Discovery Workshop
Find out if your idea is worth the investment.
A fixed-price engagement for stakeholders with a hunch worth exploring. Test the idea with real users before you commit six figures to finding out it doesn't work.
Format
Remote
Video + whiteboard
Timeline
1–2 weeks
intake to final report
Track record
10+ engagements
Fintech, Healthtech, Logistics, Energy, Entertainment
What you're protecting
Time. Budget. Market timing.
Every product investment commits these before the idea is tested, and by the time the market responds, correction is no longer cheap. Discovery answers the question before you get there.
Why this exists
"At least half of our ideas are just not going to work. The really good teams assume that at least three quarters of the ideas won't perform like we hope."
Most failures aren't caused by bad ideas but by good ideas that went from hunch to funded build without a test in between.
This engagement inverts that order: you test the idea before the commitment, not after, and the window between deciding to build and actually building is shorter than it tends to feel.
Across 10+ engagements, some ended in funded builds and others stopped early, but the ones that stopped consistently saved clients more than the ones that proceeded.
Risk coverage
Every product investment carries four risks. Discovery exists to surface them before the build, not after.
Desirability
Will customers buy or choose it?
Usability
Can customers figure out how to use it?
Viability
Will it work for the business?
Feasibility
Can we build it with the time, skills, and technology we have?
Desirability
Will customers buy
or choose it?
Viability
Will it work for
the business?
Feasibility
Can we build it with the time,
skills, and technology we have?
Usability
Can customers
figure out how
to use it?
"There are no black and white answers in discovery. Whenever we put a solution in our delivery backlog, we are making a bet. Discovery helps us reduce the risk of that bet."
Who this is for
This engagement is not for everyone, and that's intentional. It works best in a specific situation. If you don't fit, we'll tell you directly.
Strong fit
Teams with multiple decision-makers who need to align before committing engineering headcount
Organizations with real engineering budget but no dedicated product discovery capability
Decision-makers accountable to a board or leadership team for the outcome
Growth-stage companies funding a new product line or entering a new market
Not a fit
Early-stage startups where shipping fast and iterating is the right strategy. Do that instead.
Solo founders with direct user access who can run their own validation in less than two weeks
Teams without budget to act on a build / no-go decision
Projects already in delivery. This is a pre-build engagement.
Organizations with a mature discovery practice and empowered product teams already doing this work.
Before we start
Discovery without the right participants becomes theater. These conditions are not optional.
One accountable decision owner attending
Access to business and domain stakeholders
An existing idea, workflow, or opportunity to examine
Access to at least 5 prospects or users for test sessions
Willingness to make a build / test / kill decision
Trusted by
What you'll know
Is this idea worth the investment?
Who actually wants this, and what will make them pay for it?
What are we most wrong about?
What did real users do that we did not expect?
What should be killed, changed, tested, or funded?
What you walk away with
Evidence, not a deck. Four concrete outputs at the end of every engagement.
High-quality prototype
Realistic enough to surface genuine behavior and validate core assumptions
User test record
5 moderated sessions: documented responses and observed behavior
Executive report
Synthesis of findings with concrete, annotated insights
Go / no-go recommendation
An evidence-based answer on whether the investment is worth making
Selected work
Functional prototypes built in days from workshop insights, designed to surface real user behavior, not to ship.
Speed and signal over polish.
NF Admin
Gym management
How it works
A sequenced process designed to surface the right answer before the budget is committed. Remote, with no disruption to your team's calendar.
Kickoff
Establish the problem space, the constraints, and what a credible answer requires.
Problem framing
Surface the assumptions the team is treating as facts before designing against them.
Solution mapping
Generate and evaluate solution directions against the validated problem framing.
Prototype brief
Select the approach and define precisely what the prototype needs to prove.
Protocol lock
Walk through the prototype and finalize the test script before users come in.
User tests
5 screened participants. Moderated, recorded, and synthesized into the final report.
The facilitation team
Every engagement is run by the same three-person team: a product manager, a product designer, and a software architect, each with more than 10 years of domain experience.
Product Manager
Value · Viability
Designer
Usability
Architect
Feasibility
Desirability emerges where all three overlap
Desirability
Product Manager
Value · Viability
Product Designer
Usability
Software Architect
Feasibility
Pricing and scope
Includes
Stakeholder intake and pre-engagement research
5 expert-facilitated sessions
High-fidelity functional prototype
5 screened and moderated user test sessions, fully recorded
Excludes
Participant recruiting
Post-delivery prototype revisions
Ongoing advisory or implementation support
Engineering or product development
Test the idea before you fund the build.
Your idea deserves a real answer before it gets a real budget.
Start with a short brief