SPRINT 0 · PRODUCT DISCOVERY

Product discovery that ends in a scope you can build against.

Sprint 0 is our product discovery service, run as a fixed-scope, fixed-fee sprint: $5,000 to $15,000 depending on complexity, two to four weeks. Senior engineers work alongside your team and turn your idea into a design system, user stories with acceptance criteria, a billable milestone plan, and the technical architecture. Sprint 0 is followed by Sprint 1: the same plan the build executes, or the plan you take to any other team.

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Sprint 0 at a glance

FIXED FEE
$5,000 to $15,000
DURATION
2 to 4 weeks
YOU KEEP
Everything delivered
  • UI/UX design and design system
  • Epics and user stories with acceptance criteria
  • Billable milestone plan
  • Technical architecture with repository scaffolding

Trusted by great companies.

  • Notary.io
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  • GloFlow
  • Asana Rebel

WHAT YOU GET

Four deliverables. Yours to keep, whoever builds next.

Sprint 0 is a standalone product, not a down payment. If you take the deliverable to another vendor or to your in-house team, it holds its value: the scope, the stories, the scaffolding, and the plan work for whoever executes them. That portability is deliberate. A discovery phase you can walk away from is the only kind worth paying for.

UI/UX design and design system

The overarching product design and the design system behind it: core flows, key screens, and the tokens and components everything builds on. Detailed screen designs get built out as the sprints progress, on top of this foundation.

Epics and user stories with acceptance criteria

The scope broken into epics and sized user stories, each with written acceptance criteria. This is the artifact that ends the "what are we actually building" debate, and the standard every milestone is tested against. Any competent engineering team can execute against it, which is what makes the deliverable portable.

Billable milestone plan

Every milestone in the build defined and priced: what it contains, how it is accepted, and what it bills. The schedule and the billing are the same artifact, so you can model budget and runway against the full build before committing to any of it.

Technical architecture with repository scaffolding

The architecture decisions made and wired together: a scaffolded repository, infrastructure groundwork, and the technical foundations the first milestone builds on. Discovery that ends in working foundations, not only paper.

HOW IT WORKS

From discovery call to Sprint 1, in four steps.

Sprint 0 is named for what follows it. It is the sprint before Sprint 1, and everything it produces exists so the build that follows runs against a plan instead of a guess.

  1. 01

    Discovery call, 30 minutes

    A senior engineer walks through what you are building and where you are. The call ends with a Sprint 0 proposal when the fit holds: the fixed fee, set within the published range based on complexity, and the calendar window.

  2. 02

    Sprint 0, two to four weeks

    Senior engineering and product time working alongside your team. Discovery interviews, scope definition, technical foundations, and the milestone plan. Where the build hinges on a technical unknown, the sprint puts engineering time against settling it before the plan is committed. AI-augmented development is how a senior team compresses this into weeks without cutting depth.

  3. 03

    Go or no-go, your call and ours

    The one formal decision point: after Sprint 0 ends and before Sprint 1 starts. A working session, not a sales close. Either side can decline the build and the deliverable stays intact on both sides. You walk with everything if the scope shifted, priorities changed, or you want to build elsewhere. We walk if the scope outgrew your runway or the technical risk breaks the economics.

  4. 04

    Sprint 1: the milestone-billed build

    When the answer is go, the build runs against the scope and milestone plan from Sprint 0. Weekly sprints, end-of-sprint demos, billing that fires on milestone acceptance rather than on clocked time, and the right to exit at any milestone with everything delivered.

PRICING

$5,000 to $15,000, fixed at signing.

We publish the range because you should not have to book a call to learn what discovery costs. The exact fee is set on the discovery call and fixed at signing, with no hourly meter behind it.

WHAT MOVES THE NUMBER INSIDE THE RANGE

  • Scope surface: one focused product slice sits low in the range; a multi-workflow platform sits high.
  • Integration depth: the number of external systems the scope has to map and de-risk.
  • Technical unknowns: how much engineering time the sprint must spend proving feasibility before the plan can be committed.

THE FEE BUYS THE DELIVERABLE, NOT A COMMITMENT

Sprint 0 carries no obligation to build with Leanware. The go-or-no-go session at sprint close is a genuine decision point for both sides, and the deliverable keeps its full value on either answer. If you proceed, the build bills per accepted milestone under the engagement model documented on our engagement models page. See the milestone-based engagement model, or how it plays into a full AI product engineering build.

WHAT THIS IS NOT

Four things Sprint 0 is often confused with.

