments. The typical freemium software offers a small number of features, but if a user wants access to extra features or material, they must make an in-app purchase. The freemium business model may also offer a fully functional free version for a brief trial time, following which customers must pay to use the app on an ongoing basis.

Standards and Regulations for Mental Health App Development

Companies engaged in mental health app development should prioritize personal data security because the process involves what is referred to as “sensitive information.” Many clients who struggle with mental instability choose digital treatment over traditional therapy because the software assumes fewer participants (or even complete exclusion of everyone but the user) and provides a higher level of anonymity. Developers of mental health apps must adhere to specific legal and regulatory requirements like HIPAA, GDPR, and other regulations to minimize the danger of personal data exposure in order to ensure that consumer expectations are met.

Additionally, only licensed and certified therapists are permitted to provide healthcare services. Employing qualified professionals to assist the audience improves app efficiency and prevents any civil or even criminal consequences. Because mental health services are frequently subject to various levels of government liability, therapists should also have a basic understanding of the legal system of the country in which they work.

I Have an Idea for a Mental Health App. What Should I Do Next?

Short answer: implement! Long answer: divide the implementation process into the next stages and follow them to success:

• Choose and Analyze the Target Audience

To make your mental health app a sustainable business, you will have to maintain a user’s interest and encourage them to use the app frequently. How to reach this? Develop the app keeping in mind the peculiarities of your target audience, know how to approach them, and what exactly they need. Thus, start by doing a professional target audience study. 

Vital factors to take into account include cultural quirks, user backgrounds (scientifically grounded products or gamification model apps), demographics (such as mental health apps for kids, teens, and students, among many others), and financial concerns (paid or free mental health apps).

• Make Market Research and Analyze Your Competitors

Researching the market is the next step. Examine the current market’s offers and their level of popularity. Read app reviews on App Store and Google Play. List the apps you enjoy and ones that don’t correspond to your vision. Make a note of their benefits and drawbacks. By separating applications by subject, you can determine which apps are more in demand.

• Develop

High-quality mental health app developers must work diligently to complete the process of developing mental health apps. Depending on the project’s size and functional complexity, we assign two or more developers to create the application’s server side, APIs, and business logic and convert the UI design into a usable user interface.

In order to meet rigorous deadlines and adapt the health app development process to changing client demands and requirements, Devlight uses the Agile methodology. All features are gradually developed and tested. Thanks to this strategy, we can launch the product more quickly and spend less on development. 

• Create an MVP

The next stage in developing an app is to create a prototype, or MVP, for each of the features you’ve specified above. This will allow you to see how the design will look and make changes before moving forward with actual development, ensuring that the product will function as intended. Making sure everything is in order before starting the app development can save you money.

• Test

Our team advises performing functional requirements analysis, defect detection, application security verification, and compliance testing during the testing phase. Then we gradually release the product to the focus group (for example, a group of patients with mental health conditions) and all project stakeholders for testing and collecting feedback after the testing phase is complete.

Sincere feedback is obtained during distribution, and the mental health software is continually improved as necessary. The application of mental health necessitates constant care and assistance. Therefore, we urge you to keep working with the company that develops mental health apps.

• Release

Now that your mental health application is ready for release upload it to an appropriate platform or both if you choose cross-platform development.

• Boost the App by Applying Marketing Techniques 

Two distinct marketing phases occur whenever a new app is released on the market: one occurs before the official launch, and the other occurs after. You must market your app and raise awareness of what it is and how it will benefit people while the app is new to your business.

• Update According to Feedback From Users

With the in-app analytics tools you incorporated during development, it’s now time to handle user complaints and requests, address bugs, and keep the application updated. To keep the expenses of maintenance low, don’t forget to implement a solid DevOps approach. Including Google Analytics or another similar service during the development stage will give you user interaction statistics once the app is released. By assisting you in finding new growth areas, this data will help you drive additional improvements to your mental health app.

Conclusion

The topic of mental health has been gaining momentum in recent years and has no plans to stop. For ambitious entrepreneurs who want to invest in an application that will be both useful for people and profitable for the owner, mental health app is one of the best choices today. You just need to select the most promising idea and go ahead.

The post Mental Health App Development: Ideas, Case Studies, How to Create… appeared first on Devlight.

Most software development companies will insist on a product discovery phase before launching a development. This solution is natural since the discovery phase increases the chances of a project being successful. Building an app or website without an opening discovery process is just as risky as building a house without an architectural plan. This step shows how the project will function, look, involve the target audience, and help your business achieve its goals.

In this article, we will take a detailed look at what the product discovery process is, what gives it a competitive edge, and how to get started in software development. So buckle up, we’re about to get started.

What Is a Project Discovery Phase

The discovery phase in software development is a stage of collecting information that gives an understanding of the industry for which the product is being developed, the business of your client, and the target audience. It is important to gain a deep understanding of the expectations of the client, the user feedback of decision-makers, and the pain points of end users regarding the product.

A preliminary analysis of the needs of the client, the market, competitors, target audience, the upcoming scope of work, and resources is carried out in any area where the contractor wants to fulfill their obligations to the client in a quality manner.

Product discovery means:

• discussion of the project’s existing business processes or the concept of a future project, expectations, and wishes regarding the deadlines;
• definition of the target audience;
• competitive market analysis (direct and indirect competitors);
• formulating solutions to business problems;
• determination of the scope of work;
• setting deadlines and priorities based on the project complexity and market trends;
• schematic distribution of roles and appointment of specialists who should be involved in the process (cross-functional teams are often created).

In the discovery phase, depending on the resources of the executor, the following team members can be involved:

• the project/product manager (communicates with the client at all stages of the product development process, structures the actual team effort, and is responsible for reporting on the implementation of tasks);
• business analyst or consultant/expert in a certain area (studies the market, target audience, client’s business processes, offers solution ideas for business goals and problems);
• UI/UX specialist (creates an interactive prototype and a design of a future project);
• solution architect or engineer evaluating the technical component of creating a product (defines and offers tools, platforms, and other solutions determining the feasibility risk of the product).

The Purposes of Discovery Phase of a Project

The main purpose the product discovery phase can bring to your company is that it helps you to:

• Make a development roadmap

In the final result, we will deal with a cleardeal a clear technical task with a description of the key functionality of the future product, which makes planning the development phase itself easier and clearer.

You will receive a complete project schedule with milestones, deliverables, and deadlines. The Software Requirements Specification (SRS) and mockups developed during the product discovery process can be used to find additional investors.

• Improve communication

Even a good presentation cannot guarantee that you have chosen the right company. Regular communication at this stage allows you to evaluate the real team effort, your experience, and approach to the project, and establish two-way trust. You can use the results of the discovery process with other IT vendors before starting development.

• Save resources such as time and money

The main value is the expertise and experience shared by the development company since they allow it to make the job faster. For instance, Devlight has been working in this field for years and knows how to help you perform a discovery. We are capable of conducting a product discovery process resulting in valuable insights that you will not find with a simple search on the Internet. These are live examples and real-life experiences. We share them so that you don’t have to dedicate years to learning everything from scratch.

