London office · Shoreditch
Services / 05 — Discovery & strategy

Discovery,
de-risked.

A 2–4 week discovery sprint that turns a fuzzy brief into a fundable plan. User research, technical scoping, prototype, board-ready estimate.

Updated June 24, 2026
Typical timeline
2 – 4 weeks
Engagement
Fixed-scope sprint
Team
2 – 3 senior people
Outcome
Scope, prototype, fixed-price estimate
Trusted by Danone Unilever Toyota Cisco AstraZeneca Veolia
80+
Discovery sprints delivered
4
Average weeks to plan
92%
Move into build
75
Enterprise software solutions
What we offer

Discovery
services.

A 2–4 week discovery sprint that turns a fuzzy brief into a fundable plan. User research, technical scoping, prototype, board-ready estimate.

01 — Research

User research

Up to 10 user interviews, JTBD framing, opportunity mapping — the work that kills bad assumptions before they become code.

02 — Scope

Product scope

User stories, edge cases, acceptance criteria — the spec we can hand to engineering and they say «we can build this».

03 — Architecture

Technical architecture

Stack decisions, scaling assumptions, integrations mapped — the diagram the CTO needs to defend the budget.

04 — Prototype

Clickable prototype

Mid-fidelity Figma flows — enough to put in users' hands and watch what breaks.

05 — Estimate

Costed plan

Phased delivery plan with fixed-price estimate or T&M brackets — board-ready, defensible numbers.

06 — Risks

Risk register

What can kill this product, ranked by likelihood and cost — including the «we should kill it» option.

How we build mobile apps

How we run
a discovery sprint.

Same engineers from kickoff to handover. Weekly demos. No staff augmentation, no offshore rotation.

Pillar 01

Discovery

Magora business analysts formalise the key demands, choose the appropriate platform and priority devices, and structure your future mobile app's requirements.

Pillar 02

UI / UX design

Leading app designers visualise the user journey. Intuitive functionality wrapped in user-friendly interfaces — the kind that drive both downloads and retention.

Pillar 03

Development

A decade of native iOS and Android experience. Short sprints, transparent process, highly-functional apps shipped reliably to App Store and Play Store.

Process

Six steps from
fuzzy brief to plan.

From a fuzzy idea to a store-live product, with a checkpoint at every stage.

Step 01

User research

1 – 2 weeks

Strategic processes that define user roles, set expectations and run up to 10 impactful interviews — swiftly transforming insights into a roadmap.

Interviews Personas Roadmap
Step 02

Product scope

1 week

Compelling user stories crafted with stakeholders. Our Product Owner navigates the path to success — clarity, collaboration, adaptability.

User stories Priorities Timeline
Step 03

Design

2 – 3 weeks

Robust UI designs for visual appeal and efficient UX prototypes for real user insights. Tested with real users before we write production code.

Figma Prototype Usability
Step 04

Development

6 – 14 weeks

Agile development as a dynamic, customer-driven journey. Iterative approach, collaborative mindset, weekly Friday demo, shared Linear board.

2-wk sprints CI/CD Feature flags
Step 05

QA

2 weeks

Rigorous testing in staging — automated test coverage, manual exploratory passes, load testing. QA engineers act as continuous guardians.

XCUITest Espresso Detox
Step 06

Deployment

1 week

Planning, version control, testing, cutting-edge strategies like canary releases. Swift, trouble-free installations with continuous monitoring.

Fastlane Play Console App Store Connect
Tech stack

Technologies
we work on.

The actual stack on most mobile engagements. We'll happily slot into yours if you already have one.

iOS
  • Swift · SwiftUI
  • UIKit · Combine
  • Core Data · GRDB
  • Apple Pay · Wallet
Android
  • Kotlin
  • Jetpack Compose
  • Hilt · Room · Retrofit
  • ML Kit · Biometrics
Cross-platform
  • React Native
  • Flutter
  • Expo
  • Native modules
Backend
  • Node.js · NestJS
  • Python · FastAPI
  • PHP · Laravel
  • GraphQL · REST
Realtime
  • WebSockets
  • Firebase
  • Pusher · Ably
  • Server-sent events
Data
  • PostgreSQL
  • MongoDB
  • Redis
  • SQLite · Realm
Payments
  • Apple Pay · Google Pay
  • Stripe · Adyen
  • PayPal · Braintree
  • 3-D Secure
AI / ML
  • OpenAI · Anthropic
  • Core ML
  • ML Kit · TFLite
  • Vector DBs
Client reviews

What clients
say.

Pulled from independently-verified Clutch reviews — 60+ of them, 4.9 average.

"

Two weeks turned our 30-slide vision deck into a costed 9-month roadmap. The board approved it on first read.

Diana Wilkes
Product Director, mid-market SaaS
"

They killed three features in the first week — features the founder loved but no user did.

Sam Holroyd
CEO, early-stage startup
"

Architectural sketch held up through delivery. Estimate ended within 8%. That's rare in this industry.

Robert Lin
CTO, healthcare scale-up
Who we work with

Three kinds
of partner.

We've teamed up with 500+ businesses — fresh-faced startups, established mid-market and global enterprise.

Startup

Startups & MVPs

Production-grade MVP in a calendar quarter. Money-back if we miss the date — see our Startup MVP service.

SMB

Small & medium business

Internal tools, customer apps and digital transformation work — the kind that pays for itself within a year.

Enterprise

Enterprise

Compliance-heavy platforms, MDM-managed fleets, audit-ready architecture. SOC 2, GDPR, MHRA passed first time, every time.

Frequently asked

The honest
questions.

Why choose Magora for hiring product strategists?
Magora is a London-based custom software house in business since 2010. We field senior product strategists who own the work from the first commit, ship in tight feedback loops with weekly demos and hand over code your team can maintain — no offshore rotation, no juniors in disguise.
How long does it take to build a discovery sprint?
It depends on scope, but our typical engagement runs 8–24 weeks from kickoff to production. A discovery sprint at the start (2–4 weeks) gives a fixed timeline you can actually defend to a board, instead of a ten-page Gantt that slips by week three.
What does a discovery sprint cost?
There's no fixed price — it depends on scope, so we start every engagement with a free working prototype and written analysis from a senior Product Owner, no commitment. Our 2026 pricing (GBP): Product Discovery from £3,000, a Startup MVP from £10,000, and a full production web or mobile project from £30,000. AI, bespoke enterprise software and CRM platforms are scoped after Discovery. Typical London day rates run £30–£90/hour, and we transfer full ownership of source code, designs and IP to you on payment.
Do you provide support after launch?
Yes. We stay on as the maintenance team — security patches, OS / framework upgrades, third-party deprecations, on-going feature work. Most clients keep us on a part-time SLA after launch; some bring the code in-house once their team is ready.
Who owns the code and IP?
You do. Magora's IP terms transfer ownership of bespoke work to the client on payment — the repository is licensed to you from the first commit, full stop. We use OSS dependencies but contribute back rather than baking proprietary forks into your codebase.
Free 30-minute consult

Pick a slot below
and let's talk.

No commitment, no charge. We'll review your project, scope the next step, and tell you the realistic price + timeline. Free working prototype + senior PO analysis before any paid engagement.

4.9 / 5 · 50+ reviews on Clutch NDA day 1 UK Companies House #03637036 GDPR-compliant

Idea worth
de-risking first?

30-minute call with a senior software architect. We'll review your scope, architecture and constraints — and tell you what we'd actually build if it were us.

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