What is discovery research in UX?

The discovery phase in UX research is the first step in uncovering what your users really need, long before you start designing solutions. 

"Before working to design the thing right, we must first be sure we're designing the right thing." – Peter Morville.

This phase is all about understanding who your users are, their pain points, and the broader context of their challenges. Nail this, and you’ll reduce risk, save time, and set your project up for success. 

In this article, we’ll show you how the discovery phase leads to smarter decisions and share our five top tips to get it right.

Key takeaways

• Discovery research helps define the right problem to solve, aligning the entire team on user-centered goals.

• It reduces project risk by validating assumptions early, preventing costly redesigns later.

• Using a mix of methods, such as contextual inquiry, ethnography, and behavioral analytics, gives you a holistic understanding of users.

• Continuous discovery is key – user needs evolve, and your research should adapt with them.

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What is discovery research in UX?

Discovery research in UX is the investigative phase of the design process, focusing on identifying and defining user problems before developing solutions. It’s about gaining a deep understanding of who your users are, their behaviors, pain points, and the environments in which they operate. This stage uses tools like interviews, surveys, and competitive analysis to uncover unmet needs.

By developing a clear research plan, your efforts stay structured and focused on solving the right problem, maximizing the ROI of user research. This not only saves time and resources but also delivers long-term value by reducing costly redesigns and aligning stakeholders early in the process. 

When done right, discovery research provides clarity, direction, and a shared understanding among all stakeholders, enabling teams to align on a user-centered vision from the start.

Curious about the difference between discovery research and product discovery? While discovery research aims to understand users in their real-world contexts, product discovery is about uncovering and meeting market needs. For a deep dive, check out our article on the product discovery process.

UX discovery research methods

To run effective discovery research, it’s key to mix up your methods, because no single approach captures everything. Think of each method as a puzzle piece – user interviews, surveys, and competitive analysis all offer different angles. Together, they create a full picture of who your users are, what they need, and where their frustrations lie. 

Here’s a closer look at the UX research methods you should consider. Each of these methods delivers findings that, when combined, offer a comprehensive understanding of both the problem space and the users themselves. 

Stakeholder interviews

Stakeholder interviews are a great way to tap into the unique knowledge and experience they bring to the table. 

By understanding what's been tried before, what worked, and what didn’t, you’re better equipped to propose solutions that have a higher chance of success. These interviews also foster early buy-in from key stakeholders, leading to smoother collaboration and helping avoid friction as the project evolves.

During these interviews, ask stakeholders about their vision for the product, key performance indicators (KPIs), and any constraints they foresee (like budget or timeline). Getting this clarity makes sure your research aligns with both user needs and business goals, bridging any gaps early on.

Competitive analysis

Competitive analysis helps you understand how your competitors are addressing similar user needs, and where they might be falling short. This method involves analyzing competing products’ features, usability, and market positioning to discover gaps in the market or opportunities for differentiation.

By studying competitor reviews, user feedback, and product roadmaps, you can learn from their mistakes and successes. This knowledge helps you develop a product that's more user-centric, while addressing unmet needs or frustrations users have with existing solutions.

JTBD interviews

Jobs to be Done (JTBD) interviews conducted with your customers are highly effective during discovery research. They focus on understanding the problems your users are trying to solve. This helps you to understand their true needs rather than surface-level preferences. They can help identify gaps in current solutions and reveal opportunities for innovation. 

By emphasizing desired outcomes, JTBD interviews avoid feature-focused thinking and support user-centered design, providing a clear picture of how to build solutions that fit users’ lives. 

Use our JTBD survey template to uncover your users' real motivations and unmet needs. This helps you refine your product, enhance customer satisfaction, and spot opportunities for innovation.

Contextual inquiry

Contextual inquiry involves observing users in their actual environments to see how they naturally interact with your product or service. This method gives valuable feedback into the daily context in which users operate (which can sometimes differ quite dramatically from what they report during interviews or surveys!).

Surveys and questionnaires

Surveys are ideal for gathering quantitative data at scale, making them perfect for validating patterns or hypotheses generated through more in-depth methods like interviews. Well-crafted surveys can help measure user satisfaction, preferences, or behaviors across a broad audience.

Surveys should be designed with clear, focused questions that avoid bias. Using a mix of open-ended and multiple-choice questions, you can gather both specific information and broad trends to inform your decision-making. 

Journey mapping

Journey mapping involves visualizing the entire user experience, from the moment they first meet the problem to how they seek and interact with potential solutions. By documenting each stage of their journey, you can identify key frustrations, moments of satisfaction, and opportunities for improvement.

The key goals of UX discovery research

At its core, UX discovery research is about laying the groundwork for smart, user-centered decisions. The goal is to make sure you’re solving the right problems, creating value for both users and the business. Let’s break down the main goals of discovery research and how they drive successful outcomes.

1. Identify the right problem

Discovery research tackles the core issues users face, not just surface-level symptoms. Discovery allows you to validate assumptions, uncover deeper problems, and challenge preconceptions, leading to more targeted solutions. It’s not just about finding out what users want – it’s about figuring out why they need it, which helps to frame the project correctly from the start.

2. Build empathy for users

At its heart, discovery research is about getting inside your users’ heads. By immersing yourself in their worlds, you shift the focus from what you think they need to what they actually need. This empathy creates user-centric solutions that resonate with your audience. It’s the difference between guessing what works and knowing what truly adds value.