• Idea validation

You will have an opportunity to check your actions with the guide and apply different product discovery techniques to implement changes at an early stage in case anything needs improvement. Thus, through discovery, you can validate your product ideas.

• Complex analysis and data gathering

The discovery phase helps both the development team and the client find an answer to the principal question: which problems of future users can our solution address? Modern product discovery is about gathering and analyzing requirements, systematizing all the input information, and lots of planning that eventually clarifies the big picture of the whole project and eliminates any early-stage uncertainty.

Finally, the discovery phase is fundamental for the future success of your product development. Devlight will teach you how to conduct the product discovery phase in such a way as to avoid typical mistakes that often occur at the initial stage (we provide smart methodology/guidelines). 

Our team believes in a properly conducted discovery process as a way to save your resources such as time and money with “tips and hacks” content-type: we always provide a separate block with the solution space clarifying the main points of what you will have to do. With no lengthy instructions or unclear directions, we get down to business.

Will Skipping Project Discovery Save You Time and Money?

Even if you have a great idea but don’t have a target audience or don’t meet their needs, you won’t have a successful business. To avoid this, you need to study the market, find out who your competitors are, analyze their products and determine your target user identity before hopping into development. For a small project, this might take approximately one to two weeks, for a larger one it will take about two months of work.

The discovery phase and customer research can seem overwhelming in terms of time and resources. Still, they allow the team to determine project timelines and budgets, specify end product requirements, identify end-user needs, and get feedback from them about the product. The more preliminary preparation is carried out before the start of product development, the more understandable and predictable will be the product strategy.

For the client, product discovery plays the role of preliminary preparation for the implementation of the project. This phase allows the client to:

• more accurately determine the essence of an idea or project based on a real analysis of the market and the pain points of the target audience;
• identify some aspects of the project that were not taken into account initially;
• establish the basis for cross-functional collaboration and clarify the requirements for the future team members;
• understand target customer expectations and concerns based on competitor product research and user stories;
• get an expert assessment of the project and information on how to properly implement it;
• consider alternative solutions and technologies that will help make the project a reality;
• minimize and optimize costs;
• draw up clear terms of reference with the definition of the exact deadlines and budget for the project;
• understand how the performer meets the expectations, and make the final decision on the entire process of further cooperation.

As you can see, all of these benefits are worth investing more money and time into the product discovery process. Prepare and study the market instead of mapping your road out straight in practice. This approach will save you time in the next stages and prevent the product from failures or unnecessary touch-ups.  

When Should You Start the Discovery Project Management?

Having a detailed “estimate” of the product idea, it will be easier for you to take the next steps — for example, find an investor or defend the project in front of the manager, select the necessary specialists, etc. In addition, without an assessment, it is difficult to determine both the development timeline and the required team composition. Thus, product discovery is a valuable preparatory step before launching any new app, service, or additional features. 

New Product Development

The product development process is not something that can go naturally. Stated workflows and scenarios have been already invented. If you want to choose the best development scenario and properly assess the possible risks, you need to carry out the preparation stage before launching any product. 

It starts with the team deciding on the format and duration of sprints (meetings) and selecting tools for structuring and reporting on the work done. For example, tasks can be distributed and stored in a cloud-based Trello project management software. Diagrams, graphs, maps, and diagrams can be created in Microsoft Visio Drawing or draw.io. Prototypes and mockups are easy to create in Sketch, NinjaMock, or Axure.

Upgrading an Existing Product

Things get easier if you already have a stable team involved in product development. The discovery phase in this case will take less time and involve just a slight change in the teamwork routine. However, you should always carry out a discovery before launching new features to your project. Understand that after an upgrade you will practically deal with a new product. New target audiences or market competitors open up after you implement the changes, thus you should be able to predict them.

After all, the discovery process helps to prevent the need to make costly additional edits and changes in the course of work. It establishes a balance between the new business goals of the client and the interests of the end users of the upgraded product.

New Business Opportunities

Even when developing a minimum viable product, you need to plan product development several years in advance. This allows you to take into account all the business goals, requirements, and restrictions, as well as lay a flexible product architecture. In this matter, the discovery phase is not only needed before broadening your product horizons but any project architecture should already take into account the possibility of scaling the product and increasing the load.

Software Discovery Phase Team: Its Roles and Responsibilities

To ensure the accuracy of calculations and anticipate risks, companies tend to assemble a team of experts from several departments. Often this is an analyst, designer, and experienced developer — involving team members who have narrow expertise is great for building high-load solutions. The product discovery process helps you determine which specialists you will need and what will be their responsibilities.

The PM, after meeting with the client and clarifying their expectations, assembles a team that will be involved in the project and decides what the product development discovery phase will consist of, and who will play what role in it.

Tip! The distribution of roles can be fixed in a kind of Mind / Role Map or diagram, which can be created in the free tool Google draw.io. The role map is provided to the client so that they understand who is responsible for what, and who to contact with questions during the project implementation helping product teams decide on the workflow.

When the roles and tasks are distributed among the team members, the stage of studying the product strategy, competitive market, and user experience begin. It is worthwhile to involve not only team members, but also people outside the project in the process of studying user needs — they can also voice and describe practical problems and provide the solution space.

Business Analyst

A business analyst and consultant performs user experience analysis and potential customer interviews. Based on the results of the survey, they compile a BPMN diagram detailing the requirements for the product development.

Product requirements are formed based on user stories and hypotheses associated with them. BA makes up a map or plan of steps that users and project employees take when performing certain manipulations with the product. All actions are recorded in small and sequential blocks. All participants in future conversations, meetings, or interviews should feel it during the product development.

Models of groups and roles of future users are created, for example, a seller and a buyer, so that the development team understands the goals, objectives, and needs of the people for whom the product is being developed. Any user story is written for a person or functional role using the next product discovery techniques:

• “As a buyer, I want to fill out an order form on the site so that I can get a response from the seller.”
• “As a seller, I want to get notified about the new order and the time left for its processing so that I can respond in time and not miss the order.”
• “As a seller, I want to know about the incoming order in time so that I  have time to prepare its dispatch.”

A user story is considered complete if it has value and a protagonist, demonstrates a way to achieve the goal, when read, offers one or more solutions that are easy to translate into reality.

UI/UX Designer

A UX designer is involved in the work to visualize the look of the future project and get it approved by the client. This specialist creates a clickable prototype to test interaction methods and simulate user experience. All interactions are modeled as close as possible to what the final product will have helping product teams decide on feature improvement. Professional design thinking is needed for this.

An interactive prototype is also created to conduct product discovery. This helps a client demonstrate a business project to investors, get feedback from end users or a focus group, and test a real user experience before starting development.

Product Manager

The project/product manager finds the best ideas for a company’s business, in line with what a user would expect from the service, and executes them in the best possible way.

Tip! The missions depend on the structure, its sector, and the maturity of its product. PM is the conductor of the entire feature delivery cycle and the linear process of product development. From ticket writing to production, through testing. These are also all the hazards that may arise, such as the identification of dependencies or bugs that feed its backlog daily.

