# Continuous Discovery Milestone

## What is it?

Discovery is a term used to describe learning about the "current state" of the world before planning to solve problems. Often, this includes research and understanding about many things like the state of the market, the state of user needs, current user behavior, opportunities against competitors, or other key learnings. Discovery findings help refine vision for products.

## Why is it valuable?

The value of this milestone is that it helps teams make informed decisions by understanding their audience better. It ensures that the product is designed to meet real needs, making it more likely to succeed. For teams, it means having a clear direction and strategy, while for products, it means being more user-friendly and competitive in the market.

## Who’s involved?

{% hint style="info" %}
DID YOU KNOW?

Agile teams do not have specific departments! They all float across different duties. So, this means that a UX designer can perform discovery work, and play any other kinds of duties they desire. See how this works in the Agile Handbook's "[Daily Life on Agile Teams](/agile-training-portal/agile-handbook/agile-teamwork/day-to-day-on-an-agile-team/daily-life-on-agile-teams.md)".
{% endhint %}

The following duties are involved in this milestone. These duties are performed by anyone who commits to them on a cross-functional team. 

1. Product owner [duty](/project-portal/project-success-handbook/project-components/project-duties.md)
2. Product manager [duty](/project-portal/project-success-handbook/project-components/project-duties.md)
3. UX research [duty](/project-portal/project-success-handbook/project-components/project-duties.md)
4. UX strategy [duty](/project-portal/project-success-handbook/project-components/project-duties.md)

## When does it happen in a project?

The continuous discovery milestone never stops. Teams are always performing discovery activities to perform research and validate their assumptions. Discovery drives the changes to the vision, scope, and experience design for agile teams who are defining clarity as they go (see the Agile Ways of Work).

## What deliverables are involved?

1. UX deliverables
   1. Customer Experience maps
   2. Personas
   3. Empathy maps
   4. User journey maps
   5. Generative research
   6. Evaluative research
   7. Discovery backlog
2. Product deliverables
   1. Positioning statement
   2. Competitive analysis
   3. Feature analysis
   4. Market analysis

## Types of Projects That Complete the Milestone

Here are the types of projects that complete the milestone. Click on each of them to learn more: 

{% content-ref url="/pages/rrL8axHWzeoFB472tkP9" %}
[Web-Based Product Projects](/project-portal/project-success-handbook/project-types/web-based-product-projects.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/qr2wC3zvv2TJ89tFJGMk" %}
[Service Design Projects](/project-portal/project-success-handbook/project-types/service-design-projects.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/Ha6QpFcHulTlkkrCVzVs" %}
[Discovery Projects](/project-portal/project-success-handbook/project-types/discovery-projects.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/QigGXvBeciy2sCjst5kj" %}
[Broken mention](broken://pages/QigGXvBeciy2sCjst5kj)
{% endcontent-ref %}

## Completing the Milestone

Here's the section to learn how to complete the milestone:

{% content-ref url="/pages/5kX5muNffZcKfHuYJobY" %}
[Completing Discovery Milestone](/project-portal/project-success-handbook/keys-to-project-success/completing-discovery-milestone.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

## Dashboard Reference

Here's all of the information associated with this milestone on the Milestones Dashboard.

{% embed url="<https://airtable.com/appMDxpNsGN2qyS8N/shrjepxWtkp5smh1A?detail=eyJwYWdlSWQiOiJwYWdiNWZoNzZ3M2E1ZWlTSCIsInJvd0lkIjoicmVjOG05TFEzbjUxVEdGT2siLCJzaG93Q29tbWVudHMiOmZhbHNlLCJxdWVyeU9yaWdpbkhpbnQiOnsidHlwZSI6InBhZ2VFbGVtZW50IiwiZWxlbWVudElkIjoicGVsSk5EVnMyazRzOUFFN0QiLCJxdWVyeUNvbnRhaW5lcklkIjoicGVsckZSVWZTZFN1YXlsRzUifX0>" %}

## Head to the Next Lesson


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