ZetrixwebScope Guessed, Not Scoped
An agency quotes a fixed price off a single call, then "scope creep" becomes the excuse for every overrun that follows.
Discovery & Scoping
A fixed-price discovery sprint before you commit to a build.
Two weeks of structured stakeholder interviews, technical feasibility checks, and roadmap work - turned into a phased plan and a fixed-price proposal, so you're never guessing what a build actually costs.
1-2 week fixed-price sprint
Fee credited if you build with us
Roadmap is yours either way
Risk register, not just optimism
Discovery Readiness
Live
Stakeholder interviews Scheduled
Feasibility check Mapped
Roadmap Drafted
Fixed price Quoted
Definition
What is a Paid Discovery sprint?
Paid Discovery is a structured, fixed-price engagement - typically one to two weeks - where we deeply analyze your product goals, user needs, and technical constraints before any development starts. It produces a concrete scope, an architecture direction, a phased roadmap, and a fixed-price proposal for the build itself. It's deliberately different from a free sales call: real stakeholder interviews, a technical feasibility pass against your actual systems and constraints, and a written deliverable you keep regardless of what you decide next.
- Structured stakeholder interviews - not one call, a real intake process across the people who'll use and own the product.
- Technical feasibility checked against your actual constraints, not assumed away in a sales deck.
- A phased roadmap and risk register you keep, whether or not you build with us afterward.
- Fixed-price proposal for the build, so budget stops being a guess.
- Discovery fee credited against your first development milestone if you proceed.
The Problem
Why most build budgets blow up before line one of code.
Feasibility Found Too Late
A blocking integration limitation or data constraint surfaces in week six of a build, not week one of scoping.
Stakeholders Never Aligned
Product, engineering, and the exec sponsor each had a different picture of "done" - and nobody wrote it down.
What's Included
Two weeks, five concrete deliverables.
Stakeholder Interviews
Structured sessions with the people who'll use, own, and fund the product - not just whoever answered the first call.
Technical Feasibility Pass
We check your idea against real constraints - existing systems, data, integrations, compliance - before we promise anything.
Wireframe / Architecture Sketch
Enough of a concrete shape - screens or system diagram - that "what are we actually building" stops being ambiguous.
Phased Roadmap
What ships first, what's phase two, and why - ranked by validation value and build effort, not just feature wishlist order.
Risk Register
The things most likely to blow up the timeline or budget, named explicitly - so nobody's surprised in month three.
Fixed-Price Proposal
A real number for the build, based on the scope we just defined together - not a placeholder range.
Use Cases
Who Paid Discovery is built for.
Early-Stage Founders
Validate the idea and get a real budget number before you pitch investors or commit runway to a build.
Enterprise Teams Scoping AI
Test technical feasibility against real data and systems before committing a budget line to a new AI feature.
Teams Burned Before
If a previous agency's vague SOW led to scope creep and overruns, discovery is how you avoid the repeat.
Related: prototype development, MVP development for startups, code audit, and engagement models.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions.
A structured, fixed-price engagement - typically 1-2 weeks - where we analyze your product goals, user needs, and technical requirements, then produce a concrete scope, architecture direction, and phased roadmap with a fixed-price proposal. It's the step between a vague idea and a build commitment.
A sales call gives you a rough estimate off one conversation. Discovery involves real stakeholder interviews, technical feasibility checks against your actual constraints, and a written roadmap and risk register you keep regardless of whether you build with us.
Yes. If you move forward with us on the resulting roadmap, the discovery fee is credited against the first development milestone. You're not paying twice for the same thinking.
You keep the roadmap, architecture notes, and risk register - they're yours. We'd rather you walk away with a real deliverable than sign a vague SOW that neither side actually validated.
For anything under a few weeks of build time, usually not - a short scoping call covers it. Discovery earns its cost once ambiguity, integration complexity, or multiple stakeholders make a wrong scope guess expensive to unwind later.
Ready to turn a vague idea into a real number?
Book a Paid Discovery sprint - two weeks, one fixed price, a roadmap you keep either way.