Understand
We work with your team to understand the business goals, intended audience and current service. Customer research and examples of real work help clarify the problem and what people value.
Digital strategy and product discovery
DabApps helps you shape digital services, improve business processes and decide where to invest in software. We combine commercial goals, customer research and technical advice to define a practical product direction, drawing on work with travel businesses, community platforms and international research teams.
Make the next product decision with better evidence
You may be exploring a new revenue stream, taking a service into a new market or trying to serve more customers without increasing administration at the same rate. Before committing a development budget, you need to understand what customers will value and which changes would help the business deliver it.
We work with founders, product leaders and operational teams on the decisions behind the software: who a service is for, how it should work and what deserves investment first. Discovery gives you a clearer basis for those decisions, including where AI could help and where a process change or conventional software would be more useful.
WHAT WE DELIVER
What you get from discovery and strategy
Digital strategy connects your business ambitions to the products, processes and systems needed to support them. Product discovery tests the assumptions behind that direction through research and practical experiments. We agree the outputs around your next decision, whether that's refining a proposition, choosing a first release or prioritising improvements to an established service.
- A clearer product proposition and intended audience
- Mapped customer journeys and operational bottlenecks
- Priorities informed by business value and feasibility
- Data, integration and technical constraints
- Prototypes or focused experiments to test key assumptions
- A phased product roadmap with risks and next steps
COMMON STARTING POINTS
When a clearer direction matters
This work is useful when uncertainty about users, data or feasibility could change what you build. We start with what you already know and focus on the gaps that affect the decision, whether you're shaping a new service or extending software people use today.
- Shaping a new digital service or commercial proposition
- Testing a product idea before seeking investment or building
- Helping an established service support more customers
- Choosing between competing product priorities
- Replacing fragmented processes with connected software
- Deciding where AI belongs in your product plans
How we shape the next step
Assess
We examine the proposition, workflows, data and technical constraints. Together we compare possible improvements and agree which would contribute most to your commercial or operational goals.
Test
Where evidence is missing, we agree research, a prototype or a focused technical experiment. We use the findings to revise the proposed approach and make unresolved assumptions clear.
Plan
We define what to build first, what needs further work and what to leave aside. You get a phased direction for design and engineering, with dependencies and criteria for judging the next stage.
WHY DABAPPS
Strategy informed by the work of building products
With Brand Dynamics, discovery clarified international ambitions early, so an English-language proof of concept was built with multilingual use in mind. For PIGEON, we shaped the proposition and created a prototype that helped secure investment, then developed the product roadmap and platform for market testing.
- Business priorities translated into practical product decisions
- Product design, data and engineering considered together
- Scope that separates a useful first release from later ambitions
- A delivery team that understands the reasoning behind the plan
Client success stories
These projects show how discovery informs different decisions: changing a product's direction, testing a proposition in the market and planning for international use. PIGEON also shows why securing investment and building a product do not guarantee sustained adoption.
Take Me to the Moon
We helped a specialist travel team imagine a more personal digital journey: a mobile companion prototype combining itineraries with access to human support.
PIGEON
Our prototype helped secure investment. We then built a skill-sharing platform with payments and live video, giving the founders a product for market testing.
Conceptualizer
We built Brand Dynamics' research platform to run simultaneous studies in more than 20 languages, with clients able to access survey results directly.
What our clients say
“Working with DabApps has been a real pleasure, as they have managed to deliver what is quite a complex requirement to brief, on time and to budget. They are methodical in their approach and technically very supportive, making the overall process and working relationship hassle free.”
Hugo Brooks, CEO & Senior Consultant, Brand Dynamics
Assess AI within the wider product plan
AI can be part of a digital strategy. We assess its role against customer value, available data and the people responsible for the result. For Take Me to the Moon, that meant moving beyond an itinerary-generator idea to a travel companion prototype that supported the team's human expertise.
If your main goal is to identify and plan AI adoption across the business, our AI Transformation service provides that focused review. For a specific AI feasibility or integration question, explore AI consultancy. Our designers and engineers can also carry a broader product strategy into delivery through the services below.
Questions about discovery and strategy
What do we get from a product discovery and strategy engagement?
We agree the outputs around the decision you need to make. These can include research findings, prioritised opportunities, a data and feasibility assessment, a prototype and a phased product roadmap. Recommendations explain the evidence, trade-offs and assumptions that still need testing, so you can decide whether to proceed, narrow the scope or change direction.
Does this service cover projects without AI?
Yes. Our business consulting focuses on digital products, services and the operations behind them. That includes shaping a proposition, improving customer journeys, planning a platform or prioritising an existing product roadmap. AI is one option to assess when it fits the problem; a project does not need an AI element.
Can you help us test an idea before seeking investment?
Yes. We can help clarify who the product serves, what problem it solves and how it could work, then use a prototype to test assumptions and support conversations with stakeholders or investors. PIGEON's prototype helped secure early investment. Funding and sustained customer adoption are separate questions, so discovery also identifies what still needs testing in the market.
How long does discovery take, and what affects the cost?
The scope depends on the questions to resolve, the number of user groups and workflows, access to people and data, and whether a prototype or technical experiment is needed. We agree the work and deliverables before starting. A focused product decision needs a different engagement from exploring several opportunities across a business.
Can you help build the product after discovery?
Yes. DabApps can carry the agreed direction into product design, engineering and ongoing support. Development is scoped as a next stage, using what discovery has established. A prototype helps test an idea; production software still needs the integrations, permissions, testing and operational support appropriate to its use.
Thinking from our team
Liv Dykes explains how prototypes help teams understand a proposed product before development. Ed Hickey looks at how to judge whether a business process is a useful candidate for AI automation.
