What a Discovery Sprint Is, and Why It Saves You Money

The most expensive mistake in software is not a bug. It is building the wrong thing well. A discovery sprint is a short, fixed-price week of planning that exists to stop that happening.

Think of it as the work you would otherwise do badly, halfway through the build, when changing your mind is expensive. In one week we sit down with you, work out what the software has to do, decide what goes into the first version, and leave you with a plan and a price.

• A prioritised feature list. What goes in version one, what waits, and why.
• A technical recommendation. How we would build it, and what it connects to.
• A build quote. A price for the first version, not a guess.
• A timeline. The dates, so you know when you can launch.

These belong to you. If you decide to build with someone else, you can take them with you. We would obviously rather you stayed, but a plan that only works with us is not much of a plan.

The exact shape depends on the project, but a typical week runs like this:

Time, mostly. Expect to give us a few focused sessions during the week, plus access to whoever knows how the work is really done today. That is often not the person who commissioned the project. If you can bring examples, such as the spreadsheets, forms or emails the work currently runs on, the week goes much further.

A sprint does not make software cheaper by itself. It saves money in three places.

• You avoid building things nobody needs. Cutting a feature on paper costs nothing. Cutting it after it is built costs the whole feature.
• You find the awkward parts early. A difficult integration or an unclear rule is cheap to discover in week one and painful to discover in week five.
• You get a quote you can rely on. A price based on a written plan is far less likely to drift than one based on a conversation.

Discovery sprints start from AED 3,500, and larger or more complicated projects can cost more. We confirm the price before we begin. The sprint is credited in full against the build if you go ahead, so the planning is effectively free for anyone who proceeds. Prices exclude 5% VAT.

Not sure you need a full week? The step before it is a scoping session: two hours and a one-page brief with a range estimate, for AED 500 to 750, also credited in full. And the step before that is a free call.

• You need a standard website or online store. The package prices cover those and a sprint would be overkill.
• You already have a detailed, tested specification and just need someone to build it.
• Your idea is small enough that a scoping session answers every question.

We would rather tell you that on the free call than sell you a week you do not need.