Your business, your Discovery: How we customize our strategic process for you

[Editor's note: In our "Demystifying Discovery" blog series, we've previously covered why a Discovery Process is crucial for better work, more streamlined timelines, and accurate estimates, and how our collaborative workshops lay the groundwork.]

In our prior posts in this series, we emphasized why our proven, strategic Discovery Process is foundational for successful apps and digital products. And we detailed how our collaborative workshops are structured. 

In this post, we explore specific examples of how ArcTouch tailors the process to meet the unique needs of our clients and their business scenarios – because no two companies or projects are the same. 

The Discovery Process: No two are the same

Sometimes, clients express hesitation about embarking on a comprehensive Discovery Process. If they’ve never worked with us, they may think they’re paying for us to simply get up to speed on their industry and business — or to deliver an estimate. 

In reality, our goal for the ArcTouch Discovery Process is to help clients move closer to their objectives by translating a nascent idea into a realistic, actionable plan — one that sits at the intersection of user need and business opportunity. And a "skimming the surface" approach to Discovery limits the project's true potential, leading to missed opportunities and increased risks (and costs!) down the line.

Our Discovery Process makes sense for every business, but the specific plan we build during the Discovery Process only makes sense for your business. It is, after all, your opportunity. And that’s why we customize your Discovery Process to be different from everyone else's. 

Let’s illustrate with some real examples from different types of clients ArcTouch works with.

Startups seeking connected apps for innovative products

An app can truly elevate a cool new hardware product from good to great. Of course, working with a new connected product comes with unique technical challenges, which our Discovery Process is uniquely equipped to address.

Case study: Pivotal 

Pivotal is a pioneer in the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle industry. The Pivotal Helix aircraft is the world's first ultralight eVTOL. While Pivotal had spent the past 14 years perfecting the aircraft, company leaders came to us to design and build its connected app.

When we first started working with Pivotal, it had a very rough initial app prototype with basic Wi-Fi connectivity to the aircraft. Our Discovery Workshop covered essential ground: defining the business goals, thoroughly understanding the users and their needs, analyzing the competitive landscape, and outlining the "golden path" use cases through detailed storyboarding. 

This foundational work allowed us to move into initial designs and a working prototype that connected with the aircraft. We collaborated with Pivotal to ensure the app was user-friendly, aligned with the beautiful new company branding, and capable of reliably connecting to the aircraft via Bluetooth, addressing critical technical and user needs.

The Pivotal Helix app is designed to be an extension of the aircraft, serving as the pilot’s companion when not in the air. It manages pre-flight safety checks, tracks flight history, handles vehicle charging, and ensures the aircraft's maintenance is up to date.

We user-tested and iterated on prototypes of the app, verifying that it helped pilots run through their safety checks quickly, thoroughly, and reliably. This included testing animations, haptics, and sounds to ensure pilots received critical feedback while inspecting the aircraft, reinforcing our commitment to delightful user experiences. Meanwhile, our IoT app development expertise was key to implementing the technology for these experiences.

Small companies seeking product-market fit

Smaller companies and startups are often early in the process of understanding if a product idea truly resonates with their target users. With an untested idea, there are many unknowns. It may feel like everything is possible, making it hard to know what to focus on. At this stage, our strategic Discovery excels at uncovering these unknowns and providing clarity on the crucial next steps, ensuring valuable investment and mitigating risk. The ArcTouch Discovery Process helps clients determine what to do next – and also (sometimes more importantly), what not to do. It’s how we build an MLP, not just an MVP.

Case study: Common Sense Media 

Common Sense Media, known for trusted ratings and reviews of age-appropriate media, approached ArcTouch in 2019 to create a mobile app.

We kicked off a strategic Discovery Process, starting with our collaborative Discovery Workshop. We dove deep into Common Sense Media’s business goals, identifying the service’s unique advantages, and thoroughly analyzing data from its various channels. We conducted a comprehensive competitive review, defined key user personas, and mapped out essential user journeys. 

Through this process, we quickly identified that the primary business driver for an app was to help Common Sense Media monetize its valuable content through a paid subscription model. However, we also determined that the underlying back-end logic and operational infrastructure for this new business model weren't yet in place. 

Ultimately, we recommended that Common Sense Media test subscription models on its website before proceeding with an app. We also provided technical guidance to ensure the subscription back-end services would be scalable to a future app.

So, Common Sense Media’s internal website team spent some time building out the operational foundation for subscriptions and tested it with customers. Once the leadership team felt comfortable with the website test results as a baseline, the company reconnected with us.

At that point, we led a second strategic Discovery Process to further refine the app's specifics before kicking off the project. During this second Discovery, we proposed several visual directions, tested prototypes with users, and ultimately built and launched the Common Sense Media app.

In the end, the app outperformed every predetermined metric and business goal - with an app user 20 times more likely to become a subscriber than a web user. Through a thoughtful Discovery Process, our extended teams succeeded in finding that intersection of true user need and business opportunity.

Established companies with existing apps 

Many established companies have previously developed apps that no longer meet their customers’ needs. For a variety of reasons - including legacy technology, old UI conventions and interface elements, or out-of-date features - the apps provide a one-star user experience that reflects poorly on the brand. The ArcTouch Discovery Process helps clients modernize their digital presence, and reboots their app to align it with evolving business goals and customer needs.

