The most useful thing we do on a first call is tell people what not to build.
A members area nobody will log in to. A blog nobody has time to write. An app when a good mobile site would do. Online ordering before anyone has proved they will visit the site. These are not bad ideas; they are ideas for a later, bigger version of the business, and building them now costs money and attention the business does not have.
The test we use
For every feature: who uses it in the first month, and what happens if it is not there? If the answer is "nobody" and "nothing", it goes on the later list. The later list is a real document and we revisit it every quarter with retainer clients.
Two examples
Kumo Coffee asked for online ordering on the first call. We suggested waiting until the site had proved people would use it. Six months on it is the next project, and the newsletter numbers justify it.
Anand Logistics asked for a customer portal. What was actually hurting was a quoting spreadsheet that depended on one person. We built the automation instead, for about a quarter of the cost.
Why this is good for us too
Small, finished projects launch. Big, ambitious ones stall. We would rather launch sixty small sites that work than ten big ones that never ship.