The project/product manager leads the discovery phase in software development, so they should possess business, technical, and design thinking. Product discovery plays a vital role in understanding your product context and building the right strategy for it. This phase is more than essential, the better you know your end users (≠ clients), their needs, and their contexts, the more relevant you will be in the solutions you will build for them.

Tech Lead or a Solution Architect

The solutions architect has the role of designing, explaining, and implementing solutions adapted to the specific problems of the company. This specialist builds complex offers, conducts usability testing, and advises clients on the transformation of information systems. They must study the technical feasibility as well as its risks before proposing solutions.

In a constantly changing technological context and business space, companies must ensure that their information systems are kept up to date to meet new requirements. This digital transformation requires specific expertise and practices to keep the company at the forefront of quality product delivery:

1. Analyze the project environment and its issues. Tech Leads manage the entire project and take care of the cost of the solutions. A Solution Architect designs and projects the system and the interaction of components. This employee is responsible for the correct functioning of the entire ecosystem.
2. Define a trajectory of solutions adapted to the company. Typically, companies have their information systems, informational context, and integration requirements. The Solution Architect must then ensure that the system they offer meets the product discovery process expectations of the company.
3. Comply with constraints. Each solution-based tool and its specific implementation can generate significant costs. The Solutions Architect must therefore know how to optimize the budget allocated to the project to provide as many ideas as possible, taking into account technological and managerial constraints.

How We Conduct the Project Discovery Phase at Devlight

The product discovery phase in software development work begins with the collection of requirements for the product. It’s good if the client has terms of reference (TOR), a specification, or at least a brief description of the idea, based on which we can make a list of requirements (UserStory) for the minimum viable product, according to which the development expenses will already be calculated.

However, there are not always formulated requirements and/or wishes. Thus, a discovery process aims to find out how much the development will cost and last (and whether it is worth developing the product at all). It happens that a client only has an idea for a future business (not a “product”, but a “business”). There are no technical specifications, no clear requirements, there is not even an understanding of where to start — there is no dedicated MVP. 

In this case, project/product managers need to conduct analytics before the preparation of technical specifications or drawing any prototypes — the first stages (sprints) of product management. For instance, startups often seek to reduce the time and cost of analytics. Then, our product team helps them visualize, estimate the top-level architecture, and determine which functions can and should be implemented immediately and in the future. 

Below we will consider the main qualitative research stages and artifacts that we and the client will receive as a result of these studies. The steps can be mandatory or optional, depending on the level of detail of the concept and the type of project: for example, in B2C, drawing screens of a future application is welcome to evaluate the UX and help to impress future investors with the idea.

Phase 1: Product’s Value Creating

The starting point of the project life cycle is not planning, but initiation. At this product discovery stage, the project has not yet been confirmed. The client and the product team should review it in general terms and evaluate the perspective. First of all, you need to understand whether it is worth taking on it. To do this, you need to define the following.

Trend Canvas

The trend canvas is the new standard when it comes to supporting companies and organizations in dealing with trends systemically. As a tool for innovation teams, managers and economists, the trend canvas creates a holistic perspective of the future — and thus helps to assess trends and their impact.

With the trend canvas, trends are understood holistically and translated for your company context. It is a simple product management framework for dealing with complex relationships and a tool to understand organizational potential and risks. It helps to answer these central questions:

• How are individual trends changing the reality of people’s lives?
• What effects do trends have on society?
• How are trends changing the economy and your market?
• How do I have to adjust my organization and my processes to remain future-proof?
• What new products do people need based on potential client feedback?

Key Business Ideas Mapping

This stage is similar to the analytics stage, but with a lower level of detail. Examples of business ideas: what problems does the business solve and how does it benefit its users? Business ideas are closely connected with defining the problem space.

For example, ordering online using a shopping cart instead of sending a Viber message. Online payment, not a transfer to a card through a bank application. As a result of this stage, a client receives a summary table of all orders and clear information about their users, admin panel, the number of product, and their management.

Value Proposition Canvas

A value proposition canvas is a tool that creators and businesses can use to visualize, design, and refine how to create value for their users during product delivery. It ensures that the services offered meet the concrete needs of customers and/or users.

After conducting user research, we specify the expectations of users and prevent the client from getting lost on less demanded features/products. Finally, we materialize the value proposition canvas in a dual representation: the profile of the target users on the one hand and the value proposition on the other.

Customer Journey Map

Using available customer feedback or by introducing the product idea to focus groups, we collect data that helps us understand how will users get in touch with our product. Of course, it is preferred that this journey consists of as few steps as possible which will mean our product is within easy functional reach for the customers: it is simple, effective, popular, and deals with their pain points in the most convenient way.

This user research data is arranged in the form of a simple diagram (the so-called “map”) that illustrates the stages like getting acquainted with the product, choosing to use it, getting back to it, or recommending it to others.

Phase 2: Requirement Gathering & Collecting

This Discovery part can be called the research phase. It is the collection of information about the idea, the formalization of product requirements, the verification of business hypotheses, the formalization of the solution, problem space, and then the cost estimate for both the initial version (MVP) and further development.

Backlog Creating

At this stage, product teams are working on all the requirements — both for the MVP and with the expectation of further product development. As a rule (especially when evaluating large projects), clients prioritize creating a User Story as the main way to divide the development into stages and assess each stage separately. At the same time, MVP is the highest priority.

For example, if we have an application that allows us to work with PDF documents, then the MVP for this app will enable users to open PDF files only to review them, and in the next versions we will add the ability to create, edit, and delete the files, as well as share them with other users.

User Stories Creating

If we are analyzing a process automation project, then a detailed “as is” User Story (US) helps to identify bottlenecks (for example steps on which product teams spend a lot of time or make mistakes) and suggest their corrections and/or automation.

A brief description of how the system will be used describes the functional requirements for the system and the acceptance criteria. User stories allow the client to prioritize the implementation of product functionality effectively.

BPMN Modelling

From the point of view of tools, it is very convenient to model the future process in BPMN notation, but it is not always immediately clear to the client, so the model has to be simplified when reviewed with the client. In general, you can use any visual models in which the sequence of steps is easily traced. The main thing is that the model fixes the future process and is unambiguously readable by you and the client.

Business Tasks Describing

During this discovery phase, we discuss the process that needs to be automated or improved. By discussing the current process, you can learn a lot about your client. Especially when people begin to contradict each other or get distracted from the course of the discussion, go into details that only they understand. 

Tip! Describing business tasks is about filtering a lot of what the client says. Devlight always tries to understand what the client is not satisfied with from the current process, and what are the main improvements they expect in terms of business goals. Of course, business analytics are actively involved at this stage to assess the problem space and the criteria for the success of the project.

PRD Completing

PRD (Product Requirements Document) is a description that includes all the requirements for a specific product and reflects how the product will look and how it will work. The requirements in such a document reflect the client’s vision and expectations for the product.

It is used to define product requirements and direct project/product managers during the whole discovery phase. After fixing the requirements for the future process as a whole, we proceed to the collection, analysis, and verification of requirements for specific functional areas.

