Every new project starts the same way. A client reaches out, excited — they have a vision, a deadline, sometimes even a Figma file they've been building themselves at midnight. And the first thing I tell them is: let's not open Figma yet.

This always surprises people. They hired a designer. Why isn't she designing?

The answer is simple: you can't design a solution before you understand the problem. And most of the time, the problem you think you have isn't the real problem at all.

"Most design problems are actually framing problems."

What a discovery week actually looks like

A discovery week isn't a week of doing nothing. It's a week of doing the most important thing — gathering signal before making decisions. Here's what it looks like in practice:

Day 1–2: Stakeholder interviews

I talk to everyone who has a stake in the outcome — founders, product managers, customer support, sometimes sales. Not to gather requirements (that comes later), but to understand what each person believes the problem to be. The differences between those answers are always illuminating.

Day 3: User interviews or recordings

If there's an existing product, I watch session recordings — real users, real friction, real moments of confusion. If it's a new product, I talk to people who represent the target audience. I ask about their current behaviour, not their opinion of a hypothetical solution.

Day 4: Competitive and context review

I look at what exists in the space — not to copy, but to understand the visual and interaction language users already know. What patterns are they familiar with? What expectations will they bring to this product?

Day 5: Synthesis

This is where the listening becomes thinking. I take all the notes, all the patterns, all the contradictions — and I try to articulate the real design challenge in one sentence. That sentence becomes the brief we actually work from.

Why skipping this is expensive

I've worked with teams that skipped discovery. They moved fast, delivered screens quickly, and then spent the next three months iterating on the wrong thing. The time saved in week one cost them ten weeks later.

Discovery is insurance. It's the phase that makes everything after it faster, more focused, and more likely to actually work.

What you get at the end

  • A shared understanding of the problem across all stakeholders
  • A clear design brief that the whole team can align on
  • A set of user needs and pain points grounded in real evidence
  • A prioritised list of what to design first — and what to leave for later

None of this is glamorous. There are no beautiful deliverables at the end of discovery week. But the work that comes after it is better in every measurable way.

If you're planning a design project and you're tempted to skip straight to screens — don't. Spend the first week just listening. It will be the best investment you make.