Discovery Planning

What do they want?

Overview

In many public service contexts, teams jump into fieldwork without first aligning on why, how, and with whom research should be conducted. This often leads to fragmented efforts and missed insights. The Discovery Planning is designed to ensure your team has a shared, purposeful plan for conducting user-centred research. It helps you clarify your focus, select appropriate methods, and prepare for the logistical and ethical dimensions of fieldwork.

Open in Google Slides

⏱️ Time: 60–90 minutes

👫 Participants: Core team (3–6 people)

🛠️ Materials: Printed canvas (A1 recommended), markers, sticky notes

Input

Before completing this canvas, ensure you have completed the following steps:

Service ChallengeStakeholder Map

Context

Use this tool at the start of the research, after the challenge has been scoped but before interviews or observations begin. It is ideal for team sessions where alignment is needed on who to talk to, what to investigate, and how to go about it – especially when working across different departments or with external partners.

Recipe

1

Clarify the challenge

Start by briefly noting the problem you’re exploring. This should reflect the framing done in the scoping phase, and remain open-ended – not solution-driven.

2

Define who to engage

Taking stock of the previous works on stakeholder mapping and user characteristics, identify your primary end-users and relevant stakeholders. Consider user characteristics (e.g. digital access, geography, literacy) and inclusion priorities.

3

Draft research goals (at a high level)

Clarify what your team needs to learn to understand the problem more deeply. Keep this broad for now – specific themes will be broken down in the Interview Objectives Sheet afterwards.

4

Choose methods and tools

Decide how to gather the insights you need – e.g. semi-structured interviews, in-context observations, journey mapping, process mapping. Each method reveals a different dimension of the current experience. Choose the one that best fits your research goals, the type of insight you’re looking for, and the resources you have.

Method	Best for…	Use when you want to…	Limitations
Interview (e.g. semi-structured)	Understanding user experiences, needs, motivations, and perceptions	Hear directly from users or staff about their thoughts, stories, or frustrations	Relies on what people say—not always what they do
Observation (e.g. shadowing, fly-on-the-wall)	Seeing real behaviours in context	Understand how people actually interact with a service or system in practice	Can be time-intensive; requires trust and access
Journey Mapping (from user’s perspective)	Capturing the lived experience across time and touch-points	Visualise how a user moves through a service, including pain points and emotions	Based on reported experience or interpretation; may miss systemic factors
Process Mapping (from system/organisation’s view)	Clarifying internal steps, roles, and rules of the providers	Map how a service or process works behind the scenes; identify inefficiencies or blockers	May not reflect how users experience the process; needs insider knowledge

5

Plan logistics

Note where, when, and with whom the research will take place. Consider timeframes, access to users, ethics, translation needs, and internal capacity.

Results

A shared plan that aligns the team on the purpose, scope, and logistics of research activities. Ready to begin recruitment and fieldwork.

Tips

• Make space for inclusion: who might be left out of your plan?

• Avoid planning for “ideal” users only – seek out edge cases or those with the greatest barriers.

• Don’t overcomplicate – start with a basic plan and adapt as you learn.

• If you’re unsure how to reach a group, identify proxies or intermediaries.

• Use this canvas collaboratively – diverse views strengthen your research framing.

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