Discovery
Technology Strategy to defy the odds
The Discovery process provides exactly what is missing; focus and understanding right at the start.
The business case stacks up, the opportunity is there but there is a lack of certainty. What actually is it? How will it work? Who will it affect? What comes first? What comes next? What are the big technical challenges? What is already there? What investment will it really need?
Why is discovery important for successful digital transformation?
The odds are against us. A McKinsey study found that “66% of software projects overrun on costs and the biggest factor to this is missing focus and understanding at the start”.
The Discovery process provides exactly what is missing; focus and understanding right at the start.
The business case stacks up, the opportunity is there but there is a lack of certainty. What actually is it? How will it work? Who will it affect? What comes first? What comes next? What are the big technical challenges? What is already there? What investment will it really need?
The Discovery process changes the odds, reduces the risk and sets projects up for success.
The outputs from the Discovery enable us to track the progress of a project, programme of work or digital transformation continuously, enabling us to pivot and adjust accordingly.
Patrick Cannon
Head of Digital at Marcus Evans Group
Razor’s UI/UX design expertise was fundamental to the success of our project. Right from the very start with the Discovery workshop, Razor helped us to clarify our project objectives and provide innovative solutions throughout on how to achieve these. Thanks to Razor the regular communication and collaborative approach helped us to successfully deliver a complicated project on time and within budget.
What is a Discovery?
Organisations, like people, are all different and so are the projects and challenges. A Discovery is a tailored exercise run within a mature process that drives out clarity, a shared understanding, and delivers a vision and a plan that is in line with the commercial drivers and wider business objectives.
In every case, we start with people. We find out what is really happening and what the real problem is.
We involve the people to get the real answers and also to get them onboard. Digital transformation at any level needs people to need and want the change otherwise it won’t get adopted and won’t succeed however amazing the technology is.
We explore what is already in place and document the details of infrastructure, the technology and the processes. We listen, understand, challenge and question.
What does Razor bring to a Discovery?
We bring a level of ignorance that unlocks new opportunities and magic. We understand the technical direction and importantly the trade-off between speed, longevity, architecture and infrastructure and investment.
In some cases it can involve exploring the depths of what is possible with the latest cutting edge technologies to unlock something exponentially better, which is where we bring our experience and expertise in advanced innovation and research.
How do you conduct an effective Discovery?
A high performance project team is selected specifically for the Discovery. The team is tailored to the Discovery. Some Discoveries have a heavy focus on legacy integration and modernisation, some have a need for user experience research and product design and some may have elements of data in them.
The process is inspired by design thinking. We find the root of the problem, expand the possibilities and bring the ideas into solutions and validate our findings.
The process is jam packed with excitement, challenge, enlightenment and results in direction and clarity.
