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Research + Discovery activities

During the Research + Discovery phase, focus on answering key questions about the users of the service you plan to build.

Key questions to answer

  • Who are your users?
  • What are they trying to do?
  • What tasks are they trying to accomplish? And how do they do that currently?
  • What problems or frustrations do they experience in trying to achieve their goals?
  • What do users need from your service to achieve their goals?
  • If your research findings show a need for the service, how would you start building a technical solution?

Activities

  • Define a problem statement that you think your service will solve for your users.

  • Conduct user research to learn about potential users of your service through interviews, observation, and testing.

  • Determine your primary user groups.

  • Analyze any existing VA or private-sector services that meet user needs.

  • Understand current VA policy, technology, and business process related to your service.

  • Identify policy, technical, or other barriers that could make it difficult to meet user needs.

  • Review the developer documentation and conduct technical discovery.

  • Document findings from your user research and technical exploration.

  • Use insights from your findings to create a plan for what the team will work on during the Prototype phase

< Research + Discovery introduction
Research + Discovery checklist >