Product Strategy & Discovery
A paid, fixed-scope first step. Requirements, architecture, risks, roadmap and a real estimate, in documents that are yours to keep, regardless of who ends up building.
A discovery phase is the paid, fixed-scope step before a build. Its job is to turn what you know about your business into documents an engineer can build from, and a plan you can hold someone to. It works the same whether or not we end up building the product.
Who it is for
Discovery earns its cost when a wrong guess would cost months: a new product with real money behind it, a build where the quotes you have collected disagree with each other, or a stalled codebase that needs a verdict before anyone writes more code. If you need numbers solid enough to raise money or approve a budget, this is the step that produces them.
What happens, week by week
Discovery runs for two to four weeks, depending on the size of the product. The order of the work stays the same.
Alexandru runs the sessions personally. Every session ends with the decisions read back to you, so nothing gets built from a guess.
What you walk away with
The documents are yours, and they are written so that any competent team can build from them. If we build, they become the plan we deliver against. If someone else builds, they still work.
When discovery is the wrong tool
If the scope is genuinely small, a short written brief is enough, and we will say so on the intro call rather than sell you weeks of process. If you already have a reviewed specification, we can estimate against it directly and move straight to delivery.
Questions we get asked
Do I have to hire you to build it afterwards?
No. Discovery is a separate engagement with its own fixed scope, and the documents are yours to take to any team.
How much of my time does it take?
Expect a few working sessions each week and quick answers to follow-up questions in between. The people who know the business best need to be in the room for the interviews.
What if the estimate comes back higher than I hoped?
Then discovery did its job early, when changing course costs a conversation instead of a rebuild. The plan shows which features drive the cost, so you can decide what launches first and what waits.
Can discovery help with a project that already exists?
Yes. For a stalled or inherited codebase, discovery produces a verdict: what exists, what it would take to finish, and whether finishing or starting again is the better use of the budget.
Further reading
What a paid discovery actually buys you
Writing requirements an engineer can build from
The requirements template we use
When discovery leads to an MVP
Not sure discovery is worth it for your project? That question fits comfortably in a 30-minute intro call.