How to Run a Discovery Phase: 3 Steps for a Successful Product

Discovery phase example: How TikTok’s focused strategy led to success

Now that we’ve covered what the product discovery phase is and why it matters, let’s take a look at one of the most popular apps out there - TikTok.

When you hear “TikTok,” what comes to mind? A video feed, likes, shares, profiles, chat, and a ton of flashy features. It feels like the app was built just for those things. But what if I told you that none of that was the core business requirement?

TikTok’s main business driver was something far more strategic: a creator promotion algorithm. The goal wasn’t just to host videos, it was to build a system that surfaces engaging content, no matter who created it. That’s why anyone can go viral.

But that outcome wasn’t accidental, it was the result of a focused step-by-step discovery process. Other video apps like Instagram already existed, but TikTok succeeded due to deeper algorithmic refinement.

From the start, TikTok’s team had one clear business goal: Make creators successful.

All other functional requirements and features flowed from that:

• Make content creation simple and appealing for creators.
• Keep users highly engaged with personalized content.
• Drive viral sharing and organic growth through tailored recommendations.
• Ensure anyone, not just established influencers, had the opportunity to go viral.

Each early feature directly supported these aims, attracting creators interested in exposure and fostering consistent content creation.

This is precisely what an effective discovery phase looks like: every decision rooted in clear business objectives. TikTok nailed it so well, we’re half-convinced they read our playbook

When should a startup run a discovery phase?

The discovery phase isn’t just for brand-new startups, it’s for any moment when you're making decisions that could significantly impact your product, users, or business. It’s your best chance to reduce risk, validate direction, and align your team before investing serious time and money.

You should run a discovery phase when:

• Launching a new product, MVP (minimum viable product), or POC (proof of concept).
• Adding major new features to an existing app
• Redesigning a legacy system
• Exploring a new market or user segment

How to validate a startup idea?

This phase is your homework. Before you bring in a development partner or sit down with investors, you need to do the thinking only you can do. Because no one else will define your vision for you.

In this phase, you're laying the foundation that everything else will sit on and if that’s unstable, your whole startup will crack. You don’t need technical specs or pixel-perfect designs, but you do need confidence.

Not just an idea — a point of view. A reason this product should exist, and a rough sketch of what it needs to do. You’re not pitching a fantasy. You’re proving there’s logic, demand, and purpose behind what you want to build.

At this stage, you should be able to clearly answer:

• What exactly is your product? What does it do in one sentence?
• Who are your users, and what problem are you solving for them?
• How are they solving it now, and why is your approach better than competitors?

If you want to properly perform startup idea validation and structure your thinking, download our template. It will help you ask the right questions, spot weak points early, and be better prepared for raising investments.

What to focus on at this stage?

Your must-haves at this stage:

• A clear understanding of whose problem you are solving — who your target users are.
• A clear definition of what problem you are solving — the real pain point or need.
• A clear explanation of how your system solves that problem from a business perspective.

Very good if you have:

• Draft mockups or sketches. Even a basic drawing is better than nothing, and anyone can do it.
• Competitor feature comparison. It helps define your unique angle.
• A shortlist of must-have vs. nice-to-have features for realistic scoping later.
• Initial functionality overview. What should your product actually do at launch?

You don’t need to get everything perfect. But you do need to get real. If building a product is the goal, this is the minimum level of thinking that needs to come first. Doubts are completely normal, the discovery phase exists to help clear them up.

And if you don’t have any artifacts, or aren’t sure how to approach it, that’s OK. You don’t have to figure it out alone. Just reach out to us, and we’ll help to move forward your startup with discovery services.

What Happens in This Phase?

This step is about answering key feasibility questions:

• Is the desired functionality technically realistic?
• Can it be delivered within the available budget and timeline?
• Are there third-party systems or APIs that might create bottlenecks?
• Will the proposed tech stack scale if the product grows quickly?
• Are user expectations and workflows fully understood?

The focus is to strip away uncertainty and clearly define:

• What must be built now?
• What can be delayed?
• What should be dropped altogether?

