The Discovery Process

The Discovery Process is a “community exploration methodology” developed and trademarked by James Kent of James Kent Associates (JKA).  At the center of this process is the idea that community character and values are best identified by interacting with people in their natural daily settings and routines.  The process involves interviewing and including people from numerous different groups and organizational levels within the community.

The first step in the Discovery Process is to identify the important networks, groups, and individuals that are representative of a community.  Kent uses a literature review (newspaper articles, official community documents, books, and informal communications) to get a sense of the community and the important sectors.  Seven cultural descriptors are used to clarify and describe these groups: publics, networks, settlement patterns, work routines, supporting services, recreational activities, and geographic boundaries. 

Contacts are made with numerous individuals in each of these categories, resulting in detailed interviews that are representative of the whole community.  Team members make a number of contacts informally by visiting coffee shops, parks, bars, schools, and other locations that are central to community life; more formal contacts are made by identifying key individuals.  Kent also holds chat sessions in distinct neighborhoods in the community, and village-level gatherings at which he engages people in discussions about the current state of their villages and their visions for the future. 

The Discovery Process officially ends with the creation of a community vision from the information gathered, but the vision also includes strategies to move the community toward the future ideal, and action steps to accomplish the strategies.