Phase 3: High Fidelity Prototyping Creating & Testing

Now it’s time to discuss with the team a specific action plan for the visual implementation of the project. Even if the client can’t wait to get started, we don’t recommend rushing without having created a quality prototype. Effective applied and tangible planning can prevent many of the root causes of project failure. 

A good prototype will take some work and time, so allow enough time at the start of the project. At this discovery process stage, a layout is created that mimics the user’s interaction with the project’s interface.

A prototype is needed to present the project to the client and evaluate its usability. Testing such a layout allows you to identify and eliminate errors in advance before investing in the development of the final design solution and code. The prototype differs from the finished product but is very similar in structure and functionality. It can be drawn on paper or created in a graphics editor. The main difference between these methods is the level of detail and clickability of elements.

Figma Hi-Fi Prototype Creating

If the prototype was explicitly written as an artifact for the product discovery process, then it is prepared by UX specialists in cooperation with a business analyst. In this case, we are talking about well-designed high-fidelity prototypes, often clickable that help you catch all errors in the scripts before submitting mockups to development.

Figma turns your images into a full-fledged prototype — with working buttons, scrolling, and switches. That is, at a level sufficient for a general understanding of the layout of the screens and transfer to the designer, who will already prepare the final design, which will go into development.

User Flows Mapping

To determine how the user will interact with the interface of the new product, a User Flow is created in the form of schematically depicted screens of the software solution and transitions between them. Thus, user behavior scenarios based on proposed solutions are designed through visual prototypes of the interface.

Clickable Prototype Creating

The wireframe is the blueprint that indicates where the main elements of your app are in the US and the transitions between screens. Wireframe models offer a user’s journey given user behavior patterns. The approved frames will form the basis of the final design. 

We draw key screens and visualize what the future application might look like. This artifact is optional, but extremely useful if you want to demonstrate an idea to an investor, let the client “feel” the product, and get feedback through user interviews.

Clickable Prototype Realtime Testing

The prototypes go through several rounds of testing, depending on the project’s complexity. Testing prototypes will greatly facilitate the coordination of requirements and the estimation of labor costs for the development phase. The potential customer feedback determines the success of the prototype in this case.

Iteration Changes

Backlog management, clarification of requirements with the client (remotely), documentation, clarification of requirements for the team, conducting product demonstrations based on the results — all those iterations are continuously accompanying the product prototype. Those are hundreds of testing rounds that allow you to receive validated ideas and implement final improvements.

Phase 4: Product’s Software Integrations Plan Creating

The idea of a proper discovery phase is that the client receives a mini-analytics of the future application in a short time (2-4 weeks to 2-4 months for big projects). Based on these data, it is already possible to make an assessment, make a decision on further development, and if the project starts, these data will form the basis of the TOR. 

In its fourth stage, product discovery is about technical specification of the future product’s plan and implementing the data mentioned earlier into a visual representation (diagrams and documentation).

Software Architecture Diagram

The concept we produce at Devlight necessarily includes a proposal for the top-level architecture of the IT product. This is a diagram of all system components, as well as internal or external services (for example, CRM client), with which we need to interact — here we determine what data we will exchange. 

Data Flow Diagram

The product discovery also includes compiling a preliminary logical data model: how many entities, what parameters, what data, and how much will be stored in the system. This is necessary to develop a viable solution for the product architecture and evaluate additional work, such as example, load testing. 

API Methods Specification

An API stands for application programming interface and allows two applications to communicate with each other by making data or functionality of an existing application available for other applications to use. Here is what should make the notion of application programming interface clearer

Using an API, therefore, makes it possible to use the functionality of an existing program rather than redevelop a new one separately. So it’s a big time saver. Thus, specifying the API methods is an integral part of the product discovery process.

3D-Party Services Integration Model

Today, web applications use many programming interfaces. Developments are carried out by reusing functional bricks made available by third-party solutions. Thus, you should always study the competitive landscape of similar apps and useful services before developing your own product. 

Assembly design modes require developers to fully understand how to interact with other software and systems. The API is an optimal solution for communication between two systems and the web service facilitates the interactions between two machines. It helps to integrate outside services straight during the product discovery.

Full Technical Specification Creating

The functional specification, together with the prototype, tells what elements the system interface consists of and how it works. It describes what is laborious, impossible, or pointless to show in a prototype. With its help, you can improve the proposed solutions, answer the questions of developers and other project participants, and fix the agreements on paper.

Tip! Creating one continuous Excel file with the List of Features is a common mistake. The problem is that when you have one continuous list with 100+ positions, it is difficult to follow the overall picture of the world behind it. 

During the functional specification stage, we form a final document, which essentially consolidates all the above-described artifacts — requirements (stories and their detailing), prototype, and architectural elements (description of architecture, methods, integrations, etc.). 

We prefer to gather data in the form of a user story broken into functional areas and keep the high-level requirements for those areas separate. Thus, you have both a high-level picture of the world and a list of stories by which you can evaluate the complexity of development. This way, we will have all the necessary information about the entire project in one place and all the necessary information about a specific task, which allows us to evaluate the functionality as a whole.

Phase 5: Closing Summary and Preparing Documentation

The result of the discovery phase is horizontal analytics that allows you to cover the entire project to its slightest details. It is an elaborated and detailed scope of tasks to carry out for the first MVP or for the entire product in general.

The purpose of the study is to “probe” the hypotheses associated with the product, and its usability risk, and collect requirements to estimate the time and cost of development.

Estimating the Cost and Duration of the Project

After completing the study, we get the requirements for the project. They are gathered in the document that describes the client’s tasks and the proposed solution: architecture, list of features and logical data model, main screens, expected development time, and cost. 

This is a ready-made commercial offer, with which our partner can apply to an investor or manager for project approval. It consists of specific costs and duration plans that will guide the team through future development.

Calendar Planning

After setting the duration of the project at the previous stage, we can move on to scheduling the tasks, estimating the loads, and deducing the deadlines for carrying out each stage. By setting a start date, you can plan each task taking into account the expected completion time, and decide which tasks can be carried out in parallel. 

Tip! The deadlines for the different stages are calculated, taking great care to keep room for maneuver to compensate for any unforeseen events, and the schedule is thus built little by little until the final delivery date.

Naturally, the schedule will certainly have to be modified based on your own assumptions during the project.

Team Formation

For the duration of the product discovery, the two companies merge in a way: Devlight offers the client business analytics and IT architectural services yet the client is free to involve any specialists from their team too. Some of our professionals will remain on the project afterward and others will leave. 

The project manager may be responsible for interviewing the candidates and seeking employees. However, in Devlight it is HR specialist who seeks professionals with a shared understanding of the project to form the future team. This stage is the final step of product discovery and the initial step of product development.

Tips For Conducting Project Discovery Stage from Devlight Team

Before establishing the project schedule and diving into development, we recommend that you learn some tips that have been helping us and our clients for years. There is always room for improvement, especially as you gain experience together with Devlight. 

Conduct Project Vision Sessions

This product discovery step is quite optional. If you are at the idea stage, we recommend holding sessions on project vision, if you already have a ready-made concept and you have been on the market for a long time, we can move on to functional development. 