Often, this is the first time a founder sees their idea broken down. That shift in delivery perspective is key to avoiding common pitfalls: bloated scope, unnecessary complexity, and misallocated resources.

The key to success is balancing desirability, feasibility, and viability. Founders often emphasize one area, but neglecting the overlap can lead to products that miss the mark. Make sure your MVP checks all the boxes: something users want, that can be built efficiently, and that is profitable.

What Founders Often Overlook?

• “We’ll figure it out later” is expensive. Ambiguity always leads to overengineering or costly rework. Vague requirements turn into scope creep, technical debt, or features that need to be scrapped.
• Business analysts cost less. A day spent refining scope with a BA costs significantly less than a sprint burned rewriting features or fixing edge cases after launch.
• Scope reduction isn’t failure — it’s focus. Cutting features early doesn't mean the idea is weak. It means you’re prioritizing validation and time-to-market, not building bloated software.
• Planning flexibility is just as important as structure. The goal is  to clarify intent so that future decisions are made from a solid baseline.

What Do You Get?

By the end of this phase, you’ll have the comprehensive document that includes:

• MVP Feature Set. A structured list of essential features, validated for feasibility. At this stage, we often help uncover features that didn’t initially mention. For example, if there’s a user-generated content component, we’ll highlight the need for reactions, content reporting, blocking, and moderation tools. If there’s an account system, required features tied to it are factored in or removed if unnecessary.
• Delivery Model Recommendation. Suggested architecture, tools, and platforms based on the MVP requirements. Considerations include speed to market, scalability, integrations, and team skill sets.
• Estimated Team Setup for Delivery. A clear overview of the roles needed to deliver your MVP—backend/frontend developers, designers, QA, DevOps, and project managers. We estimate the level of effort for each role.
• Delivery Timeline & Budget Estimate. A rough delivery timeline with high-level milestones, combined with a cost estimate broken down by role, phase, and scope area. This gives you a clear view of the investment needed to move forward.

As a startup founder, it’s your job to make informed decisions that keep the product development on track, within budget, and aligned with your goals. This phase gives you the structure, clarity, and technical foundation to do just that. And we do it for FREE.

If needed, you can take this document and share with any other company or consultant, it’s clear, self-contained, and built to be useful regardless of who executes the project.

From here, we move smoothly into the final stage: requirements development, where everything gets shaped into a build-ready blueprint.

Finalizing requirements for development

This phase also allows for possible changes in product vision as we move from planning to detailed definition. After that, with a clear vision and validated MVP scope in place, the final step is turning everything into a build-ready specification.

This phase is where we define detailed functional and non-functional requirements, covering every piece of your future product. From key features to system behaviors, performance expectations, and edge cases.

At this stage, you’ll typically work closely with the software development team to finalize the product’s structure, account for possible changes in vision, and make key decisions around implementation and technical trade-offs. Unlike the previous stages, this phase will require a financial investment in an expert team to assist you.

What you’ll accomplish with expert guidance?

• Finalize the technical solution for each feature.
• Define clear acceptance criteria for development.
• Identify dependencies, potential bottlenecks, and edge cases.
• Prioritize features based on goals, budget, and go-to-market strategy.
• Develop the UX and UI design to support user experience from concept to interface.
• Prepare the system architecture and infrastructure recommendations if needed.

What’s included:

• A full Functional Requirements Document outlining user stories, user roles, system workflows, and expected behavior.
• Defined Non-Functional Requirements, including performance benchmarks, platform constraints, data security needs, scalability plans, and integration points.
• User Stories that define tasks and goals from the user’s perspective.
• Wireframes to visualize layout and structure.
• Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) to map data structure and relationships.
• UX planning based on real user flows.
• Information Architecture to organize content and features.
• Wireflow diagrams showing how users interact with the product across screens.
• Interactive prototype that enables clickable, testable user journeys before development.

By the end of this phase, you’ll have a complete, production-ready blueprint that can be handed off to any experienced developers and they'll know exactly what to build and how.

