Client Discovery

Discovery is where consulting starts

A client rarely arrives with a perfectly framed business problem. They arrive with a request, a pain point, a deadline or an idea. Your job is to understand the situation well enough to help them make a better decision.

The five questions I keep coming back to

1. What is happening today?
2. Why does it matter?
3. Who is affected?
4. What would better look like?
5. What constraints are real?

Listen for contradictions

If a client says the goal is “reduce cost” but asks for a large custom feature set, do not quietly accept both. Surface the trade-off. Consulting value often comes from making hidden constraints visible.