Not a free audit with a sales agenda

Free discovery calls exist to qualify you into a build. Sprint 0 is paid engineering work whose deliverable is independently useful, and the go-or-no-go at close makes declining the build a designed outcome, not a failure mode.

Not a slide deck

The deliverable includes a scaffolded repository, infrastructure groundwork, and a foundational design system. Discovery that only produces documents pushes the real de-risking into the build, where it is most expensive.

Not an open-ended discovery retainer

Sprint 0 is fixed scope and fixed fee, done in two to four weeks. Discovery phases that bill by the hour have no structural reason to end.

Not a commitment to build with us

The scope, stories, and plan are written so any competent team can execute them. Roughly the same artifact a good in-house planning phase would produce, done by senior engineers who have shipped this shape of product before.

FREQUENTLY ASKED

Questions buyers ask about product discovery.

These are the questions we hear from people comparing discovery services, proof-of-concept work, and scoping sprints. The answers match how the engagement actually runs.

  • What does a product discovery phase cost?
    Sprint 0 costs $5,000 to $15,000, fixed at signing, depending on complexity: the scope surface, the integration depth, and how much technical unknown the sprint has to settle. Most discovery vendors do not publish a price; we do, because the range is honest and you should be able to budget before you book a call.
  • How long does product discovery take?
    Two to four calendar weeks. The exact window is set on the discovery call along with the fee. The deliverable lands at the end of the sprint, and the go-or-no-go working session happens at sprint close.
  • What is Sprint 0, and how does it relate to a discovery phase?
    Sprint 0 is our name for the product discovery and scoping phase, named for what follows it: Sprint 1, the first build sprint. It covers the ground a software discovery phase covers (requirements, scope, feasibility, planning) but ends in working technical foundations and a milestone plan rather than only documents. If you have been comparing vendors under "discovery phase services" or "product discovery services", this is that engagement with the output made concrete.
  • What do I get at the end?
    Four deliverables. The overarching UI/UX design and design system (detailed screen designs get built as the sprints progress). Epics and user stories with written acceptance criteria. A billable milestone plan with every milestone defined and priced, so you see what the full build costs before committing to it. And the technical architecture, delivered as a scaffolded repository with the foundations wired together. All of it is yours to keep.
  • Is this a proof of concept (PoC) service?
    It covers what most buyers actually need from PoC development services: proving the risky part before committing to the build. When the central question is technical feasibility, Sprint 0 allocates engineering time to settle that question first, and the milestone plan is only committed once it is settled. The difference from a bare PoC is that you also leave with the scope, the stories, and the plan, so a positive answer converts directly into a build instead of into a second scoping engagement.
  • Do I have to build with Leanware afterward?
    No. Sprint 0 ends in a go-or-no-go session where either side can decline the build, and the deliverable stays fully yours on either answer. The scope and stories are written so any competent engineering team can execute them. If you proceed with us, the build runs milestone-billed: you pay per accepted milestone and can exit at any milestone with everything delivered.
  • How is the exact fee set within the range?
    On the discovery call, against three factors: how much product surface the scope has to close, how many external systems the plan has to map and de-risk, and how much engineering time the sprint needs to spend proving technical feasibility. The fee is fixed at signing. It does not move mid-sprint.
  • Who does the work?
    Senior engineers paired with senior product and delivery people, working alongside your team for the length of the sprint. The people who scope the build are the people who would build it, which is why the milestone plan holds up: the person committing to the estimate is the person accountable for delivering against it.
  • Why is discovery a fixed fee when most vendors bill it hourly?
    Because hourly discovery has no structural reason to end, and because a vendor who cannot fix the price of a two-to-four-week sprint has no business fixing milestone prices for a months-long build. Sprint 0 is where we take on the scoping risk ourselves, and it is what makes the milestone-based engagement model behind the build reliable.
  • What happens after Sprint 0 if we proceed?
    Sprint 1. The build runs against the milestone plan from Sprint 0: weekly sprints, end-of-sprint demos, at least two milestones a month, billing on milestone acceptance rather than hours, and exit rights at every milestone. The full model is documented on our engagement models page.
TRACK RECORD
READY TO SCOPE

Start with the sprint that de-risks everything after it.

A 30-minute discovery call with a senior engineer ends with a Sprint 0 proposal when the fit holds: the fixed fee, set within the published range, and the calendar window. If Sprint 0 is not the right next step for you, we say so on the call.

Tell us what you are building. A senior engineer will review it and come back with a Sprint 0 proposal when the fit holds: the fixed fee, set within the published range, and the calendar window. If Sprint 0 is not the right next step for you, we say so.

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