How I work · Stage 1 of 3
Discovery
Where you are, honestly. Where you want to be. Get it out of your head before you organise it.
These are stages, not phases. Discovery keeps running while you build, and the evidence gets collected the whole way through.
Everyone wants to start with the plan. I start with the truth, because plans built on a flattering picture of the present are the ones that quietly fail. Discovery is two questions and a lot of listening. What’s your current story, and what’s the future story you’re trying to tell?
This is the same whether the thing is a business, a product or a person. A company describes its operations the way it wishes they ran. A founder describes the product they meant to build. A person describes the career they think they should have. Discovery is getting underneath that, kindly, until we’re looking at the real thing.
The questions in this stage
Now
Where is your business, product or career right now? What’s your current story, and what are the real problems in it?
Specifics, not hopes. What actually happened last month. What the data says. What people say when the boss isn't in the room. I would rather hear an ugly true version than a tidy false one. The reason we go this deep into the current state is that it is where the problems live, and they are usually not the ones on the list. We finish this step with the problems named plainly, in the words you would use out loud, so the work later solves the real ones.
Future
Where do you want it to be? What’s the future story you’re trying to tell?
Vivid beats grand. Not 'market leader' but 'a normal Tuesday three years from now looks like this'. Permission to want things here. The how gets its turn later.
How it runs
In practice that means a customer conversation every week, not a research phase twice a year. It is the habit that separates teams who know what is going on from teams who are guessing quickly. For a business, I get in the work. I sit with each department, read the numbers, watch how a job actually moves through the place. I use AI to go wider and deeper than one person could, reading more of your business than you would expect in the time. For a person, it’s a proper conversation about where things stand and a deep dive into what you actually want, which is often different from what you first say.
Discovery ends when we can both describe the now and the future in a few honest sentences and neither of us winces. That usually takes less time than people fear and more honesty than they expect.
Free tools that do this stage's work
Product management competency framework
Fourteen competencies scored on the same five-rung ladder, from customer and market through data, business acumen, technical aptitude, design partnership, agile delivery, leadership and developing others. Then it holds your scores against the real profile of eight roles, junior PM through Director.
Use it to see the gap between where you are and the role you want, and to walk into your next development conversation with something specific to talk about. Have your manager score you too and compare.
Start the check-inUX competency framework
For UX and product designers. Twelve competencies across the double diamond, discovery, definition, develop and deliver, plus process, agile delivery and the human side. Scored on the five-rung ladder and held against seven roles, junior UX through Director.
Use it on yourself to plan your next move, or across a design team to see where the craft is thin and who should be teaching whom.
Start the check-inProduct marketing competency framework
Fourteen competencies covering positioning and pricing, go-to-market strategy and execution, lean delivery, customer and market insight, data, business acumen and the leadership side. Scored on the five-rung ladder against five roles, junior PMM through Director.
Use it to find the two or three gaps actually holding you back, then take them into the Development Plan instead of a vague list of things to get better at.
Start the check-inThe AI Business Diagnosis
A free review of your business, department by department. Workflows, whether AI is the default or an afterthought, capability, willingness to change. Invite others to score it too and merge the reviews into one bloom.
Use it before you spend a dollar on AI tools or consultants.
Start the diagnosisThe AI Individual Diagnosis
The same review, pointed at one person. Seven areas of your working week (writing, thinking, research, making things, numbers, admin, people), four questions each, the same five-rung ladder. Ask your manager or a teammate to score you too and merge the views.
Use it on yourself before you sign up for another AI course, or on your team to see who needs support and who can lead.
Start the diagnosisThe ecommerce usability checklist
Twenty-four checks I run on a store before anyone spends another dollar on traffic. Product page, checkout, trust, speed, measurement, in the order they pay back.
Use it with your own store open in another tab. Every no is a job for this week.
Open the checklistThe Life Diagnosis
A guided review of your whole life, not just the job. Messy reflection, the wellness wheel, your values, your role, the story so far, and an outside read on your strengths. Career sits inside it.
Use it when something is off and you cannot yet name which part of life it is coming from.
Start the diagnosisThe Career Diagnosis
The work slice on its own. Your role, the skills it depends on, whether the role itself is right, what the last year taught you, and where it points next.
Use it before you update your resume, take the promotion, or hand in your notice.
Start the diagnosisBusiness owner AI competency framework
A free interactive check-in on the AI skills that actually run a business. Fluency, daily use, judging output, data and privacy, and how AI shows up in marketing, sales, operations, finance, and picking the right problems. Same five-rung ladder as the diagnoses.
Use it to see which of those you can already do, which you are faking, and what to learn next. Get a partner or manager to score you too and compare.
Start the check-in