Discovery Review

Discovery Review is for owners and leaders who know something is not working, but need an independent view before committing further platform, data or AI spend.

It is usually the right starting point when you are holding one of these:

• Reports that people quietly do not trust, and no agreement on which number is correct.
• Two or three vendor proposals that are hard to compare because each one describes a different problem.
• A list of possible projects with no clear order, and pressure to start something.
• Experiments that have started in different corners of the business, but have not been compared against shared evidence or given accountable owners.
• A platform that works, but costs more or breaks more often than it should.

Starting work before the current state and the decision rights are clear is what turns a modest problem into an expensive one. The scope gets set by whoever writes the first proposal, the assumptions are never tested, and the cost of changing direction rises every month.

Most of that risk is removed by looking properly, once, before committing.

Rory reviews the relevant systems, data, ownership and risks, then tests the practical options against the decision you need to make. The review is bounded to the question in front of you; it does not presume a delivery programme.

Rory does this work himself. There is no bench, no account layer and no junior substitution. The person reviewing your platform is the person you speak to.

The output is written down, in plain English, and it is yours to use:

• A current-state read: what you actually have, described so a non-technical reader can follow it.
• The material risks and choices: what is genuinely at stake in each option, and what is not.
• A written next step: specific enough to take to your team, your board or a delivery vendor without further translation.

The written next step is the point of the exercise. You should be able to act on it whether or not MDE does the work that follows.

Access to the relevant systems and documentation, and time with the people who know how the work is done today. The review is built around conversations rather than a formal information request.

You do not need a tidy architecture diagram, a completed requirements document or a decision already made.

A Discovery Review is not the right starting point if the decision is already made and evidenced, and what you need is delivery capacity. It is also not the right step if the problem is well understood internally and the constraint is time rather than clarity.

MDE will say so. A review that concludes the platform is not the problem is a valid and useful outcome, and so is a recommendation not to proceed. Discovery before spend only lowers your risk if the answer is allowed to be “do less than you planned”.