We start every project with a five-day Discovery, never more. Not out of dogma, but because beyond that we fall into analysis paralysis and stop adding incremental value to the client. Here's how those five days unfold.
Day 1 — Audit & analytics
We get inside the client's house: Google Analytics, Hotjar, internal dashboards, support tickets. We map the funnel, identify the top 3 leaks, note the obvious biases.
Deliverable: a raw note (4-6 pages) with key numbers and 5 to 10 hypotheses to dig into. Tools: GA4, Hotjar (or Plausible if ethics demands), shared spreadsheet for top tickets.
Day 2 — User interviews
Five 30-minute interviews. No more, no less. Three existing customers (different segments), two who didn't convert. We record, transcribe (Whisper locally), extract jobs-to-be-done and frustrations.
We avoid the trap: asking questions that validate our hypotheses. Instead, we ask "the last time you did X, what happened?". Narrative beats theory every time.
Day 3 — Stack & competitive
Tech audit: Lighthouse performance, accessibility, SEO, outdated dependencies, security debt. In parallel, benchmark of three direct competitors: positioning, pricing, purchase journey, public NPS if available.
Deliverable: "better / same / worse" matrix on 8 to 10 criteria. It's uncomfortable, but it aligns everyone on reality.
Day 4 — Architecture & roadmap
We synthesize all this into a target architecture (technical, product, content) and a 90-day roadmap in three phases: Quick wins (1-3 weeks), Structural rebuild (4-8 weeks), Continuous optimization (9-12 weeks).
Each item is prioritized via an impact × effort grid, with a numerical score to avoid "stakeholder feel".
Day 5 — Debrief & alignment
3-hour workshop with the client. We present the diagnosis, the roadmap, the quote. We leave 1 hour for challenge — where the client can break our hypotheses.
Workshop output: a signed go/no-go. If go, we move to Build the following week. If no-go, we still delivered a usable audit.
Why 5 days, not 3 or 10
Three days: not enough time to dig into interviews, we stay on the surface. Ten days: we get locked into docs, the client loses enthusiasm, cost explodes for marginal gain.
Five days is the Goldilocks zone. Want to talk?