When working with new clients we often dont start with a huge or elaborate development project right out the gate. Why? Many reasons: 1) although we would like to, its impossible to know everything about your plans and vision from the first few discussions 2) both sides need a fair amount of getting to know you time 3) to be perfectly honest, big proposals for big projects are quite intimidating. So with new clients, we often propose a service referred to as the Initial Engagement. Other firms may also refer to this as the Discovery Period, however, the "cost of discovery" is not often implied, potentially leaving expectations out of sync. Initial Engagements, or Discovery, usually last between 1  2 weeks, and can cost anywhere between $1500 - $10k USD (To put this into perspective: our full service development projects are usually priced between $10k - $100k USD). Its a fun time for everyone! But its also a critically important time to focus on getting the client focused, fueled and ensure a more successful development project. Although each case is different, an Initial Engagement can result in all or some of these deliverables:

• User stories
• Wireframes
• Mockups
• Prototypes
• Architecture Design
• Functional Specification
• Consulting

So if youre a new client, or want to be, here are a few tips on how to get the most bang for your buck in the Initial Engagement with TechPines:

1. Have a strong understanding of your own vision  especially the value proposition.

Plain and simple, we need to know where your application, and your users, fit into the grand scheme of things. Identifying your business priorities to us will help keep all parties focused on developing intuitive, valuable web applications tied directly to your mission and vision. Creative projects are welcome, but they should also service a justifiable purpose.

2. Know where you are in the development process.

Here are examples of steps we consider in the development lifecycle:

• Concept
• Proof of Concept
• Design
• Prototype
• Alpha release

Simply being able to identify (or estimate) where you are in the process will really help us understand what decisions should have been decided and what decisions need to be made in the next stage. For example, we wouldnt want to spend our time building the Alpha release of your product, if you have never had the chance to preview your design comps through prototyping.

3. Know your own timeframe and milestones.

What would you do right away if money was no object and you had every resource at your fingertips? What would be the first, second and third priority? Maybe youre still building out the alpha, with a few months of development left, but you need a demo built for next weeks tradeshow. In this case, we might decide our best course of action is to review the core objectives for upcoming releases, build out a prototype, use it for demos/presentations/gathering feedback, and see what adjustments could be may to your upcoming development plans. Remember: our goal is to spend the first few weeks providing you with immediate value. If we can go from being complete strangers to providing something of value in around two weeks, then its likely well have established a mutually-beneficial, healthy partnership.

4. Think less about what you want it to look like, and more about user objectives.

Sometimes we have bright-eyed and busy-tailed clients come to us thinking they have it all figured out, design wise. Its great to have a clear vision about the look and feel of your design, but we may really need to focus on the fluidity of your web application. This is why we spend some time mapping out user stories which identify every movement a user might take on the application  start to finish  coming from the perspective of their objectives. These user stories can be incredibly helpful for stakeholders to hone in on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation feature sets. They also make a great foundation for the design process.

Without even considering all of the above, our main objective in those first few weeks is to be of service to you. Our mission is to Design, Build and Launch Revolutionary Web Applications. We want you to launch - not just talk about how nice it would be to reach the finish line. Whether we work together for a few weeks or a few months  Scouts honor  we want you to be impressed with our service AND feel like you really got something valuable out of the deal. Lots of consulting firms may say the same, but were also always developing flexible offerings like the Initial Engagement with the intention of walking the walk.