Guide · Planning
Product discovery workshop: how to de-risk a project before it gets expensive
A product discovery workshop is a structured session of typically 1–3 days where the business, its users and the development team agree on goals, users, features, risks and priorities before anything is built. You leave with a prioritised scope, sketches of the key flows, an overview of integrations and a basis for a fixed price. Here is the agenda, the attendee list, the cost and the outputs you should insist on.
11 min read · Updated 1 October 2026
The sales director wants a customer portal so customers can see their orders. The finance manager wants invoices coming straight from e-conomic. Customer service wants fewer phone calls, and the managing director wants it all ready for the trade fair in March. All four are right, and all four believe they are talking about the same project. A discovery workshop is the hours in which it becomes clear that they are not, and in which they agree on what gets built first.
In this guide you get a complete agenda you can copy, an overview of who should attend, what a workshop typically costs, which outputs you should walk away with, and a worked example. It is written for those of you buying a software project who want to be sure the money goes to the right things.
What is a product discovery workshop?
A discovery workshop is the first phase of a software or app project. It brings the people who know about the business, the users and the technology into the same room for a short period, and it has one purpose: turning ideas and wishes into a concrete, prioritised scope that can be designed, priced and built. The workshop typically answers these questions:
- Which business goal should the solution move, and how do we measure it?
- Who are the users, and what are they trying to get done?
- How does the work happen today, and where does it hurt?
- Which features belong in the first version, and which can wait?
- Which systems must the solution talk to, and who owns them?
- What are the biggest risks, and how do we test them early?
- What are the budget and timeframe, and what is realistic within them?
What does a discovery workshop cost, and what does it save?
The price depends on duration, how many people the supplier brings and how much follow-up work is included. With typical agency rates of DKK 1,100–1,300 an hour you can work it out yourselves: two facilitators for two days plus preparation and write-up quickly add up to 40–50 hours. The table shows the formats we see most often in the market.
Typical formats and price ranges in Denmark, calculated from common agency hourly rates. The price rises most with follow-up work, such as a clickable prototype.
| Format | Duration | Typical price | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scoping session | 2–4 hours | Often free as part of the proposal | Websites and scoped apps |
| Half or full-day workshop | 4–8 hours plus write-up | DKK 10,000–30,000 | Web apps and portals with few user types |
| Multi-day workshop | 2–3 days plus write-up | DKK 30,000–75,000 | Platforms with several user types and integrations |
| Discovery with prototype | 2–4 weeks | DKK 50,000–150,000 | New products where the flow must be tested on users |
Set that against what a misunderstanding costs. If a feature is built wrong because nobody asked the finance team, it has to be redesigned, rebuilt and retested. In a DKK 400,000 project, just two or three mistakes like that can easily cost more than the whole workshop. The biggest saving, though, is often the features you decide to leave out. A thorough prioritisation almost always moves a significant part of the wish list to a later version. Read more about setting a realistic software project budget.
Who should attend a discovery workshop?
The ideal group is 4–8 people. More than that slows decisions, fewer leaves gaps in knowledge.
| Role | Why they need to be there | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Your decision-maker | Can prioritise and approve scope and budget | The whole workshop |
| Daily user or super-user | Knows the real workflows and workarounds | At least the first day |
| Owner of data and systems | Knows where data lives and who grants access | The integrations session |
| Sales or customer service | Hears customers’ questions and complaints every day | The first day |
| Supplier’s designer | Sketches flows and safeguards usability | The whole workshop |
| Supplier’s developer | Assesses complexity, integrations and risks | The whole workshop |
The role most often missing is the daily user. Management knows the goal, but it is the person at the counter or in the van who knows why the current system is bypassed with sticky notes. Also make sure the supplier brings the people who will actually build the solution. A workshop run by a salesperson who then hands over to another team loses much of its value.
What does a discovery workshop agenda look like?
Day 1, morning: goals and success
Business goals, measurable success criteria, budget and timeframe. What should be different in a year?
Day 1, afternoon: users and workflows
User types, their tasks and a step-by-step walk-through of how the work happens today.
Day 2, morning: solution and features
Sketches of the key flows, user stories and a map of integrations and data.
