Conducting Discovery Research in the Double Diamond

Plan and run discovery research for the Double Diamond Discover phase: interviews, field observation and desk research that map the problem space.

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At a Glance

Overview

Discovery research is the work of the Discover phase, the opening half of the first diamond in the Double Diamond. Its job is to replace assumptions about a problem with evidence. The Design Council describes the first diamond as helping people "understand, rather than simply assume, what the problem is," and says it involves speaking to and spending time with the people affected by the issue (Framework for Innovation).

The phase is divergent. You are widening your picture of the problem, so you collect more than you will use and hold off on deciding what matters. The Design Council's own study of design in large companies called Discover a "phase of divergent thought" in which the team keeps its perspectives wide, and listed market research, user research, managing information and design research groups among its activities (Eleven lessons).

The inputs are a challenge statement (usually someone's first guess at the problem), whatever data the organisation already holds, and access to users and staff. The outputs are raw findings: interview notes, observation logs, photos, analytics extracts, quotes and a list of open questions, all tagged by source. You do not produce a problem statement in this phase. That belongs to Define, where the synthesis skill turns findings into an agreed problem.

Discovery research matters because every later decision rests on it. If Discover only confirms what the sponsor already believed, the problem definition inherits the same blind spots, and the second diamond produces good solutions to the wrong problem. A useful test at the end of the phase is whether the team learned something that changed its mind. If nothing surprised anyone, the research probably went too narrow or too shallow.

This skill covers how to frame the research, which methods to combine, how many sessions to plan, how to capture findings so they survive into synthesis, and how to decide the phase is done.

How It Works

Discovery research works by triangulation. Each method sees part of the problem and misses the rest, so you combine methods whose blind spots differ.

Interviews reveal motivations, mental models and attitudes. They are weak on behaviour, because people report what they remember and what sounds reasonable. The Nielsen Norman Group notes that interviews capture self-reported behaviour and are limited by faulty memory and social desirability bias, and recommends pairing them with observation or behavioural data (NN/g on user interviews).

Observation in context shows what people actually do: the workarounds, interruptions and tools they rely on. Field studies take place in the user's own environment and expose problems that never come up in a meeting room (NN/g on field studies). Diary studies extend observation over days or weeks when the behaviour you care about is spread out in time (NN/g on diary studies).

Desk research covers what already exists: analytics, support tickets, previous studies, policy and regulation, and how other organisations handle similar problems. It is cheap and should come first, so interviews spend their time on questions the data cannot answer.

Stakeholder and staff conversations surface constraints. The UK government's service guidance tells discovery teams to learn about constraints from legislation, contracts, legacy technology and existing processes as well as about users (GOV.UK discovery phase). Those constraints shape what Define can realistically choose.

Two rules keep the phase divergent. First, collect before you judge: record what you saw and heard without deciding yet which parts are important. Second, go past the obvious users. People who abandoned the service, people who use a competitor, and front-line staff who absorb the service's failures often explain more than satisfied regular users.

The phase ends on evidence, not on a date alone. You stop when new sessions mostly repeat what you have already heard across each segment, and when the open questions you listed at the start have at least partial answers. Guest, Bunce and Johnson found that themes stabilised within about 12 interviews in a fairly homogeneous group, while later work found cross-site studies needed 20-40 (Bath SDR summary). Use those figures as a planning guide, and let the repetition you observe make the final call.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Write a one-page research brief

State the challenge as you received it, what the team already knows, what it assumes, and what it needs to learn. Phrase the open questions as "how" and "what" questions, such as "How do patients get from a referral to a booked appointment today?", since "Do users want X?" invites people to validate an idea instead of describing their lives. List the segments you need to hear from, the constraints on access and time, and who will make the call that Discover is finished. Share the brief with the sponsor before fieldwork so disagreements about scope appear now instead of in the readout.

Step 2: Start with desk research

Pull what the organisation already has: analytics, support tickets, complaint logs, previous research and any policy or contract that limits the service. Add external material such as published studies and examples from other sectors facing a similar problem. Record each finding with its source so it can be traced later. Use what you learn to sharpen the interview guide and to drop questions the data already answers. Stop when the new material mostly repeats what you have, since desk research can expand without limit.