3. Align teams around shared goals

Have you ever worked on a project where every team has a different idea of what the end product should look like? Discovery research aligns all stakeholders – from product managers to designers and developers – around the same user-centered goals. It creates a shared language and understanding of problems, and decisions made later in the project can reflect those early findings. This reduces internal conflict, improves communication, and keeps everyone focused on the same goals.

4. Clarify project direction

Without a clear direction, projects often get bogged down by scope creep or conflicting priorities. Discovery research sets the project on a clear path by defining what success looks like, both from a user and business perspective. It provides a framework for making informed decisions about what to build, what to prioritize, and what to cut. 

Clear objectives grounded in user needs help the project stay focused on delivering maximum value.

UX discovery research benefits

Discovery research is a critical investment that pays off throughout the entire product life cycle. Here’s a look at the key benefits.

Reduced project risk

By identifying real user needs, research reduces the risk of investing time and money into features that don’t resonate with users. Imagine launching a product based on guesswork only to realize – too late – that it doesn’t actually solve users’ core problems.

Discovery helps you avoid this by uncovering issues early and making sure the design addresses what matters. It saves both time and costly rework down the line.

Faster time to market

Rather than trial and error during later stages, discovery keeps you on the right track from the start. By validating solutions early on, you avoid the need to redo large portions of work after development has begun. This leads to a more efficient design and product development process, each step building on well-researched foundations.

Higher user satisfaction

Discovery research uncovers the frustrations and desires that matter to users. When your product directly solves their pain points, it feels intuitive and designed “just for them.” This connection fosters loyalty and engagement, leading to higher retention rates.

Improved stakeholder alignment

Discovery research helps align all teams around a shared understanding of users’ needs and the project’s goals. This leads to smoother collaboration and faster decision-making during development.

Better prioritization of features

Discovery research doesn’t just highlight user pain points – it helps you prioritize the features that will have the most impact. Without discovery, projects often end up with long wish lists of features that may or may not deliver real value. Discovery narrows the focus, making sure that resources are spent on what will move the needle most for users and the business.

Use our closed card sorting template to learn how users rank your features by priority. This method helps you align your product with user needs and expectations, ensuring a more user-focused development process. 

Increased innovation

Discovery research can open up opportunities for innovation that might not have been on your radar. By digging into how your users behave, what they need, and what frustrates them, you get valuable feedback that can inspire creative solutions beyond just small improvements. It could mean rethinking how things are done, launching new features, or finding user groups that haven’t been fully supported yet. It’s about turning feedback into bold, meaningful changes.

Our 5 top tips for executing UX discovery research

Discovery research is a critical step that defines the trajectory of your product design. To set you up for success, here are our five top tips.

1. Start with hypothesis framing

Hypothesis framing gives your research a clear direction. Instead of casting a wide net, create specific, testable assumptions based on user data or past feedback. 

What are you hoping to confirm or challenge about your users? You might hypothesize that younger users will find your interface unintuitive. Your research will then focus on confirming or disproving this through real-world testing.

Hypothesis-driven research means every method you employ is purposefully aligned with solving key user issues.

2. Diversify research methods strategically

Are you relying too heavily on methods like surveys and interviews? Diversification is key. By keeping up with UX research trends, you can make sure you’re using the most effective and innovative methods available. 

3. Conduct in-context research

Conducting in-context research is like getting a front-row seat to your users’ real-world experiences, allowing you to see firsthand how your product fits into their daily lives – the struggles, the workarounds, and the moments of delight. 

These kinds of findings are invaluable, revealing nuances you’d never catch otherwise, and helping you design more intuitive solutions that truly meet user needs.

In-context research is particularly useful in high-stakes industries like healthcare, where usability can affect not just productivity but outcomes.

4. Prioritize insights, not just data

Have you ever completed research, only to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data? Data is valuable, but it’s the insights you extract that make the difference. 

Techniques like affinity mapping or thematic analysis help you cluster related findings and extract actionable insights. For instance, if your research uncovers several pain points around onboarding, grouping those findings will help you pinpoint exactly where friction lies.

Your stakeholders don’t need a data dump. They need to understand why users are struggling and how your team can fix it with clear, actionable recommendations.

5. Prototype early, test often

Do you wait too long to put your ideas in front of users? Don’t. Low-fidelity prototypes can be tested during the discovery phase, giving you invaluable feedback before a design is set in stone.

By building quick, interactive mockups, you can validate your ideas without significant investment. 

Does the workflow feel intuitive? Can users complete the core tasks efficiently? Early testing keeps you ‌ on the right track, reducing the need for costly changes later.

Test your early-stage Figma prototypes and ask follow-up questions using our ready-made template. This is perfect for gathering information during the discovery phase of your project. Prototype testing is a key step in validating design choices and improving the user experience. Learn more in our prototype testing guide.

Discovery research UX: Final thoughts

Discovery research isn't just a checkbox in the design process – it’s the foundation shaping everything that follows. By diving into users’ real-world contexts, analyzing behavior, and leveraging diverse research methods, you build an informed, empathetic understanding of your audience. Platforms like Lyssna can assist you during the discovery research process, providing valuable tools to gather and analyze user feedback.

As you move forward, remember: the best products are born from continuous discovery. 

How will you use what you’ve learned to refine your next design?

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