Day 2, afternoon: priorities and plan
MoSCoW prioritisation, risks, the first version and next steps towards a fixed price.
Day 1: goals, users and workflows
Start with the goal. A good exercise is writing the headline you would like to put on an internal news item a year from now, such as “Customer service has halved calls about order status”. Then the user types are mapped with their most important tasks. The rest of the day goes on walking through the current workflows on a long timeline on the wall or whiteboard. This is where the key pain points surface: double entry, lack of overview, waiting for answers.
Day 2: solution, priorities and plan
Day two is about the solution. The designer sketches the key screens together with the participants, and features are written as user stories in the format “As a customer I want to see my order status so I don’t need to call”. Integrations are drawn as a map: which systems, which data, which direction. Finally everything is prioritised with the MoSCoW method into must, should, could and won’t this time, and each risk gets a plan for testing it early.
What deliverables should you get from a discovery workshop?
- A short document with goals, success criteria, budget and timeframe.
- A description of user types and their most important tasks.
- A map of current workflows with pain points marked.
- A prioritised list of user stories with acceptance criteria for the most important.
- Sketches or wireframes of the central flows.
- An integration map with systems, data and owners.
- A risk list with a plan for each risk.
- A definition of the first version and a rough plan for the next.
- An estimate or a fixed-price proposal for the first version.
If you need to test a flow on real users before moving on, the sketches can be turned into a clickable prototype. It can be shown to customers and staff within days, and it is the cheapest way to catch flaws in a flow.
Discovery workshop or requirements specification: which should you choose?
Requirements written alone
- Written by you, often over several weeks
- Describes the solution as you imagine it
- Good for tenders with many suppliers
- Technical complexity surfaces only in the bidding round
Discovery workshop
- Done together with those who will build
- Describes the problem and the key user tasks
- Prioritises with knowledge of cost and complexity
- Ends with a scope that can be priced fixed
Many combine the two: you write a short requirements document with goals and key needs, and the workshop is used to sharpen and prioritise it. Our requirements specification template is built for exactly that, and it is good preparation for the workshop.
Worked example: a customer portal for an installation company
Picture an installation company with 25 employees that wants a customer portal. The figures are an example. Management’s wish list has 40 items. During a two-day workshop, the workflow walk-through shows that two thirds of the calls customer service receives are about two things: when the technician will arrive, and where the invoice is. Prioritisation ends with 22 must-have features, and several original wishes, including a chat and a loyalty scheme, move to version two. The first version is now small enough for one of the standard packages, and it can launch in a fraction of the original time.
How do you prepare for a discovery workshop?
- Appoint one decision-maker and agree who has the final say.
- Write the goal down in one sentence, and how you will measure it.
- Gather existing material: spreadsheets, forms, screenshots and statistics.
- List the systems the solution must talk to, and who owns them.
- Talk to 3–5 users or customers before the workshop, and bring the notes.
- Clarify the budget frame, even if it is provisional.
- Make sure the agreement gives you ownership of all outputs.
- Book rooms and calendars for all participants well in advance.
If the idea is brand new, start one step earlier and validate the idea with conversations and a landing page before investing in a workshop. That way the workshop is spent shaping the solution instead of debating whether the problem exists.
When do you need a full discovery, and when is a short meeting enough?
A full discovery pays off when there are several user types, several departments with their own wishes, integrations with systems you do not control, or when the budget is large enough for a mistake to hurt. A website or a scoped app with a clear job can be clarified in a single meeting. When we prepare a fixed-price proposal, we go through the same questions in a light form: who uses the solution, what must it do, and which systems must it talk to. That is how we can deliver a written proposal within 24 hours. Describe your project here, and we will also assess whether a larger discovery makes sense for you.
Questions about discovery workshops
Can a discovery workshop be held online?
Can we run a discovery workshop ourselves without an agency?
Do we own the outputs if we choose another supplier?
What is the difference between a discovery workshop and a design sprint?
What if management disagrees during the workshop?
How soon can development start after the workshop?
Want us to build it for you?
You get a fixed-price proposal within 24 hours.