Step 3: Recruit across segments, including edge cases

Decide which differences between people are likely to change their experience, such as frequency of use, channel, ability, role or region, and recruit a few people from each. Include people who dropped out or never started, because they show where the current service fails. Recruit staff who deliver the service as well. Plan more sessions for segments you understand least. Book fewer sessions than you think you need and add more if the first ones keep surprising you.

Step 4: Run interviews about past behaviour

Use a short semi-structured guide organised by theme rather than a questionnaire. Ask about specific recent events, for example "Tell me about the last time you did this," which the NN/g interview guidance recommends over hypothetical questions. Follow unexpected answers, since they are often where the insight is. Work in pairs when you can, with one person leading and one taking notes, and record with consent. Write a short debrief straight after each session while the details are fresh.

Step 5: Observe people in their own context

Watch the task happen where it normally happens: at the desk, on the phone line, in the clinic, on a mobile device on the move. Note tools, workarounds, interruptions and hand-offs between people, since these rarely come up in interviews. Field studies reveal the gap between what people say and what they do. If the behaviour happens over days or weeks, use a diary study instead of a single visit. Record observations as facts first and interpretations second, clearly separated.

Step 6: Capture findings in one shared, tagged format

Put every finding in one place, one observation per note or row, with the source, the segment and the date. Keep quotes verbatim. Tag loosely by theme but do not cluster or rank yet, because clustering is the start of Define. Invite the wider team to read or listen to raw material, since shared exposure to users builds agreement faster than a summary does. Keep a running list of open questions and new assumptions you spotted.

Step 7: Decide the phase is done and hand over to Define

Review coverage against the brief: which segments you heard from, which open questions have answers, and where the evidence is thin. If new sessions in each segment are mostly repeating what you have, move on. Present raw findings, not conclusions, to the team that will synthesise them, and flag the gaps honestly. The GOV.UK guidance notes that ending a discovery by deciding not to proceed is a valid outcome when the research supports it (GOV.UK discovery phase).

Best Practices

• Treat the brief's problem as a hypothesis. The person who commissioned the work described the problem as they see it. Research that only tests that description cannot find the problem they missed.
• Combine at least one method for what people say with one for what they do. Interviews and observation correct each other. A finding that appears in both is far stronger than one that appears in either alone.
• Talk to non-users and people who left. They show where the current offer fails, which satisfied users cannot tell you.
• Include delivery staff and partners. Front-line staff see the failures users experience every day, and they know constraints no dashboard shows.
• Separate observation from interpretation in your notes. "She printed the form and filled it by hand" is a finding. "She distrusts online forms" is a guess to check in synthesis.
• Share raw material early. Clips, quotes and photos seen by engineers and managers build shared understanding that a slide summary cannot.

Common Mistakes

• Asking people to design the solution: Questions such as "Would you use an app that..." produce polite, unreliable answers. Ask about what people did recently and what got in the way, and leave solution ideas for the second diamond.
• Skipping desk research: Teams that go straight to interviews spend sessions on questions the support logs already answer. Spend a short time on existing data first.
• Recruiting only easy-to-reach users: Regular, satisfied, digitally confident users are the easiest to book and the least informative about failure. Recruit deliberately for the edges.
• Synthesising while still collecting: Clustering and naming themes mid-phase makes later sessions confirm the themes. Tag loosely and hold the clustering for Define.
• Ending on the calendar alone: A fixed end date is useful, but if the last sessions are still surprising you, the problem space is not yet mapped. Extend, or flag the gap explicitly in the handover.

References

• Examples: Worked examples and scenarios
• FAQ: Frequently asked questions
• Parent Method: Double Diamond

Related Skills

• Synthesizing Insights to Define the Problem
• Facilitating Divergent Ideation in the Double Diamond
• Converging on Final Solutions in the Deliver Phase
• Double Diamond Thinking: Divergent and Convergent Modes
• How to Create a Double Diamond Diagram
• Double Diamond vs Design Thinking: Choosing a Framework
• Adapting the Double Diamond UX Framework for Design Projects

Sources

• Design Council: Framework for Innovation
• Design Council: Eleven lessons, managing design in eleven global brands
• NN/g: User Interviews 101
• NN/g: Field Studies
• NN/g: Diary Studies
• GOV.UK Service Manual: How the discovery phase works
• Bath SDR: How many interviews are enough

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