Phase 01 · Discover
Clarify the roadmap before you build
Discovery turns stakeholder goals, content realities and technical constraints into a practical plan for design, development and migration, with a shared understanding, a realistic budget and a phased roadmap.
Why this service matters
Clarity is the cheapest thing on the timeline
Three risks a thorough discovery reduces before design or development begins.
- Projects overrun budgets, miss key requirements or deliver the wrong features.
- A thorough discovery clarifies scope and reduces uncertainty, grounding decisions in evidence rather than assumptions.
- It brings SEO, performance, migration and AI-readiness issues and opportunities into view before they turn into blockers.
What this service includes
The work we do to get you clarity
Each engagement is shaped to the brief. These are the building blocks we draw from.
Stakeholder workshops
Gather requirements and align expectations across teams.
Content audit
Assess existing pages, posts, media and metadata.
Competitive and keyword research
Benchmark against peers and identify content gaps.
Technical scoping
Evaluate CMS, plugins, APIs and hosting constraints.
Migration feasibility
Map legacy data to WordPress and plan redirects.
AI readiness assessment
Identify structured data needs and future automation opportunities.
AI in discovery
Use AI to find signals, not to replace judgement
Faster analysis, human-reviewed decisions. We use AI to surface patterns in your content and competitors, and to spot where it can serve the business, always grounded in real requirements.
Search visibility
Surface content gaps, competitor patterns and structured opportunities.
Reporting automation
Find repetitive analysis and reporting work that can be safely accelerated.
Future-ready foundations
Check content structure, metadata and governance before later AI work depends on them.
What you receive
A plan your whole team can build from
Findings, priorities and a phased roadmap you can hand straight to design and development.
What you receive
- Discovery report with findings and recommendations
- Prioritised requirements and phased roadmap
- Content inventory and migration plan
- Technical architecture outline
- AI readiness summary
Your role
- Share business priorities and current pain points
- Provide analytics, content samples and system access
- Make stakeholders available for workshops
- Review findings and confirm priorities
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Discovery in practice
ARMD Digital
ARMD Digital partnered with LightSpeed to rebuild their online presence using the latest WordPress technology, creating a powerful, user-friendly website that enhances operational efficiency and customer experience.
Also from discovery: a 220,000+ post legacy migration plan for Novus Media, with metadata-preservation checks.
Frequently asked
Common questions about discovery
More questions? Send us a note and we’ll reply within a working day.
Most discovery engagements run two to four weeks, depending on project scale and stakeholder availability.
Yes. We collaborate with your in-house or partner teams to gather insights and align goals.
We validate and refine them, uncovering gaps and dependencies that may have been missed.
Yes. Keyword analysis, content gap identification and technical SEO auditing can be part of the deliverables.
We strongly recommend it for complex projects because it de-risks later phases and improves budget accuracy.
Next steps
Where to go next
Discovery findings feed directly into the work that follows.
Content
Turn audit insights into structured, on-brand messaging.
Development
Scope custom themes and integrations from the findings.
WordPress solution
See how discovery informs complex platform builds.
Begin your project the right way
Start with a discovery workshop to uncover your priorities and build a roadmap you can trust.
- Stakeholder goals aligned before design starts
- Content and technical constraints mapped early
- A realistic budget and phased roadmap