# Discovery

URL: /business/discovery · Id: `system:discovery`

> Discovery runs buyer research: Interviews, Problems, graded Evidence, ICPs and Personas, so every Offer starts from what buyers said.

Discovery keeps what buyers say: [Interviews](/business/nouns/interview), the [Problems](/business/nouns/problem) they name, graded [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence), and the [ICPs](/business/nouns/icp) and [Personas](/business/nouns/persona) drawn from them. Every [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) traces back to a buyer’s own words.

## Summary
| Part | This System |
| --- | --- |
| Group | Moves to Business |
| Status | Live |
| Shelf | Front: offered from a Startup’s first days |

You can ask:

- “What are people asking for?”
- “Log this customer interview”
- “Who is my ideal customer?”
- “What problems came up most?”

## What you get
| Part | This System |
| --- | --- |
| Starts | On for every Startup at creation, with nothing to install. |
| Built from | [AI gateway](/code/platform/ai-gateway), [Email delivery](/systems/communications/email), [Database](/code/platform/capabilities/database), [Search](/code/platform/search), [Web](/code/platform/web), [Market data](/systems/marketing/market-data) |

## Nouns it owns
| Noun | Definition |
| --- | --- |
| [Interview](/business/nouns/interview) | An Interview is one person’s pass through a question script, led by an Agent, whose answers become Evidence. |
| [Problem](/business/nouns/problem) | A Problem is what an ICP struggles with, in their own words: how they solve it today and what it costs them. |
| [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence) | Evidence is a recorded quote, reading, or artifact that supports or refutes a claim, graded as behavior, commitment, or opinion. |
| [ICP](/business/nouns/icp) | An ICP is the ideal customer profile a Startup is built to win: who they are and what they do. |
| [Persona](/business/nouns/persona) | A Persona is a named type of person with a job to do, such as a buyer, a seller, or an admin of an App. |
| [Story](/business/nouns/story) | A Story is the customer narrative for one ICP, compiled from its Founding Hypothesis and Interview quotes, never written by hand. |

## Verbs
| Verb | Object | Approval | Event |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Interview.create](/business/nouns/interview/create) | [Interview](/business/nouns/interview) | None | `Interview.created` |
| [Evidence.create](/business/nouns/evidence/create) | [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence) | None | `Evidence.created` |
| [Problem.create](/business/nouns/problem/create) | [Problem](/business/nouns/problem) | None | `Problem.created` |
| [Persona.create](/business/nouns/persona/create) | [Persona](/business/nouns/persona) | None | `Persona.created` |

## Events
| Direction | Event | How |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Emits | `Interview.created` | By [Interview.create](/business/nouns/interview/create) |
| Emits | `Evidence.created` | By [Evidence.create](/business/nouns/evidence/create) |
| Emits | `Problem.created` | By [Problem.create](/business/nouns/problem/create) |
| Emits | `Persona.created` | By [Persona.create](/business/nouns/persona/create) |

## States
None.

## Who operates it
| Part | This System |
| --- | --- |
| Accountable | [Researcher](/agents/product/researcher) |
| Team | [Product Team](/agents/product) |
| Seat | A role agent holds it until a Human is seated. |
| Autonomy | `supervised` |
| Also calls its Verbs | [Success Manager](/agents/customer/success-manager), [Billing Specialist](/agents/finance/billing-specialist), [Compliance Officer](/agents/legal/compliance-officer), [Recruiter](/agents/people/recruiter), [Quality Lead](/agents/quality/quality-lead) |

## Approvals and limits
None.

## Processes that use it
| Process | How it uses it |
| --- | --- |
| [Customer research](/workflows/processes/customer-research) | A step calls [Interview.create](/business/nouns/interview/create) |
| [Retention](/workflows/processes/retention) | A step calls [Evidence.create](/business/nouns/evidence/create) |
| [Compliance](/workflows/processes/compliance) | A step calls [Evidence.create](/business/nouns/evidence/create) |
| [Verification](/code/verification) | A step calls [Evidence.create](/business/nouns/evidence/create) |
| [Hiring](/workflows/processes/hiring) | A step calls [Evidence.create](/business/nouns/evidence/create) |
| [Whistleblower reports](/workflows/processes/whistleblower-reports) | A step calls [Evidence.create](/business/nouns/evidence/create) |
| [Billing](/workflows/processes/billing) | A step calls [Evidence.create](/business/nouns/evidence/create) |

## Rail underneath
None.

## Views and dashboards
| View | Shows | Metrics |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The [Researcher](/agents/product/researcher)’s view | The Metrics its accountable Role answers for. | [Evidence-backed Decisions](/agents/product#evidence-backed-decisions) |

## Access
What each Access level may call here.

| Access level | May call |
| --- | --- |
| `owner` | Every Verb (26) |
| `admin` | Every Verb (26) |
| `member` | Every Verb (26) |
| `viewer` | Read only (12 of 26) |

## Import and export
None.

## Fees and pricing
None.

## Availability and limits
| Part | This System |
| --- | --- |
| Status | Live |

## Compliance notes
Controls it carries:

- [Point-in-time recovery](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/point-in-time-recovery)
- [Processing definitions](/systems/trust-and-governance/controls/processing-definitions)

## Related Systems
None.

## Example
A [Services-as-Software](/products/templates/services-as-software) month-end close runs 12 Interviews with agency owners over email in its first week. Discovery files each quote under a Problem and grades it; three owners prepaid a month, the strongest grade there is. Those three quotes become the headline of its first Offer.