Discovery Workshops: Setting Your Teams Up for Success

The success of any creative project hinges on a wide range of factors, from finding the right partner to setting a realistic timeline. Once you start to execute, any number of variables can easily go off the rails and threaten the project’s overall success. That’s why discovery workshops are an essential first step to ensuring successful delivery.

In this article, we’ll look at how discovery workshops can help create a clear project plan, ensure alignment on key goals and milestones, and keep projects on track from start to finish.

What is a discovery workshop?

Most creative projects start with two things: a brief and a kickoff meeting. The creative brief outlines objectives, timelines, and deliverables, and the kickoff call brings together stakeholders from the client team as well as the agency’s creative, client services, and technical teams to discuss the project details. This can include roles and responsibilities, communication and deliverable processes, timelines and schedules, and so on. If the project is bringing teams together for the first time, it’s also an opportunity for everyone to meet.

Briefs and kickoff calls are important, but they only scratch the surface of project planning. If you dive straight into execution with just those two tools in your belt, the chances of something going wrong are pretty high.

In fact, a staggering 70% of all projects fail to deliver what was promised. That number drops to 20%, however, with brands that implement a robust project management process.

Discovery workshops go deeper than a kickoff call, even when paired with a detailed brief. Working sessions bring together smaller, more focused groups to really dig into the nitty gritty of a project from the outset. For example, technology workshops bring coders and clients together to explore which tech solutions are best suited for a website build. Creative workshops bring together designers, content strategists, and the branding team to ensure the vision is clear and shared.

Depending on the scope and scale of the project, you may need to hold multiple workshops or you might be able to roll everything into one. At Clear Digital, we start every project with our proprietary Velocity Workshop™, supplemented by technology and/or creative workshops depending on the project’s scope.

What are the benefits of discovery workshops?

While it may seem like extra work, the value of holding discovery workshops at the outset of a project work is in getting everyone on the same page to prevent misalignment, scope creep, and costly revisions further down the line. Put in the time up front and you’ll save both time and money in the long run.

Reduce risk & prevent costly changes

The last few years have been tumultuous, with global economic volatility creating uncertainty and instability across markets and industries. As a result, every company is focused on getting more bang for their buck—and that means minimizing risks in every way possible.

Discovery workshops are a good way to identify potential challenges early so you can get out ahead of them, rather than responding with a fire drill. If you plow ahead without ensuring everyone’s in lock step about the details, from the schedule and scope to the end deliverables, the risk of miscommunication and the need for mid-flight revisions is high. These problems throw off timelines and budgets, leading to scope creep that prevents you from delivering on expectations.

Ensure alignment on goals and expectations

Even when you put together a detailed brief, different people interpret things differently. Various teams tend to focus on the aspects of a project they’re responsible for, often without understanding how one hand affects the other.

By bringing everyone to the table and facilitating an actual conversation, discovery workshops help to clarify objectives, set priorities, and get everyone aligned—before the heavy lifting begins. Again, making sure there’s a shared vision and understanding helps to prevent costly changes and miscommunication later.

Optimize time & budget efficiency

By bringing teams together to define clear cut project requirements upfront, workshops help to streamline execution, reducing wasted time and minimizing unexpected costs. This helps to prevent scope creep, a common project management issue, and allows you to allocate budgets in the most efficient way possible.

Enhance collaboration & innovation

Creative projects are all about collaboration. That means various individuals and teams need open lines of communication, shared processes, and common goals. Creative and technology workshops facilitate better collaboration by encouraging open discussions. Not only does this make it easier for teams to work together, it leads to better ideas, smarter solutions, and a more effective final product.

Provides a roadmap for success

One of the end products of a well-structured workshop is a clear project plan, outlining every detail—including timelines, responsibilities, and deliverables. Paying attention to detail and establishing milestones makes it easier to keep the project on track from the time work begins all the way through to completion. Eliminate grey areas and ensure the best possible outcomes by creating a plan, and sticking to it.

Set your next project up for success

In the world of B2B marketing, keeping your B2B website up to date and regularly refreshing your brand’s digital presence is essential to staying ahead of the curve. Whether you’re looking to revamp your existing site, build a new site from scratch, or want to outsource your digital marketing entirely, Clear Digital has the experience and the expertise to deliver.

We begin every new project with our signature Velocity Workshop and a robust discovery process to ensure we have alignment on goals, a clear plan to follow, and can deliver the best possible project outcomes. Let’s talk about what we can do for your B2B brand.