Product Discovery at CobbleWeb: our gateway to better software development

Anyone who has ever been involved in any form of project management will agree that the better the planning phase, the better the execution and usually the project outcomes. 

The discovery phase of each project CobbleWeb undertakes is therefore considered absolutely critical to a productive development phase and superior business results. This entails two important ingredients: a clear process and close collaboration between all the stakeholders.

Since we don’t do cookie-cutter solutions, there are no production-line silos. All team members are involved in contributing to the best solution, which includes the evaluation of different options. This is your opportunity to influence tech decisions and develop a deeper understanding of how technology supports business goals.

It’s important to note that this collaboration is done in a systematic manner. Once the initial research has been done, the team will have a meeting where everyone can challenge the proposed solution and offer their own recommendations.

There are several advantages to this approach. Being involved in the friction of designing solutions invariably leads to professional growth. A solid discovery process also reduces the risk of roadblocks and u-turns in the development phase, which in turn minimises frustration and time wastage.

How it works: 

During discovery we identify and validate the problems that need solving, the markets that are targeted, and the solutions that are offered. On a practical level, it means gaining an in-depth understanding of user personas, user flows, and business parameters. 

The discovery phase at CobbleWeb contains three interrelated steps, each with its own deliverables. At the end of this phase we will be in agreement about:

1. Which epics we are going to build first. 
   1. Epics can cover a whole feature such as a product search engine or booking system, or a portion of a complex feature such as payment platform integration. You can check out a list of marketplace features we’ve built here.

2. How we are going to build it. 
   1. Engineers are closely involved in the technical aspect of discovery. For example, evaluating database options or software libraries to find the best way to improve search performance. 
   2. The Tech Lead assigns an engineer to lead each epic based on experience and areas of interest. This engineer, with support and validation from the rest of the team, is responsible for identifying the best solution for that epic. This approach is a great source of professional growth for all our engineers.

3. The resource requirements.

Step 1: Interrogation

The purpose of this step is to gain a deeper understanding of the client’s business and its users. In a series of meetings, our Product Manager will discuss user personas, user journeys, and business parameters in more detail. We evaluate the friction and goals of each feature of the platform and whether it makes sense to invest any effort in them.  (status: grooming in progress)

Deliverables: 

• A grooming brief. Check out this example we created for a new feature of a property management platform.
• User data evaluation in case of an existing platform (E.g. engagement metrics or drop-off rates)

Step 2: Design

The design team – in  close collaboration with the client’s UX/UI designer and our engineers – create the look and layout of the platform, taking into account the various user scenarios and their corresponding user flows. This step evaluates which solution would be best suited to the frictions and goals identified previously. (status: design in progress)

Deliverables: 

• List of user flows
• Design elements such as branding
• Mockups, wireframes, flow charts

The design sequence:

1. The Product Manager establishes the design requirements (functionalities and features) of the epic and briefs the designer who then creates mockups, illustrations and UI guidelines.
2. The engineer that was assigned to lead the epic will evaluate the design from a technical perspective. The purpose is to align the design with how the feature will work. For example, is the optimal user or system flow being followed?
3. If it is a more complex epic, the lead engineer will rope in the rest of the team for assistance with the evaluation. Once feedback has been passed on to the Product Manager, the UX designer will update the design.
4. The Product Manager gets the design approved by the client.

Step 3: Documentation

During this step we capture the business rules in more detail. We map out and document how things should work from both a functional and technical perspective. The engineering team is closely involved to (1) ensure epics are technically feasible and (2) translate epic requirements into a technical vision (status: spec in progress or spec in review)

Deliverables: 

• Storyboard – breakdown of epics into user stories. 
  • Compiled by the Product Manager with support from the Tech Lead
• Functional specifications. 
  • Compiled by the Product Manager with support from Tech Lead and feedback from the engineering team.
  • Use cases for each epic, e.g. onboarding of sellers vs buyers
  • UI interactions, e.g. what happens when a button is clicked 
  • Revenue model mapped out 
  • A glossary that defines terms that will be used in project
• Technical specifications – covers aspects such as APIs, data model, email triggers, automated tasks, and integration documentation (e.g. how to manage third-party endpoints)
  • Compiled by the Tech Lead in conjunction with the engineering team.
• Documentation is shared online where the client can comment. 

The documentation feedback loop:

1. Technical discovery kicks off with an initial chat among the engineering team
2. The epic lead will gather insights from those engineers who are knowledgeable on the specific topic
3. In some cases an engineer may be delegated to search our knowledge base to gain insights from previous projects
4. The epic lead creates the technical specification document
5. The engineering team gives feedback on the specification document
6. The epic lead gives a demo at the end of technical discovery. This should include:
   1. A rundown of the tech stack and why it chosen
   2. A gap analysis between the current vs new solution
7. The engineering team gives additional feedback on the demo
8. The tech lead does the final validation which may require further updates
9. Final alignment with the engineering team

Complexity and the Ten-Thousand-Hour Rule

As Malcolm Gladwell stated in his famous book, Outliers, “it takes a lot of practice to be good at complex tasks.” In fact, he calculated that on average it takes about 10,000 hours to become good at something. 

At CobbleWeb we also believe that dedicated repetition makes you the master of a skill. That’s why we encourage engineers to lead similar epics for an extensive period of time, in order to hone their knowledge and skill set. This drives professional growth and allows them to add deep value to projects.