But more importantly, you'll walk away with documentation that is valuable for your investors. A clear and professionally packaged discovery deliverable shows that you’re not just pitching an idea—you’ve validated it, planned it, and know exactly how to build it.

One venture capital firm can receive over 1,000 startup proposals per year. If you want to stand out, your vision needs more than a pitch deck.

1. Feature List

Here’s a real example of a fiche sheet we delivered during discovery for a product centered around video content and monetization. Features are grouped into logical blocks for easier scoping, discussion, and handoff to development.

2. System Architecture

Let’s take a look at an example of a system architecture diagram we created during the discovery phase for a blockchain-integrated application.

This diagram maps out the technical foundation of the product. How requests move through the cloud infrastructure, how backend services are deployed, and how the app interacts with a blockchain network.

3. User Story Samples

When we talk about user stories during the product discovery phase, we mean simple, practical descriptions of how users will interact with your product. Each story focuses on the user’s goal, so that every function has a real purpose.

Here’s an example from a real project:

Why is it important?

If users can't easily recover their passwords, they abandon the app. This flow ensures people can quickly get back in without frustration.

Acceptance Criteria:

• I can request password recovery if I am not logged in to the application.
• To recover my password, I can request a recovery link to be sent to my email (in case I registered using email/password).
• I must provide my email address to receive the recovery link.
  • After validating the required field, the system displays the message: “Password recovery link sent to <Email>, please navigate through the link to change password. Don’t forget to check your spam folder if you can’t find the email.” and sends (if a user account with the specified email exists) an email with a recovery link to the provided email address.
  • The link is available for 24 hours, after which, upon clicking the link, the system displays the message: “Password recovery link has expired. Please request a new link.”
  • I can request password recovery no more than 5 times within 24 hours to the same email; if this limit is exceeded, the system displays the message: “Limit of attempts reached. If you still can’t recover your password, please contact us for support.”
• I can follow the sent link to enter a new password (New password / Confirm new password).
  • By default, the entered password is hidden.
    • I can toggle to display the entered password.
  • If I was logged in with another account at the moment of following the link, the system logs me out before continuing.
• After specifying the new password, upon successful field validation, I can save the new password, after which the system:
  • Displays the message “Password updated successfully”
  • Saves the new password
  • Logs me in (if I was not previously logged in)
  • Redirects me to my profile screen
  • Until the new password is saved, the old password remains valid.

Writing user stories and acceptance criteria like this gives your development team a clear target. It helps them understand why a feature matters and what exactly "done" means.

4. Wireframes

Wireframes in the discovery phase are the first visual translation of the product idea into structure. They allow us to outline the layout of each screen, define content zones, and map out the most important interactions, without getting distracted by colors or final visuals.

In these wireframes below, you can see how we designed the search flow and profile interaction model for a short video platform like TikTok. The wireframes cover core use cases such as:

• Searching for users and posts
• Viewing a user’s profile with follow/subscribe actions
• Browsing free and paid video posts
• Navigating through video content and interacting with posts (likes, comments, shares)

5. Userflow Diagrams

Userflow diagrams combine the structure of wireframes with the logic of user flows. They visualize how a user moves through the app step by step, highlighting how each screen connected.

In this example from our portfolio, we mapped out the full authentication and onboarding flow, including key paths and edge cases.

The wireflow covers:

• Signing in and recovering a password
• Email-based account registration and verification
• Onboarding with profile setup
• Handling limits on recovery attempts
• Success confirmations and redirection

Each interaction is mapped out visually to ensure nothing gets lost.

6. UI Design Kit and Style Concept

While the wireframes define how your product works, the UI design kit focuses on how it feels, its mood, personality, and clarity.

This allows stakeholders to see how the product will look and feel before full-scale design begins.

Below is a typical breakdown of what we include in a UI style concept:

Below is an example of the UI kit.

Curious what this would look like for your idea?

We can provide a rough effort and budget estimate tailored to your project’s scope, goals, and team setup. Request a free estimation now.