Now it’s time to take your first step outside your walls and start meeting with vendors.
But Discovery is a critical phase in your evaluation — one that sets the tone for every demo, shortlist decision, and downstream discussion. And it’s where institutions can lose control, defaulting to the vendor’s process rather than their own.
The most strategic buyers treat Discovery as its own critical step: a focused, intentional exploration designed to evaluate strategic fit. One that puts your team in the driver’s seat right from the start.
Discovery is your institution’s first outward-facing move after aligning your internal team. It’s not about scorecards, RFPs, or granular feature checks. It’s about direction, context, and qualification. You’re trying to find out:
Who can actually help us solve our biggest challenges?
That’s what Discovery is for — and this guide helps you make the most of it. During Discovery you’ll:
Your goal in Discovery is NOT to check every technical box.
It’s to explore which vendors are aligned with your vision — and are credible, capable partners worth deeper evaluation.
Too many digital banking evaluations stall out not because of bad vendors—but because of rushed, unstructured early steps.
If you skip a structured Discovery, you risk:
Discovery filters for fit versus features. It eliminates misaligned vendors early, builds buy-in across your internal team, and positions you to run a much more effective initial demo and RFP later on. And it keeps your institution in control.
You do. The Project Lead owns the Discovery Process and vendor coordination. You’ll be the one facilitating and setting up this critical step.
You’re the one:
Most teams will keep Discovery participation to a small team — 1 project lead and a few early stakeholders from Digital Strategy, IT, Operations, and Product.
This isn’t a demo—it’s a strategic conversation. In a Discovery Meeting, you’ll share why you’re evaluating a conversion, discuss goals and challenges, and assess vendor alignment on vision, culture, and capabilities. Ask each vendor the same questions to compare fairly. And expect them to walk away knowing your goals, dealbreakers, and whether they’re the right fit.
By the end of a strong Discovery Meeting, you should be able to answer:
A practical guide to help you structure your discovery process with ease, including:
