What to bring to the first call

The first call has one purpose: to agree what the first version of your product is, so that the scope and the price I send you afterwards match what you have in mind. You don't pay for the call, and it doesn't commit you to anything.

Bring whatever you have. A detailed spec is useful, and so is a voice note or a single line such as "an app that does X for Y." If you have a spec, we work from it and decide together which parts belong in the first version.

During the call I am listening for four things:

• Who the product is for
• What those people need to get done
• What already exists, such as copy, a brand, data or some code
• What "working" would look like in a few weeks, rather than in a year

After the call I send a written scope and a fixed price. The build starts only when you accept them.

The call is worth having even when the idea is still vague. Most of the time we finish with a smaller and clearer version than we started with. Occasionally we find that it is too early to build, and that is much better to learn before anyone has spent money.