Discovery research and findings
During Discovery, we conducted both a secondary literature review and a primary diary study with businesses. For more detailed information on our research, findings, or recommendations, please contact us.
Literature review
The literature review was based on research from academia, the European and Canadian Parliament, federal mandate letters, and a lot of information from the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME). This review helped us understand which groups have common or different needs to build an inclusive and effective service and prioritize features.
Our review surfaced that all business groups struggle with finding contracts. Both Canadian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and European businesses supplying in Canada stated that one of their top barriers was identifying opportunities the public sector in a timely manner.
Diary study
In addition to knowing who we are building for, we wanted to learn more about their experience when finding contract opportunities. Diary studies are qualitative self-reporting exercises, which require participants to complete a specific task over a period of time by creating regular logs (diary entries) of their activities as they occur.
This gives an understanding of how businesses begin searching for and filtering for contract opportunities that fit their business. This deeper context helps inform us what barriers they encounter, what tools they use that are helpful, and what they need to find opportunities that are relevant to them.
The study did not explore what causes a business to decide whether to bid, but rather how does a business decide whether an opportunity is worth their time to explore more fully, before deciding whether to bid.
Findings from the diary study
Overall, participants experienced difficulties in finding opportunities:
- Filters on different sites were either too broad or too specific.
- Participants had little time for searching and faced frequent disruptions in their searches.
- Most participants only found one relevant opportunity over the course of the diary study.
Based on the literature review and diary study, the team developed recommendations to make it easier for businesses to find relevant contract opportunities.