--- title: Discovery: Scoping a Web Project Properly description: What gets decided before any code is written, why the constraint matters more than the feature list, and how a fixed scope gets agreed without guesswork. canonical: https://www.hire-web-dev.com/process/discovery/ section: Process updated: 2026-09-11 author: SumanKumar Phuyal site: hire-web-dev.com note: >- Generated from the page of record at the canonical URL above. The four case studies are placeholder work and their metrics were never measured; imagery is AI-generated concept art. See https://www.hire-web-dev.com/disclosure/. --- # PHASE ONE — DISCOVERY One to two weeks of finding out what's actually true. It ends with a written scope, a build estimate, and the list of assumptions that estimate depends on. ## What happens I read the existing code if there is any, talk to whoever is closest to the users, and look at whatever analytics exist. Then I build one thing — the hardest interaction, or the screen with the most unanswered questions — as a rough prototype. Not to keep, but because a prototype produces information that no amount of discussion does. I also go looking for the constraints nobody mentioned. The CMS that can't express the content model the design assumes. The legacy endpoint that takes eight hundred milliseconds and can't be changed this year. The compliance requirement that rules out the obvious approach. These exist on every project and they're never in the brief, because the people writing the brief have stopped noticing them. ## What comes out A written scope with phases and an estimate per phase. An explicit list of assumptions, each one something that would change the estimate if it turned out to be false — so when one does, we can both see exactly which number moves rather than renegotiating from scratch. And a list of things I recommend cutting, which is usually the most contentious part of the document. ## Why it's paid Because it's the phase that determines whether the rest of the money is well spent, and because free discovery quietly incentivises optimism. Twice now discovery has ended with me recommending the client not proceed. Both were the right call and both were only possible because I wasn't hoping to win the build. What comes out of this phase feeds straight into the build, and the constraints agreed here are what each of the case studies is organised around. ## Key facts - Duration: 1 — 2 weeks - Output: Scope + estimate - Includes: Assumption log - Cost: Fixed ## Output - Scope: Written, phased - Estimate: Per phase - Assumption log: Every dependency - Cut list: Recommended removals ## Topics PROTOTYPE, CODE READ, CONSTRAINT DISCOVERY, ASSUMPTION LOG ## Image ![Human eye rendered entirely from fine green and white particles, looking closely before any building starts](https://www.hire-web-dev.com/assets/img/discovery-phase-particle-eye.jpg)