Discovery Concept Guide

Purpose of this Guide

This Human-Centered Design Discovery Stage Field Guide is a teaching tool and a reference guide. It was originally created for Veterans Experience Office (VEO) by Insight & Design, a team within VEO that has expertise in Human-Centered Design (HCD). This guide was later adapted for use across other agencies through a partnership between GSA’s Office of Customer Experience and The Lab at OPM.

HCD is a qualitative research method that helps groups solve problems and seek solutions in a way that prioritizes customer needs over a system’s needs.

HCD involves four key phases of work. This guide solely focuses on the first phase, called the Discovery phase, or simply discovery.

Discovery provides an opportunity to carry out an ongoing and high-priority assignment by using the teams best equipped to conduct on-the-ground qualitative research.

This guide offers step-by-step guidance on how to conduct HCD discovery and then synthesize the research findings, towards the goal of helping your agencies identify opportunities to improve service. The qualitative data can also help provide a more nuanced perspective of the quantitative data that is collected and interpreted.

In a broader sense, this guide also enhances the understanding and practice of HCD throughout the Federal Government. Use the tools and techniques within this guide to build a better understanding the problems your agency is facing, whether through mastering the process individually or identifying the right internal or external partners who can help deliver your agency’s mission.