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The research and analysis process typically constitutes the first phase (sometimes called a discovery phase) of a digital project. It’s at this stage that – in conjunction with your team – we’ll discover and define what the larger project should aim to achieve.

We’ll set priorities and deliverables, and use our experience as a digital consultancy to make sure that these align with your organisational goals, the competitive landscape of your market, and your technical infrastructure. Once these criteria are established and agreed, it’s possible for us to advise on timescale and budget and, most importantly, develop a shared vision of how we will achieve the desired outcome.

Classically, a research phase forms one part of a full digital development or transformation project, but we can offer our research services as part of a smaller, digital consultancy contract too.

Ordinarily, a research and analysis phase lasts between two and six weeks, depending on the requirements of your specific project. This normally includes five members of our team and one or two members of your project team at any given time. The workshops themselves can expand to incorporate larger groups of respondents, depending on the research requirements.

During the research process, we’ll use workshops, interviews and other information gathering tools to harvest data from stakeholders and customers. As this data is gathered, it gets funnelled into a continual review and analysis process, allowing us to present progress back to the client via a series of weekly reviews.

The insight gained during this stage helps everyone involved make informed decisions about the future shape of the digital product, creating and shaping the foundation of any development brief created later in the process. Depending on the perceived complexity of the project, we may also, at this point, start to create a set of high-level application wireframes or a basic proof-of-concept prototype of the app or platform.

Components within the research and analysis phase may include:

• Analytics analysis – Review and analysis of your data to inform the decision-making process

• User research – Organisation and facilitation of workshops to gather information directly from end users

• Market research – Quantitative and qualitative research to evaluate your user base, potential market response and strategic options

• User experience and workflow development – Mapping the touch points, user journeys, areas of engagement and user goals that an application would need to satisfy

• Visual research and development – A visual deep dive to seek inspiration from other applications and sites

• Technology scoping and prototyping – Collaborative research to ascertain the technical approach, resource, budget and risk factors of any future stages of the project

The deliverable from this phase of the project is a blueprint report document (often called a discovery report) that provides a comprehensive strategic direction on how the digital product will function, how it will look, how long it will take to deliver and how much it will cost.

This report is essentially a shared vision of how we would create a bespoke digital product or service for your organization. The phase closes with a stakeholder presentation that marks the start of the next phase – design and development.