Introductory Meeting

Goals

  • be prepared to write a coherent "proposal" for discovery session

  • scope the project (influences the discovery session)

  • for the prospect to understand how we work/bill

  • draw a context diagram

  • understand the problem/opportunity

  • what why who where when how

Introduction (5 mins)

  • reiterate 1 hour

  • we have a set of questions...

  • How did you find out about us?

Questions (30 mins)

  1. What problem are you trying to solve?

  2. Who is your customer?

  3. What are their goals?

  4. What are your goals?

  5. Who is our customer?

  6. Who are the stakeholders?

  7. Who would be the decision makers for this project?

  8. What have you/customer tried so far to solve the problem (manual/automated)?

  9. What work have you done so far on this project?

  10. What are the input and the output?

  11. What other systems do we need to integrate with? (authorization, payment gateways)

  12. What constraints do we need to consider?

    1. business

    2. regulations

    3. security

    4. IT

    5. timeline

    6. contract

  13. Do you have a budget?

  14. Do you have a budget after launch?

  15. Have you received any quotes?

  16. Are looking/discussed with other service providers?

  17. Do you have any concerns going into a project like this?

  18. Have you been involved in these type of project before?

  19. What are your expectations after launch (i.e support)?

CivilCode (10 mins)

  • How would you like us to help?

  • What would you like to know about us?

What they need to know (5 mins)

  • We work on a fixed features/flexible budget -- flexible features/fixed budget

  • Starting budget at $80K

  • We work in blocks Monday-Thursday $4k per person

  • We mostly work as a pair - expect a burn-rate of $8k week

  • We bill in advance on monthly basis

  • We work in a iterative and incremental method

    • incremental: build an application feature by feature

    • iterative: implement features in the simplest way possible, and then add polish

    • visibility in to progress and early feedback

    • allows us adapt as we learn during the project

  • Focus on after launch support

  • Discovery session is a perquisite

  • Primarily work from our office

Next steps (5 mins)

  • Discuss discovery session

    • in-depth understanding of the actors and goals

    • understand the domain

    • enables to the build the right thing

  • Two-half days over two consecutive days story mapping your customers tasks to identify how they achieve their goals

  • Results in a development plan

    • context diagram

    • actors and goals

    • story maps

    • implementation technologies

    • milestones with deliverables

    • methodology

    • roles and responsibilities in the project team

    • suggested budget as range

    • domain model

  • Who would you invite to the discovery session?

  • Preferred location?

Buffer (5 mins)

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