Case study: Hawaiian Airlines 

Hawaiian Airlines provides flights to and within the Hawaiian Islands from North America, Asia, and the South Pacific. Hawaii's largest and longest-serving airline is known for its unique hospitality and a distinct "aloha spirit" in-flight experience.

However, their app experience was grossly misaligned from their overall brand experience. When their leadership approached ArcTouch, they had a basic app that was using out-of-date web technology — with a one-star rating in the App Store.

During our comprehensive Discovery Process, we explored the company's rich legacy and envisioned a future for the app that would significantly improve the airline guest experience, aligning with both user expectations and business goals.

Airlines operate in a highly regulated industry with complex legacy technical infrastructure. During our Discovery Process, we identified the unique technical challenges associated with integrating with Hawaiian Airlines’ backend and third-party travel reservation systems (e.g., Sabre), ensuring a realistic and accurate project plan.

We collaborated closely with the marketing team to ensure the app was on-brand and culturally sensitive to Hawaii's history. We conducted extensive interviews and user tests with airline guests to ensure it appealed to both vacation travelers and everyday inter-island commuters, demonstrating our deep understanding of their diverse user base and the market.

This robust Discovery Process set us up for success throughout the rest of the design and development phase. The Hawaiian Airlines app now boasts a 4.8-star rating on the Apple App Store and 4.6 rating on Google Play (Android). After launch, our team continued to partner with Hawaiian Airlines on other projects, including in-airport kiosks and the website, extending the value of a thoughtful approach to digital transformation.

Businesses with existing physical services but no digital companion

Some companies are deeply rooted in a physical space, with profound expertise in creating a great in-person experience. The ArcTouch Discovery Process helps create a digital product that truly aligns with and enhances that physical experience, finding new avenues for business growth and customer engagement.

Case study: Midtown Athletic Club 

Midtown Athletic Club is a luxury gym and fitness club headquartered in Chicago. While the company had tried leveraging off-the-shelf digital membership solutions in the past, none met the unique needs of their exclusive club. We worked with its team to create the bespoke Midtown Athletic Club app for members.

During our strategic Discovery Process, we dove deep into the operational business rules and challenges of booking classes, courts, and more. As we wrote about in a previous blog post, a critical component of this phase was laying the foundation for actionable app analytics. 

We collaborated closely with Midtown to define the key business questions it needed answered, such as how the app could boost member engagement, drive check-ins, impact customer lifetime value (CLV), and grow revenue. This led to the creation of a detailed data collection taxonomy, organizing how events would be tracked according to key performance indicators (KPIs) and mapped to the app's user interface.

We also interviewed club members to understand how a mobile app could improve their experience at the club, and tested prototypes with them throughout the process. And we collaborated with the marketing team to ensure the app aligned with the brand and could support their member outreach needs, creating a truly integrated and valuable member experience, backed by data-driven insights identified during Discovery. 

Companies needing a rebrand

We often work with marketing stakeholders who need to refresh their app or website after a corporate rebranding effort. The ArcTouch Discovery Process helps map out the architecture and aesthetic of a new public-facing digital product, ensuring it meets both business objectives and user expectations while reflecting the current brand identity.

Case study: Prime Therapeutics

Prime Therapeutics is a pharmacy benefit management company that merged with Magellan Rx. As part of the merger, it needed a new Prime Therapeutics website to showcase the new branding of the combined companies.

In our Discovery Workshop, we defined goals, reviewed existing personas, analyzed the competitive landscape, and audited current user flows and the site map. We then prioritized new pages and mapped the functionality. 

Throughout the rest of this design-focused Discovery Process, we conducted extensive interviews with Prime Therapeutics' clients and internal stakeholders. This deep dive allowed us to map out the entire site and work alongside the content team to ensure templates would accommodate any needed types of content. Since Prime Therapeutics is also subject to Section 508 compliance, we tested with both disabled and non-disabled users to ensure accessibility, demonstrating our commitment to comprehensive user needs and regulatory compliance.

Large corporations with internal design or development teams

For large corporations with established internal teams and ongoing initiatives, we customize our Discovery Process to augment their existing capabilities. We often work with internal teams that have already done significant foundational work. In these scenarios, we seamlessly integrate with their processes, providing specialized expertise and an objective outside perspective.

Case study: Large fintech company

In working with a large financial technology company, our customized Discovery Process involved talking to college students, educators, and administrators to understand the needs for a new app idea. 

A significant challenge was designing a financial product for this specific demographic, whose needs differ greatly from working adults. These students might not understand various monetary concepts and had less regular income, making money management challenging. Existing products didn't adequately address these pain points. A major part of our Discovery Process was truly understanding these students' unique perspectives through extensive interviews and user tests, which informed the app's content and user experience.

We also navigated the complexities of the client organization itself, including corporate leadership, brand guidelines, legal reviews, and complex back-end system connections. Our team, including design, product, and engineering leadership, conducted a 3-day workshop followed by 10 to 12 weeks of in-depth interviews and design work. This thoughtful approach helped align the wide range of internal stakeholders and navigate each of their requirements, leading to a clear path forward for this new product.

Alignment is fundamental to app success — and this project was a shining example of how the ArcTouch Discovery Process ensures a project plan is perfectly aligned with all stakeholder needs, from the end-user to corporate leadership.  

Want a customized Discovery plan for your company?

Our strategic Discovery Process is the best way to reach your digital product goals. Reach out to ArcTouch today, and let's work together to move your business forward with a lovable app, website, or connected experience.