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How does a discovery run, start to finish?
Checked on 6 Oct 20263 min read
Why it works this way
Each page asks you for one decision.
Choosing is the work. A long report lets you read to the end without deciding, so the board asks for one decision at a time. The research behind each page is wide, and the decision on it is yours.
What we gave up: a one-page overview of everything. You walk the path, and the Blueprint is the closest thing to a summary.
What it is
A discovery is one board that you build page by page. Each page asks you for one decision, and the next page opens when you make it. Iris, your AI guide, reads what is on your board and answers questions beside it. At the top of the board, one mark per page shows where you are. Press a mark to jump to that page.
How to use it
- Start. Type a website, a market, a profession, a hunch or an idea, then press the arrow at the end of the box, or press Enter. See What can I type into the first box?.
- Spaces, if you are exploring. A handful of cards show where you could build. Take one to start there.
- Problems. Six to eight struggles that people in that space have, each showing who said it. Press one card to work on it, or tick up to three to look for one thing that solves them together.
- Opportunities. Four to six candidate agents for the problem. Press one to commit to it.
- The agent. One page on what the agent does, what might trip it up, who is already circling and what has been tried. Pick the shape it would ship as, then write the tests.
- Tests. A road of tests, riskiest first. Your tests open with the riskiest few tests, usually three, for about two weeks. When they have all passed, the board writes the next ones. Any test can be opened in any order.
- The tests. For each one you set a bar before you look, talk to real people, add the conversations and write down what you learned. Simulated people, who are AI, can help you practise your questions, and nothing they say counts toward a test.
- The call. After a test of one idea you choose one of four roads, and a test that compares cards ends in your pick. Nothing is pre-selected.
What it will never do
- Pick for you. A card moves forward when you press it, and no road is chosen in advance.
- Count a simulated person as evidence. They are AI, marked "Simulated" wherever they appear.
- Clear tests you have built without telling you first. When tests are built, changing your problem or your opportunity counts what you would lose and asks before it clears anything.
If something looks off
- A page takes a while. Each run names its stages, and Cancel brings you back to where you were.
- You went back and picked something else. Changing the space parks your old path. Changing a problem or the opportunity clears the tests beneath it, after a warning. See What happens if I change my mind?.
- You reach a limit. Your first board is free and comes with starter credits. When you run out, new AI work and searches stop for now, what you made stays on your board, and the screen says what happens next. See How many boards do I get, how do I earn another, and what are credits?.
- A card has no quote, or a problem says "not checked". See How do you rate how much a problem hurts?.
- An older board is missing a page described here. Boards made earlier can differ.