Usually lasting up to 5 days, Discovery is the first step on the road to success. Quickly proving the purpose, value proposition, and expectations of the idea before investing money in them. Discovery is about learning what you have, what you want, and what you need and helps the Product Owner choose the right solution to invest in next.
The Cone of Uncertainty shows us how ‘Variability’ exists across the delivery of a piece of work, as we move left to right across the diagram confidence in the validity of ideas and delivery increases, when confidence is high, uncertainty has decreased. On the left is where we are least confident in the specifics and is where we need to perform activities to better understand what, how and when something can, could or will be delivered. Investing resource into Discovery reduces risk and increases confidence further along your delivery as it helps to reduce the Variance and increases understanding of the things you are going to deliver.