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Research & Discovery

Research and Discovery saves time and money - plain and simple.

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From proof of concept to investigating new tech, R&D is a vital first step for any new software development project.

It’s the opportunity to flesh out new ideas, determine objectives, and identify what’s right (and wrong) for the product. Most importantly, R&D will ensure that you and your software development team are on the same page.

The Research and Development stage of the process allows collaborators to define a unified vision for the software product. Not only does this ensure that we build a final solution that everyone loves, but also that any uncertainties are nipped in the bud well ahead of development. The result is a software product delivered in line with business objectives.

Understanding the advantages & disadvantages of developing bespoke software

Research and Discovery

Research and Discovery (R&D) is a phase of work that validates ideas, investigates technical and design options based on research, and provides a creative platform to work on the right aesthetics and user experience for the software product.

It has been reported that 56% of IT projects deliver less value for the end user than originally intended and 45% of software development projects exceed budget (Source: McKinsey).

Yozu will deliver research and discovery workshops to explore all ideas.

The outcome

Our clients can use a Research and Discovery phase to get a better idea of the product they want to build, the estimated budget they might need, or become better-informed on their technical options and value delivered to customers.

R&D lets us deliver early value too. We’ll share project experiences to make good decisions on new functionality, suggesting efficient ways to achieve your goals and offering insight on user experience. When it comes to the final product, you’re in the driving seat, but consider us the expert mechanics to help you get there.

It is globally accepted as a best practice activity at the start of a software development project, with a collaborative team working together.

Discovery allows to achieve 3 main goals.

1

Create a results-driven product roadmap

2

Estimate budgets and eliminate unnecessary costs

3

Reduce risks

Yozu x R&D.

Yozu approaches Research and Discovery with a proven strategy of people, process and creativity. We build a collaborative environment, where a working group of our team and the client can undertake research, develop a product vision, explore technical challenges and design a winning user experience.

Typically, a series of agile, bespoke workshops will be planned to break down and tackle the key parts of creating software together, including:

Understanding the business objectives
Turning research into decisions
Defining feature requirements
Eliminating uncertainty
How success is measured

“The team at Yozu have been fantastic to work with. Highly skilled and knowledgeable engineers, combined with UI/UX designers who are very conscious of delivering the best user experience. Yozu are an exceptional development partner.”

Ashraf Adil Director of DevOps and IT OperationsYodel

“Yozu have helped us to transform from a traditional local accountancy practice to a global, forward-focused tech company. They very quickly understood what we were looking for and the end result far exceeded our expectations. The software that Yozu continue to develop for us has had a huge impact on both our company and our clients, and we’re now busy marketing the platform to the general public.”

Lee Murphy Managing DirectorThe Accountancy Partnership

“Their ability to interpret what you need is their finest attribute, almost tied for first by their technical knowledge. I am extremely satisfied with Yozu, both on a personal level (great team to work with) and an ability level!”

Phil Denton Director & Group ChairmanITAL Logistics

Research and discovery services from Yozu

User First - Always

People use software. Customers do, employees do – we do. It sounds obvious, but this can often be taken for granted when launching a new application – and understanding the end user’s needs is sometimes overlooked.

To ensure any investment behind a software product delivers RoI, we believe in building a user experience that considers:

Who are the users?
What problems can we solve with this product?
How do they operate and behave in the real world?
What do we want them to do?
What do they like/dislike about using this type or product?
How will this product make them feel?

Research and discovery is an essential step in a software development project.

Eliciting this information requires expertise

Our R&D team has a well-established playbook of techniques that allow us to immerse ourselves in the world of the end user and build a sticky product that a business can confidently continue to invest into.

Some techniques include:

User research interviews.
A/B testing design concepts.
Market/competitor research.
Feature voting.
Data analysis.

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With a clear picture of the end user, we are able to create software with their best interests in mind and take a huge stride towards meeting the business goals of the project.

Launch & Learn.

Research and Discovery is as much about product refinement as it is definition. Running a multi-year development phase prior to launch is a huge business risk should business objectives change and can potentially make the project unviable if the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is too heavily scoped.

Our team is skilled in exploring all possibilities, but working with the client to refine the MVP down to the feature set that delivers early value and allows us to start gathering data about user behaviour to avoid continuing to build on a blind path.

We can help a client to decide:

Which features meet the business objectives.
Which features can deliver early value based on data and user research.
Which features are simpler to build and launch first.
Which features best serves the user.

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