Use it however you need, whether you're a marketing manager planning your company's website, an agency running discovery for clients, or an in-house team scoping an internal project.

The framework works for any web project where multiple stakeholders need to approve requirements before you build. The more complex your project (multiple departments, integrations, compliance requirements), the more valuable proper discovery becomes.

The framework uses common tools (Google Docs, Sheets, slides), so no special software.

But you do need:

• Understanding of information architecture principles (or you'll create a sitemap that doesn't scale)

• Familiarity with competitive analysis and SEO research

• Ability to document technical requirements (APIs, integrations, CMS features)

• Confidence presenting strategic recommendations to leadership

If you're thinking "I've never done some of those things," that's exactly why the done-for-you service exists. Discovery isn't complicated, but getting it wrong is expensive.

Plan for 35-40 hours minimum, spread across 2-3 weeks:

• Competitive analysis: 8-10 hours (research, screenshots, analysis, documentation)

• Information architecture: 10-12 hours (page mapping, navigation logic, user flows)

• Requirements documentation: 8-10 hours (technical specs, integrations, content needs)

• Presentation creation: 3-4 hours (synthesising findings into stakeholder-ready format)

Most marketing managers don't have this time - which is why most of people who download the framework end up hiring me to do it. But if you have the time and experience, the framework gives you everything you need.

You can, but here's what typically happens:

Week 1-4: Everything's great. Design work is progressing, stakeholders are happy.

Week 5-8: Questions emerge. "Wait, does this integrate with our CRM?" "Legal needs to review the data collection." "Finance wants invoice automation." Each question is a scope change.

Week 9-12: Change orders pile up. That £25k project is now £40k. Timeline pushed from 3 months to 8 months. You're explaining to leadership why the project is over budget and behind schedule.

The cost to fix requirements mistakes mid-project is 5-10x higher than catching them in discovery. Discovery takes 2 weeks. Fixing discovery mistakes can cost thousands and adds months to your timeline.

Small mistake: Forgot to scope blog migration properly → £2k-4k change order, 1-2 week delay

Medium mistake: Didn't document integration requirements → £6k-10k change order, 3-4 week delay, API developer needed

Large mistake: Unclear content requirements, had to redesign page templates → £10k-20k, 2-3 month delay, stakeholder relationship damaged

Project failure: Misaligned stakeholder expectations, launched website that didn't meet business needs → scrapped and started over, £30k+ wasted

The ROI is obvious once you've been burned by a failed project.

Show them this:

"We can start building next week and discover missing requirements mid-project (adding 2-4 months and £15k-30k in changes), or we can spend 2 weeks in discovery and build it right the first time."

Leadership wants progress, but they want successful projects more. Nobody wants to explain to the board why the website relaunch is 6 months late and 50% over budget.

Position discovery as risk mitigation, not a delay. You're not "slowing down the project," you're "preventing expensive mistakes that would delay it much longer."

You don't know what you don't know.

Marketing wants "CRM integration." But which objects sync? Real-time or batch? What happens with duplicates? They know what they need, not how to specify it technically. hey can describe the feature, not the technical requirements. It's the same for every department.

Content wants "a blog with categories." Okay, but Multiple categories per post? Author permissions? RSS feeds? Sales wants "lead routing." To where? Based on what criteria? With what fallback logic? They understand the workflow, not the implementation.

This is why discovery is essential - and why I'm uniquely positioned to do it.

I'm a designer and developer who's built tons of websites. When stakeholders describe what they need, I know exactly which questions to ask because I've built those systems. I translate business requirements into accurate technical specifications.

Your team knows what the business needs. I know how to turn that into a spec that can be built without surprises.

The framework is free. Your time isn't.

You could go on YouTube, piece together a process from watching hours and hours of videos. To be honest, I've done this myself - it only works if you have the time to learn and you're prepared to take on the risk of getting it wrong.

But the real value isn't time savings - it's risk mitigation.

If my discovery catches £10k in scope creep you would've missed (typical), the ROI is 6-7x. If it catches £20k-30k (common on complex projects), the ROI is 13-20x.

Plus you get professional deliverables you can present to leadership with confidence. No risk of looking unprepared in the stakeholder meeting.

Think of it less as "paying for discovery" and more as "buying insurance against a costly mistake."

Honest answer: It depends on your time, experience, and risk tolerance.

Do it yourself if:

• You have 35-40 hours over the next 2-3 weeks

• You've run formal discovery before and know what good deliverables look like

• You're confident presenting strategic findings to leadership

• Your project is relatively straightforward

Hire me if:

• You have 20 other priorities and can't block off 40 hours

• You've never run discovery and can't afford to miss critical requirements

• You need professional deliverables you can confidently present to stakeholders

• Your project is complex (multiple departments, integrations, compliance needs)

• You want someone else to take the risk if something's missed

Most marketing managers choose done-for-you because the time savings alone (35 hours) is worth more than the cost of Discovery, and that's before considering the risk of getting it wrong.

Nope. All deliverables are yours to keep, and you can take them to any development team.

After discovery, you have three options:

1. Build with me - We discuss design & development (separate proposal based on requirements)

2. Get proposals from other teams - Use the discovery docs for accurate quotes from multiple agencies

3. Walk away - Keep the deliverables and use them however you want

The discovery deliverables are valuable whether you work with me or not.

With the framework:

• You do the work (35-40 hours)

• You research competitors and document insights

• You create the information architecture

• You write the requirements

• You present to leadership (and handle objections)

With done-for-you:

• I do the work (you invest 3 hours across 3 meetings)

• I analyse 3 competitors and deliver insights

• I create professional information architecture (instantly shareable)

• I document requirements using 20+ years of experience

• I create a video walkthrough explaining everything so you can confidently present it

The deliverables are the same. The difference is who does the work and whether you're confident the requirements are complete and correct.