Domains, delivery and craft
What is Discovery phase?
The work done before building: establishing what the site must achieve, who it is for, what content exists, what must integrate, and what success looks like. It is where a fixed-scope quote becomes possible, because you cannot fix a scope nobody has written down.
Also called: scoping phase · project discovery
What discovery has to produce
- A stated business outcome, not a list of pages
- A content inventory — what exists, what is missing, who writes it
- A named list of integrations, with the actual products
- The constraints: budget range, deadline, brand rules, hosting requirements
- A definition of success measurable three months after launch
Content is what overruns
Design and build are estimable. Copy that nobody has written, and photography nobody has taken, are the two things that consistently stretch a project — and both are usually the client’s to supply. Naming the owner and the date during discovery is what prevents it.
It is also how you assess the supplier
Someone who quotes without asking what the site is for is guessing. The quality of the questions during discovery predicts the quality of the build better than any portfolio does.
Where this is covered in depth
A definition can only go so far. Writing a website brief that gets you comparable quotes covers this properly — 3 minutes, free, no email required.
Who wrote this
Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada and Pakistan. These definitions come from client work rather than from a content brief — where an entry describes a mistake, it is usually one found on a real site. More about how I work.