We talk to everyone with a stake in the project to surface assumptions, align priorities, and uncover the constraints.
Define the problem before you design the product
Before a screen is designed, we help you understand your users, your market, and the real problem you’re trying to solve. That foundation is what determines whether what gets built is the right thing to build.
Our partnership with Atomic has been essential in delivering a new level of digital convenience for our guests. The app enriches each stage of their short break, aligning perfectly with our commitment to offering the best possible guest experience.
Head of Digital
Center Parcs
Over 70,000 downloads in its first week, a 15% uplift in bookings, and No.1 in the travel app charts. We designed a native iOS and Android app that made it simpler for Center Parcs guests to plan, book, and get the most from their stay.
Atomic's discovery team works with ambitious brands to ask the right questions, find the right answers, and build the strategic foundations that give every subsequent design and development decision a solid grounding.
Discovery is the phase before design or development where you define the problem, understand your users, and build the strategic clarity every successful product needs to start from.
Building without discovery is expensive guesswork. Discovery ensures you're solving the right problem for the right users in the right way, before a single line of code is written.
A focused discovery phase typically takes four to eight weeks. More complex products with multiple user groups or significant unknowns may require a longer, more extensive programme.
Discovery investment varies by scope and the number of methods required. We scope every engagement individually and give a clear estimate after an initial conversation about your challenge.
User research insights, problem definition, opportunity mapping, and a prioritised set of recommendations that give your design and development teams a clear foundation to build from.
Product, design, and engineering leads at minimum. Senior business stakeholders should be available for input and decision-making. The right people in discovery saves significant time later.
UX research is often a core component of discovery. Discovery is the broader phase that synthesises research alongside business analysis, technical assessment, and strategic definition.
Discovery outputs feed directly into design. You'll have the problem clarity, user understanding, and strategic direction needed to make confident design and development decisions.
A clear articulation of the challenge you're facing, access to key stakeholders and any existing research or data, and openness to findings that may challenge current assumptions.
Yes. We regularly run discovery alongside product and design teams, either leading the programme or contributing specialist research and synthesis capabilities alongside your team.