Form a Separate Brainstorm Team

The ideal option is to allocate a dedicated team from your side that can quickly and qualitatively give feedback (the team that is responsible for making a decision) so that all people who make decisions and are interested in it are involved from the client’s side. Here is how to do it:

• Interview existing employees about the current onboarding process.
• Find out the wishes of managers about what can be included in the process.
• Create an overall onboarding process (90-day plan).
• Record training videos for the employee dashboard to make the process as clear as possible.
• Draw up procedures and checklists for the onboarding process.

Product discovery is an iterative process. It consists of the stages that go through and through again, so sometimes a dedicated team that will be responsible for controlling the whole process of discovery can be helpful. They can bring about fresh ideas if they are familiar with the product vision closely and instruct the outsource developers. 

Technical Consulting

It is recommended that a technical person who has all the solutions that the client already has is involved in consultation from the client’s side. At this point, it’s time to choose the right infrastructure architecture and the right technologies for testing assumptions. In-depth technical consulting will make your product supportable and scalable. Any deviations or changes in the future may result in high costs, so value risk and invest in analytics at any stage.

Mix and Unite Ideas

Keep ideas in your head and think about the architecture for them. Introducing a survey tool to gather customer feedback at any stage of iteration changes is great to validate ideas in course of continuous learning. Implement new approaches and mix the experience advised by any employee since the same methodology won’t work for all products.

Keep Your Company’s Behavioral Pattern

Finally, keep a behavioral pattern for users when analyzing competitors, uniqueness should not come from behavioral habits. Of course, users’ problems change. But clients may have gotten used to your way of approaching the solution. Stick to your brand way and develop the new product in the same framework.

How to Start the Discovery Phase of a Project in Software Development?

Quite easy. We’re ready to consult and guide you throughout the entire product discovery process. Devlight advises the clients to begin with The product discovery to ensure that the product development and launch will be smooth, and fit within the estimated deadlines and budgets.

The life path of a project starts with the discovery phase and moves into the product delivery phase. As part of discovery, we:

• explore the subject area;
• we study the client’s business processes;
• find out the customer’s expectations from the new product;
• identify bottlenecks;
• we formulate solutions to client’s problems at a high level;
• set priorities and form a backlog;
• compile a roadmap for the project.

There are initial conditions that will allow you to conduct product discovery:

• client confidence;
• their desire to meet you halfway for a good result;
• the relative freedom of timing.

On the last point — everyone should have a shared understanding of approximately when the project should start, when to enter the peak, and when to end. 

Final Thoughts

What are the benefits of the product discovery phase for the client:

• Obtaining a visual concept for testing a business idea.
• Estimation of the development time and budget, taking into account all the requirements for the product/project and the prospects for its development.
• You can carry out separate start-up work on analytics and architecture design to reduce labor costs for further analytics, technical specifications, and roadmap.
• Reducing the risk of errors in the implementation of the product.

Devlight is a mobile app development company operating since 2016 and creating world-class apps for industry leaders. With more than 35M of app installs and 50+ projects under our belt, we are a dedicated team of development enthusiasts and scrupulous analytics that believe in the importance of product discovery.

We kindly invite you to cooperate with us. What should you expect? In our methodology, we have phase 1, which targets to create value for the product by trend canvas, key business ideas, CMJ, and other deliverables. Devlight will share with you the methodology tested and validated dozens of times over six years. See the results by checking the companies we had worked with!

Besides, be sure to check our next article, where we showed exactly how the deliverables of the product discovery phase should look like and the exact flow of its running. 

The post Project Discovery Phase in Software Development appeared first on Devlight.

Interest in fintech products emerged in 2014 when banks began to develop their own applications and modernize traditional services. Thus, running a project discovery for a fintech app has been a popular request ever since. Now every third client of the bank uses at least one financial application, which means fintech apps are slowly but surely flooding the market. 

In parallel, fintech startups with fresh ideas began to appear. They worked faster than conservative bankers, were not afraid to experiment with money, and were closer to the people. This is how the market for financial and technological applications and services, including mobile ones, began to grow. Development companies, in their turn, are here to help promising apps carry out discovery phases.

What Is a Project Discovery Phase?

In order to estimate the cost of the project and make a commercial offer to the client, it is necessary to conduct a discovery phase or a complete analysis of all aspects of the project implementation — from the emergence of an idea and business concept to the technical implementation of the expected product. This approach allows the protection of the product from unplanned costs and facilitates and clearly defines the working conditions of the team.

A preliminary analysis of the needs of the client, the market, competitors, target audience, the upcoming scope of work, and resources is carried out in any area where the contractor wants to fulfill their obligations to the client in a quality manner. However, running out a discovery phase for a fintech app is especially vital since this sphere often involves great budgets and high stakes.

Product discovery means:

• discussion of the project’s existing business processes or the concept of a future project, expectations, and wishes regarding the deadlines;
• definition of the target audience;
• competitive market analysis (direct and indirect competitors);
• formulating solutions to business problems;
• determination of the scope of work;
• setting deadlines and priorities based on the project complexity and market trends;
• schematic distribution of roles and appointment of specialists who should be involved in the process (cross-functional teams are often created).

The Purposes of the Discovery Phase of a Project

The discovery phase is the first and mandatory stage of development, where requirements are identified, and business goals are analyzed in order to make a proposal for technical implementation, fix the project boundaries and estimate the cost of development. The fintech discovery phase aims to tackle the next purposes:

• Make a development roadmap

In the final result, we will deal with a clear deal a clear technical task with a description of the key functionality of the future product, which makes planning the development phase itself easier and clearer.

You will receive a complete project schedule with milestones, deliverables, and deadlines. The Software Requirements Specification (SRS) and mockups developed during the product discovery process in fintech can be used to find additional investors.

• Improve communication

Even a good presentation cannot guarantee that you have chosen the right company. Regular communication at this stage allows you to evaluate the real team effort, your experience, and your approach to the project and establish two-way trust. Before starting development, you can use the discovery process results with other IT vendors.

• Save resources such as time and money

The main value is the expertise and experience the development company shares since they allow it to make the job faster. For instance, Devlight has been working in this field for years and knows how to help you perform a discovery. We are capable of conducting a product discovery process for a fintech app resulting in valuable insights that you will not find with a simple search on the Internet. These are live examples and real-life experiences. We share them so that you don’t have to dedicate years to learning everything from scratch.

• Idea validation

You will have an opportunity to check your actions with the guide and apply different product discovery techniques to implement changes at an early stage in case anything needs improvement. Thus, through discovery, you can validate your product ideas.

• Complex analysis and data gathering

The discovery phase helps both the fintech app development team and the client find an answer to the principal question: which problems of future users can our solution address? Modern product discovery is about gathering and analyzing requirements, systematizing all the input information, and lots of planning that eventually clarify the big picture of the whole project and eliminates any early-stage uncertainty.

Finally, the discovery phase is fundamental for the future success of your product development in fintech. Devlight will teach you how to conduct the product discovery phase in such a way as to avoid typical mistakes that often occur at the initial stage (we provide smart methodology/guidelines). 

