The input stage
It’s intensive for us, but usually isn’t too painful for any single person in the client company (the burden is shared out).
The goal of the input stage is to find out everything we need to know in order to have great ideas and make strong recommendations.
The sources of input include:
…anywhere from three to thirteen individual meetings with your key managers, best sales people, techies, maybe an investor…
…short, confidential meetings or phone calls with customers (happy one or not-so-happy ones). Fairly essential.
…a channel or technology partner or two.
…brochures, website, white papers, analyst reports, data sheets, presentations, home movies…
…their websites, white papers, brochures…
…with your permission, we might talk to friends and colleagues who have insight into your market. We never share confidential information with them and often don’t tell them your name.
…for market insight, articles, papers, reports…
The input stage can take as little as a week and as much as six weeks. We’ll already have estimated this in our proposal.
What makes for a successful input stage?
- A single, primary client contact (with maybe some admin support)
- Help in identifying and getting access to the right people & resources
- Telling everyone up front what we’re up to and why it matters
- Complete openness (under NDA)
- Comfort with a degree of informality – we’ve experimented with rigid input sessions but find that loose agendas work better for us
