Uncovering & addressing real client needs

When developing software products for clients, how do you know that what you’re building is actually addressing their real needs?

This becomes an especially important consideration at a time when AI is heavily used not only in development, but also in communicating key project details.

Good understanding of the client and project needs is essential for developing the right product, i.e. a product that actually meets those needs. Let’s examine four key considerations for getting on the same page regarding development goals and needs.

1. Communication

Good communication is the number one priority in a healthy client-agency relationship. The biggest challenge when developing digital products together with partners is not something technical, but rather poor communication.

Poor communication decreases cohesion and development agility. Most importantly, it often leads to lower quality products that don’t meet real project needs and require rework, which the very same poor communication makes more difficult and even more time consuming.

One of the biggest communication hurdles is poor project documentation; it makes collaboration between developers more difficult, especially when onboarding new developers or partners to the project. This in turn makes it more difficult to maintain and scale the product, with problems compounding as time passes.

In contrast, good communication makes it easy to align on goals and needs. It is timely, transparent and proactive. It also involves asking good questions and making proper preparations such as client discovery and market research.

2. Thorough discovery phase

Speaking of client discovery – the discovery phase is a crucial part of digital product development and the optimal opportunity for getting familiar with the client’s real goals and needs. In a way, this is the point of doing discovery in the first place.

Ideally, the development partner should conduct preliminary company research before initial calls and collaboration take place. This kind of preparation makes it easier to align and makes the entire process run more smoothly, saving precious time during the actual engagement.

The client company should be available for early discovery calls to go over details of the brief as well as the research findings and ensure both sides are on the same page regarding the scope, key priorities and main challenges to consider.

It’s also essential to include developers (from both companies, if the customer also has their own development team) in this initial phase. Their prior experience helps them to spot potential issues and find solutions quickly, and since they are the ones ultimately building the product, they need to be familiar with the business context and the client’s goals from day one.

3. Drawing from prior experience

The development partner’s prior experience is the crucial resource for uncovering the true needs of the client and their particular project. An established development company will definitely have worked on similar projects in the past, whether that involves the same technology stack, the same type of software, the same industry, market niche and/or use case, etc.

Often the prior experience will involve similar technical challenges and drawing from the lessons learned when addressing them in the past. The best thing about this is that developers can draw from all of their past experience, not only from projects from their current company, but also past employment and personal projects.

Drawing from prior experience and showcasing it through content such as case studies and client testimonials is also a great way for development companies to establish trust with their clients and partners.

Once trust is established, they will be more open in communication, making it easier for them to talk honestly about challenges they’re having or admitting past failures, which will in turn help the partner more quickly uncover the real goals and priorities.

4. Minimising the use of AI for writing project descriptions

A trend that we’ve noticed lately in our work is the rise in AI use not only when developing software, but also when asking experts to develop software for you – i.e. using AI to write RFPs, project briefs and SLAs.

The problem with AI-written briefs is that, if they don’t come from the client, it means no one actually considered things like technology stack, CMS platform, hosting, etc. The vendor doesn’t know what the client actually wants because the client never defined it themselves – but how reliable is AI’s judgment here?

Even an agent with perfect business context doesn’t have full access to the mental processes of the people involved which enable decision making. Putting together an RFP or a project brief requires the client to think about problems and put them in writing, which means they have to have a lot iof clarity about what they want and how they want to achieve it.

If the vendor then treats such an AI-generated document as the source of truth and bases their development around it, chances are that the final product will not be what the client thought it would be, because they never defined what they wanted it to be.

The main issue with AI-generated briefs is the widening gap in communication between the client and the vendor. When briefs used to be short and not as detailed, it was natural to jump on a call and start building documentation together with the client.

Now, people often don’t feel the need to discuss it in detail because, from their perspective, they’ve already written the perfect brief. The result is lower quality products that fail to meet true client needs.

Bonus point: Client involvement & development control

A final extra point to remember is that the client will naturally want to be somehow included in the development process even if they let the partner company handle everything (e.g. in a managed development services setup); it is their product after all.

This is why things like establishing trust and having good communication are so important. They enable the client to entrust critical details and tasks to the vendor without having to worry about the latter getting them wrong, allowing for a healthy degree of involvement where the client trusts in the expertise and credibility of the vendor.

Vendors should also be flexible in what types of engagement they offer. Some clients, especially those with a strong internal development team, will want to keep more control over the development process, while some may opt for a stand-alone managed team over a fully integrated one.

Offering white-label development services also helps guarantee to clients that they will remain the sole owner of the resulting IP, no matter how hands-on they are throughout actual development.

Closing thoughts

As digital products get easier and easier to build, it becomes that much more important to know what you’re building and why you’re building it. In a partnership with a software development agency, this means effectively communicating project details to ensure that the client and the vendor are on the same page regarding key development decisions.

Without the client communicating and the vendor understanding the true priorities of the project, the resulting product is unlikely to meet those priorities. Following the tips and considerations we share in this article helps foster a stronger client-vendor relationship based on mutual understanding and trust.