Our team believes in a properly conducted fintech discovery process as a way to save your resources such as time and money with “tips and hacks” content-type: we always provide a separate block with the solution space clarifying the main points of what you will have to do. With no lengthy instructions or unclear directions, we get down to business.

Briefly on Fintech

The fintech industry means financial companies and banks’ operation, applying innovative developments, as well as the cooperation of traditional financial institutions with technology companies. Modernization or cooperation is needed primarily in order to remain competitive with other participants in the financial market.

In the business environment, an opinion has formed that technology start-ups can replace financial institutions. On the other hand, economists consider this thesis doubtful because startups are not inclined to engage in lending. Rather, these parties will enter into more partnership agreements, which will allow them to gain people’s attention. After all, fintech users are already used to the fact that all actions can be performed automatically by pressing one button.

The partnership of two previously independent areas is truly mutually beneficial. Financiers and bankers have client bases, access to large capital, the ability to work in a highly regulated legislative area. But for the same reasons, internal innovation and rapid testing of new solutions is difficult for them. High-tech enterprises need access to this customer base, and in return they are ready to offer their ability to create value-added services that inspire users. This is how fintech has emerged.

Major Challenges While Conducting Project Discovery in Fintech

According to Forbes, fintech investments in 2021 reached $91.5 billion, nearly double what they were in 2020. The global fintech market is growing rapidly. It is believed that by 2028 the fintech return volume will reach 16652.68 billion dollars, which is 2.5 times more than now. For comparison, in 2021, the fintech market was worth $6588.78 billion at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 13.9%. In 2021, 64.6% of US citizens used online banking, according to Statista, and this percentage is predicted to rise. These numbers not only excite but put pressure on young fintech enthusiasts. What challenges should you be ready for when entering the fintech development niche?

• Creating a bank from scratch vs. finding a partner bank among existing ones

Digital banks, a classic fintech app example, do not use offline branch departments for customer service. They are available exclusively online via:

1. Having a financial license and independently providing financial services.
2. Directly cooperating with traditional banks to provide remote financial services.

The new model is designed for a user looking for a simple and affordable way to manage their money. It must be understood that such banks do not give loans, which means they do not take risks, and this allows them to reduce the cost of creating reserves. No need for an office either. This choice between these two models determines the API you will use for further integration.

• Issuing licenses

If your app operates on the basis of an existing bank, you will share their license.  It’s good when everything you need is already there. Otherwise, a license must be obtained since it will determine the product’s earning models, legal activity, and future scaling. For instance, you will need a license for charging commissions from transactions, subscriptions to premium accounts, and commissions from third-party services.

• Finding a KYC provider

The KYC procedure (deciphered as “know your customer”) obliges all fintech institutions to verify the identity of each client before the person can conduct any financial transactions. This protects companies from the risk of dealing with fraudsters and ensures the safety of customer assets. Once upon a time, this was only the internal policy of each company, but for about 5 years, KYC has been established as a clear legal practice. Thus, it is vitally important to choose a reliable KYC provider. This stage of the product discovery process for a fintech app determines your app’s security from the beginning. The way of client registration depends on this.

• Legal activity clarifications

Many modern fintech apps operate without a banking license, which is why they are not subject to the law. They act like virtual shells that complement offline banks and financial institutions with features that less advanced and flexible competitors do not have. While this has been the main advantage of fintech apps, it is necessary to find out under which regulatory and legal documents the potential application falls. For example, if the application collects users’ personal data and stores it, the startup is subject to GDPR requirements.

Will Skipping Project Discovery for the Fintech App Save You Time and Money?

Even if you have a great idea but don’t have a fintech app target audience or don’t meet their needs, you won’t have a successful business. To avoid this, you need to study the market, find out who your competitors are, analyze their products and determine your target user identity before hopping into development. For a small project, this might take approximately one to two weeks; for a larger one, it will take about two months of work.

The discovery phase and customer research can seem overwhelming in terms of time and resources. Still, they allow the team to determine project timelines and budgets, specify end-product requirements, identify end-user needs, and get feedback from them about the product. The more preliminary preparation is carried out before the start of product development, the more understandable and predictable will be the product strategy.

The product discovery for a fintech app allows the client to:

• more accurately determine the essence of an idea or project based on a real analysis of the market and the pain points of the target audience;
• identify some aspects of the project that were not taken into account initially;
• establish the basis for cross-functional collaboration and clarify the requirements for future team members;
• understand fintech target customer expectations and concerns based on competitor product research and user stories;
• get an expert assessment of the project and information on how to implement it properly;
• consider alternative solutions and technologies that will help make the project a reality;
• minimize and optimize costs;
• draw up clear terms of reference with the definition of the exact deadlines and budget for the project;
• understand how the performer meets the expectations, and make the final decision on the entire process of further cooperation.

As you can see, all of these benefits are worth investing more money and time into the product discovery process. Prepare and study the market instead of mapping your road straight into practice. This approach will save you time in the next stages and prevent the product from failure or unnecessary touch-ups.  

When Should You Start the Discovery Project Management?

Having a detailed “estimate” of the product idea, it will be easier for you to take the next steps — for example, find an investor or defend the project in front of the manager, select the necessary specialists, etc. In addition, it is difficult to determine the development timeline and the required team composition without an assessment. Thus, product discovery is a valuable preparatory step before launching any new app, service, or additional features. 

New Product Development

The fintech product development process is not something that can go naturally. Stated workflows and scenarios have already been invented. If you want to choose the best development scenario and properly assess the possible risks, you need to carry out the preparation stage before launching any product. 

It starts with the team deciding on the format and duration of sprints (meetings) and selecting tools for structuring and reporting on the work done. For example, tasks can be distributed and stored in a cloud-based Trello project management software. Diagrams, graphs, maps, and diagrams can be created in Microsoft Visio Drawing or draw.io. Prototypes and mockups are easy to create in Sketch, NinjaMock, or Axure.

Upgrading an Existing Product

Things get easier if you already have a stable team involved in product development. The discovery phase, in this case, will take less time and involve just a slight change in the teamwork routine. However, you should always carry out a discovery before launching new features to your project. Understand that you will practically deal with a new product after an upgrade. New target audiences or market competitors open up after you implement the changes. Thus, you should be able to predict them.

After all, the discovery process for a fintech product helps to prevent the need to make costly additional edits and changes in the course of work. It establishes a balance between the new business goals of the client and the interests of the end users of the upgraded product.

New Business Opportunities

Even when developing a minimum viable product, you must plan product development several years in advance. This allows you to consider all the business goals, requirements, and restrictions and lay a flexible product architecture. In this matter, the discovery phase for a fintech app is not only needed before broadening your product horizons, but any project architecture should already take into account the possibility of scaling the product and increasing the load.

Software Discovery Phase Team: Its Roles and Responsibilities

To ensure the accuracy of calculations and anticipate risks, companies tend to assemble a team of experts from several departments. Often this is an analyst, designer, and experienced developer — involving team members with narrow expertise is great for building high-load solutions. The product discovery process for a fintech app helps you determine which specialists you will need and their responsibilities.

