At Db_studio, we do not believe in standing still. Our AI-driven design process has always been about uncovering sharper insights, aligning teams earlier, and delivering exceptional products without wasted time or budget. But innovation does not just happen in the work we create. It happens in how we work.

That is why we have evolved our approach. What was once a seven-stage design process (Pre-Discovery, Discovery, Ideation, Prototyping, Design, Testing and Handoff) is now a streamlined four-stage workflow:

Pre-Discovery → Discovery → Design → Handoff

This evolution is not about cutting corners. It is about removing friction, merging overlapping steps, and using AI tools more strategically to keep momentum high and deliver the same depth of insight with fewer hand-offs. The result is a process that is simpler for clients to follow, faster for teams to execute, and just as rigorous as before.

Why We Made the Change

Over time, we found that certain stages naturally blended together in real-world projects.

• Ideation, Prototyping, and Visual Design already fed into one another in a single creative loop.

• Early research synthesis often happened alongside discovery, especially as AI tools accelerated how quickly we could identify patterns and insights.

By merging these overlapping steps, we kept the quality but eliminated the lag. This made our process leaner without losing what makes it effective.

The New Four-Stage Workflow

Pre-Discovery

Turning early conversations into actionable clarity.
We capture every detail from stakeholder meetings with Fireflies and organize them in Notebook LM, creating research summaries and briefs in hours instead of days. We centralize all qualitative inputs in Dovetail for AI-assisted tagging and theme detection, ensuring the project starts with solid alignment and real data.

Discovery

Shaping market context and user insight.
We use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Appbot to analyze market trends, competitor positioning, and user sentiment. Personas are built from real stakeholder and user data, then validated by our team to ensure they are grounded in reality and not guesswork.

Design

Where concepts, prototypes, and visual identity merge into one streamlined process.
With V0, Lovable, Figma Make, and magicpath, we rapidly generate and refine design directions informed by research. Early interactive prototypes allow clients to validate flows and features before heavy investment. Once aligned, our human-led visual design process defines every pixel, with AI serving as a speed and structure tool and never as a creative substitute.

Handoff

Testing, validating, and preparing for launch.
We run usability tests with Maze and Useberry, combining qualitative feedback with behavioral analytics. Insights from testing guide final refinements so development teams can move forward with confidence and avoid costly changes later in the build.

What This Means for Our Clients

• Faster alignment: We have eliminated redundancies so projects move from kickoff to validation sooner.

• Clearer collaboration: Fewer stages make progress easier to track and input more impactful.

• Same depth, less lag: Rigorous research and design remain intact, but without unnecessary waiting.

• Lower costs, quicker launches: Shorter timelines preserve both budget and momentum.

The Bottom Line
Our four-stage process is the next evolution of how we deliver. It is leaner, clearer, and built for today’s fast-moving market. With AI enhancing speed and precision, and humans driving creativity and strategy, Db_studio delivers results that are both efficient and exceptional.

If you are looking for a partner who moves with precision and purpose and helps you launch faster without compromise, let us create something together.