Establishing the outline 'problem statement' right up front is key

I prefer to have an initial call to understand the reason for the assistance in the first place, the position you are in, what your ambitions for your business or your idea are and to also start to get a proper feel for the type of person or business you are and want to become.

I generally like there to be a short period of reflection and discussion for any queries, questions or additional detail that may have been an output or missed from the first call

I try and be pretty relaxed and informal but this step is very important in order to establish a strong initial connection and understanding between myself and the individual / business. This openness tends to surface everything that we will need to start framing the likely next steps and best approach.

The next stage is to then agree what happens next and in what timeframe so that we can begin to understand a fuller scope and timeline for steps and interactions going forward

Following this initial session we begin to define the likely deliverables, whom is doing what within them and an outline approach to help you understand what is would potentially look like and I will then draft this information gathering as an opening reference document that we will refine and agree together.

At this stage it's good to spend some time reviewing any additional thoughts and inputs that may have come to light during the initial stages and capture them as part of the framing.

This will then allow me to quote for the project