After meeting with the client and clarifying their expectations, the PM assembles a team that will be involved in the project and decides what the fintech product development discovery phase will consist of, and who will play what role in it.

Business Analyst

A business analyst and consultant performs user experience analysis and potential customer interviews. Based on the results of the survey, they compile a BPMN diagram detailing the requirements for product development.

Product requirements are formed based on user stories and hypotheses associated with them. BA makes up a map or plan of steps that users and project employees take when performing certain manipulations with the product. All actions are recorded in small and sequential blocks. All participants in future conversations, meetings, or interviews should feel it during the fintech product development.

UI/UX Designer

A UX designer is involved in the work to visualize the look of the future project and get it approved by the client. This specialist creates a clickable prototype to test interaction methods and simulate user experience. All interactions are modeled as close as possible to what the final product will have, helping product teams decide on feature improvement. Professional design thinking is needed for this.

An interactive prototype is also created to conduct product discovery. This helps a client demonstrate a business project to investors, get feedback from end users or a focus group, and test a real user experience before starting development.

Product Manager

The project/product manager finds the best ideas for a company’s business, in line with what a user would expect from the service, and executes them in the best possible way.

The project/product manager leads the discovery phase, so they should possess a business, technical, and design thinking. Product discovery plays a vital role in understanding your product context and building the right strategy for it. This phase is more than essential. The better you know your end users (≠ clients), their needs, and their contexts, the more relevant you will be in the solutions you will build for them.

Tech Lead or a Solution Architect

The solutions architect has the role of designing, explaining, and implementing solutions adapted to the company’s specific problems. This specialist builds complex offers, conducts usability testing, and advises clients on transforming information systems. They must study the technical feasibility and risks before proposing solutions.

In a constantly changing technological context and business space, companies must ensure that their information systems are kept up to date to meet new requirements. This digital transformation requires specific expertise and practices to keep the company at the forefront of quality product delivery:

1. Analyze the project environment and its issues. Tech Leads manage the entire project and take care of the cost of the solutions. 
2. Define a trajectory of solutions adapted to the company. The Solution Architect must then ensure that the system they offer meets the product discovery process expectations of the company.
3. Comply with constraints. The Solutions Architect must therefore know how to optimize the budget allocated to the project to provide as many ideas as possible, taking into account technological and managerial constraints.

How We Conduct the Discovery Phase for Fintech at Devlight?

The fintech app product discovery work begins with the collection of requirements for the product. It’s good if the client has terms of reference (TOR), a specification, or at least a brief description of the idea, based on which we can make a list of requirements (UserStory) for the minimum viable product, according to which the development expenses will already be calculated.

However, there are not always formulated requirements and wishes. Thus, a discovery process for a fintech app aims to find out how much the development will cost and last (and whether it is worth developing the product at all). It happens that a client only has an idea for a future business (not a “product,” but a “business”). There are no technical specifications and no clear requirements. There is not even an understanding of where to start — no dedicated MVP exists. 

In this case, project/product managers need to conduct analytics before preparing technical specifications or drawing prototypes — the first stages (sprints) of product management. For instance, startups often seek to reduce the time and cost of analytics. Then, our product team helps them visualize, estimate the top-level architecture, and determine which functions can and should be implemented immediately and in the future. 

Below we will consider the main qualitative research stages and artifacts that the client and we will receive as a result of these studies. The steps can be mandatory or optional, depending on the level of detail of the concept and the type of project: for example, in B2C, drawing screens of a future application is welcome to evaluate the UX and help to impress future investors with the idea.

Phase 1: Product’s Value Creating

The starting point of the project life cycle is not planning but initiation. At this fintech product discovery stage, the project has not yet been confirmed. The client and the product team should review it in general terms and evaluate the perspective. First of all, you need to understand whether it is worth taking on it. To do this, you need to define the following.

Trend Canvas

The trend canvas is the new standard when it comes to supporting companies and organizations in dealing with trends systemically. As a tool for innovation teams, managers and economists, the trend canvas creates a holistic perspective of the future — and thus helps to assess trends and their impact.

With the trend canvas, trends are understood holistically and translated for your company context. It is a simple product management framework for dealing with complex relationships and a tool for understanding organizational potential and risks. It helps to answer these central questions:

• How are individual trends changing the reality of people’s lives?
• What effects do trends have on society?
• How are trends changing the economy and your market?
• How do I adjust my organization and processes to remain future-proof?
• What new products do people need based on potential client feedback?

Key business ideas

This stage is similar to the analytics stage but with a lower level of detail. Examples of business ideas: what problems does the business solutions and how does it benefit its users? Business ideas are closely connected with defining the problem space.

For example, ordering online using a shopping cart instead of sending a Viber message. Online payment, not a transfer to a card through a bank application. As a result of this stage, a client receives a summary table of all orders and clear information about their users, admin panel, the number of product, and their management.

Customer journey map

Using available customer feedback or introducing the product idea to focus groups, we collect data that helps us understand how users will get in touch with our product. Of course, it is preferred that this journey consists of as few steps as possible, which will mean our product is within easy functional reach for the customers: it is simple, effective, popular, and deals with their pain points in the most convenient way.

This user research data is arranged in the form of a simple diagram (the so-called “map”) that illustrates the stages of getting acquainted with the product, choosing to use it, getting back to it, or recommending it to others.

Value proposition canvas

A value proposition canvas is a tool that creators and businesses can use to visualize, design, and refine how to create value for their users during product delivery. It ensures that the services offered to meet the concrete needs of customers and users.

After conducting user research, we specify users’ expectations and prevent the client from getting lost on less demanded features/products. Finally, we materialize the value proposition canvas in a dual representation: the profile of the target users on the one hand and the value proposition on the other.

Phase 2: Requirement Gathering & Collecting

This fintech discovery part can be called the research phase. It is the collection of information about the idea, the formalization of product requirements, the verification of business hypotheses, the formalization of the solution, problem space, and then the cost estimate for both the initial version (MVP) and further development.

Backlog creating

At this stage, product teams are working on all the requirements for the MVP with the expectation of further product development. As a rule (especially when evaluating large projects), clients prioritize creating a User Story as the main way to divide the development into stages and assess each stage separately. At the same time, MVP is the highest priority.

Job & user stories creating

If we are analyzing a process automation project, then a detailed “as is” User Story (US) helps to identify bottlenecks (for example, steps on which product teams spend a lot of time or make mistakes) and suggest their corrections and automation.

BPMN modeling 

From the point of view of tools, it is very convenient to model the future process in BPMN notation, but it is not always immediately clear to the client, so the model has to be simplified when reviewed with the client. In general, you can use any visual models where the sequence of steps is easily traced. The main thing is that the model fixes the future process and is unambiguously readable by you and the client.

Business tasks describing

During this discovery phase, we discuss the process that needs to be automated or improved. You can learn a lot about your client by discussing the current process. Especially when people begin to contradict each other or get distracted from the course of the discussion, and go into details that only they understand. 

