draft
Discovery Methodology
How Kaptio runs discovery — from initial engagement through solution design and SOW.
Consulting
Updated 2026-03-26
Overview
Discovery is the first stage of the Outcome Model and the most critical. It transforms a customer’s requirements into a validated solution design, estimation, and formal SOW.
Discovery is Kaptio IP. It is always run by Kaptio’s Consulting team, never outsourced.
Discovery Outputs
Every discovery engagement produces:
- Requirements map — customer needs mapped to platform capabilities
- Gap analysis — what the platform does today vs. what the customer needs
- Solution design — how the platform will be configured and extended
- Golden configuration spec — which baseline configuration applies and what delta is needed
- Estimation — effort, timeline, and milestones
- SOW — formal scope, deliverables, and commercial terms
Discovery Phases
Phase 1 — Understand
- Stakeholder interviews
- Current-state systems mapping
- Business process documentation
- Data landscape assessment
Phase 2 — Design
- Platform capability mapping against requirements
- Golden configuration selection and gap identification
- Integration architecture
- Data migration strategy (if applicable)
Phase 3 — Estimate
- AI-assisted effort estimation from solution design
- Milestone definition and sequencing
- Risk identification and mitigation planning
- Resource and partner capacity planning
Phase 4 — Formalize
- SOW drafting with formal acceptance criteria
- Customer review and sign-off
- Handoff to Programme & Delivery Management
- Partner briefing (if partner delivery)
AI in Discovery
Discovery leverages AI at every stage:
- Requirements analysis — structuring and classifying customer inputs
- Gap analysis — comparing against known platform capabilities
- Estimation — generating effort estimates from solution design patterns
- Artifact generation — SOW drafts, solution design documents, scoping matrices
- Knowledge retrieval — pulling relevant precedents from prior discoveries
Guardrails
- Discovery MUST produce all six outputs listed above before implementation begins.
- No implementation work starts without a signed SOW.
- Discovery scope itself is time-boxed — if requirements cannot be validated within the discovery window, the engagement is re-scoped, not extended indefinitely.
- All estimates include contingency and are reviewed by a second Consulting team member.
This page is a draft. The Consulting team should expand each phase with specific templates, tools, and examples as the methodology matures.