PRD completing

PRD (Product Requirements Document) is a description that includes all the requirements for a specific product and reflects how the product will look and how it will work. The requirements in such a document reflect the client’s vision and expectations for the product.

Phase 3: High-Fidelity Prototyping Creating & Testing

Now it’s time to discuss with the team a specific action plan for the visual implementation of the project. Even if the client can’t wait to get started, we don’t recommend rushing without having created a quality prototype. Effective applied and tangible planning can prevent many of the root causes of project failure. 

Figma hi-fi prototype creating

If the prototype was explicitly written as an artifact for the product discovery process, then it is prepared by UX specialists in cooperation with a business analyst. In this case, we are talking about well-designed high-fidelity prototypes, often clickable, that help you catch all errors in the scripts before submitting mockups to development.

User flows mapping

To determine how the user will interact with the interface of the new product, a User Flow is created in the form of schematically depicted screens of the software solution and transitions between them. Thus, user behavior scenarios based on proposed solutions are designed through visual prototypes of the interface.

Clickable prototype creating

The wireframe is the blueprint that indicates where the main elements of your app are in the US and the transitions between screens. Wireframe models offer a user’s journey, given user behavior patterns. The approved frames will form the basis of the final design. 

Clickable prototype real-time testing

The prototypes undergo several testing rounds, depending on the project’s complexity. Testing prototypes will greatly facilitate the coordination of requirements and the estimation of labor costs for the development phase. The potential customer feedback determines the success of the prototype in this case.

Iteration changes

Backlog management, clarification of requirements with the client (remotely), documentation, clarification of requirements for the team, conducting product demonstrations based on the results — all those iterations are continuously accompanying the product prototype. Those are hundreds of testing rounds that allow you to receive validated ideas and implement final improvements.

Phase 4: Product’s Software Integrations Plan Creating

The idea of a proper discovery phase is that the client receives a mini-analytics of the future application in a short time (2-4 weeks to 2-4 months for big projects). Based on these data, it is already possible to make an assessment, make a decision on further development, and if the project starts, these data will form the basis of the TOR. 

In its fourth stage, fintech product discovery is about technical specification of the future product’s plan and implementing the data mentioned earlier into a visual representation (diagrams and documentation).

Software architecture diagram

The concept we produce at Devlight necessarily includes a proposal for the top-level architecture of the IT product. This is a diagram of all system components, as well as internal or external services (for example, CRM client), with which we need to interact — here we determine what data we will exchange. 

Data flow diagram

The product discovery also includes compiling a preliminary logical data model: how many entities, what parameters, what data, and how much will be stored in the system. This is necessary to develop a viable solution for the product architecture and evaluate additional work, such as example, load testing. 

API method specificarion

An API stands for application programming interface and allows two applications to communicate with each other by making data or functionality of an existing application available for other applications to use. Here is what should make the notion of application programming interface clearer.

3d-party services integration model

Assembly design modes require developers to fully understand how to interact with other software and systems. The API is an optimal solution for communication between two systems and the web service facilitates the interactions between two machines. It helps to integrate outside services straight during the product discovery.

Full technical specification creating

The functional specification, together with the prototype, tells what elements the system interface consists of and how it works. It describes what is laborious, impossible, or pointless to show in a prototype. With its help, you can improve the proposed solutions, answer the questions of developers and other project participants, and fix the agreements on paper.

Phase 5: Closing Summary and Preparing Documentation

The result of the discovery phase is horizontal analytics that allows you to cover the entire project to its slightest details. It is an elaborated and detailed scope of tasks to carry out for the first MVP or for the entire product in general. The purpose of the study is to “probe” the hypotheses associated with the product, and its usability risk, and collect requirements to estimate the time and cost of development.

Tips For Conducting Project Discovery Stage for Fintech from Devlight Team

Before establishing the project schedule and diving into development, we recommend that you learn some tips that have been helping us and our clients for years. There is always room for improvement, especially as you gain experience together with Devlight. 

Conduct Project Vision Sessions

This product discovery step is quite optional. If you are at the idea stage, we recommend holding sessions on project vision, if you already have a ready-made concept and you have been on the market for a long time, we can move on to functional development. 

Form a Separate Brainstorm Team

The ideal option is to allocate a dedicated team from your side that can quickly and qualitatively give feedback (the team that is responsible for making a decision) so that all people who make decisions and are interested in it are involved from the client’s side. Here is how to do it:

• Interview existing employees about the current onboarding process.
• Find out the wishes of managers about what can be included in the process.
• Create an overall onboarding process (90-day plan).
• Record training videos for the employee dashboard to make the process as clear as possible.
• Draw up procedures and checklists for the onboarding process.

Technical Consulting

It is recommended that a technical person with all the solutions the client already has is involved in consultation from the client’s side. At this point, it’s time to choose the right infrastructure architecture and the right technologies for testing assumptions. In-depth technical consulting will make your product supportable and scalable. Any deviations or changes in the future may result in high costs, so value risk and invest in analytics at any stage.

Mix and Unite Ideas

Keep ideas in your head and think about the architecture for them. Introducing a survey tool to gather customer feedback at any stage of iteration changes is great for validating ideas in continuous learning. Implement new approaches and mix the experience advised by any employee since the same methodology won’t work for all products.

Keep Your Company’s Behavioral Pattern

Finally, keep a behavioral pattern for users when analyzing competitors. Uniqueness should not come from behavioral habits. Of course, users’ problems change. But clients may have gotten used to your way of approaching the solution. Stick to your brand way and develop the new product in the same framework.

How to Start the Discovery Phase of a Project in Software Development?

Quite easy. We’re ready to consult and guide you throughout product discovery. Devlight advises the clients to begin with The product discovery to ensure that the product development and launch will be smooth and fit within the estimated deadlines and budgets.

The life path of a project starts with the discovery phase and moves into the product delivery phase. As part of the discovery, we:

• explore the subject area;
• we study the client’s business processes;
• find out the customer’s expectations from the new product;
• identify bottlenecks;
• we formulate solutions to client’s problems at a high level;
• set priorities and form a backlog;
• compile a roadmap for the project.

There are initial conditions that will allow you to conduct fintech product discovery:

• client confidence;
• their desire to meet you halfway for a good result;
• the relative freedom of timing.

On the last point — everyone should have a shared understanding of approximately when the project should start, when to enter the peak, and when to end. 

Final Thoughts

The main condition for existence and competition in the financial and banking markets today is the ability to change quickly, as well as the use of new technologies that are interesting to the target audience. How do you validate the idea before plunging into the sea of coding and iterating changes? Run a project discovery for a fintech app.

Devlight is a mobile app development company operating since 2016 and creating world-class apps for industry leaders. With more than 35M app installs and 50+ projects under our belt, we are a dedicated team of development enthusiasts and scrupulous analytics that believe in the importance of fintech product discovery.

We kindly invite you to cooperate with us. What should you expect? In our methodology, we have phase 1, which targets creating value for the product by trend canvas, key business ideas, CMJ, and other deliverables. Devlight will share with you the methodology tested and validated dozens of times over six years. See the results by checking the companies we had worked with!

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