Mastering the First Client Meeting: A Guide for Software Product Managers

Starting a new software product in a domain outside your usual expertise can be a challenging yet exciting journey. The key to navigating this unfamiliar area lies in your first client meeting. This initial interaction sets the tone for your entire project and provides a foundation for understanding the client's needs, challenges, and expectations.

Many Product Managers, driven by their past experiences, often dive into solutions without fully grasping the client's unique requirements. However, asking the right questions during this first meeting can bridge this gap, ensuring you are aligned with the client from the start.

In this article, you'll find a curated list of essential questions designed to cover all critical aspects of a new product initiative. Whether you're dealing with straightforward needs or complex, undefined problems, these questions will help you and your client establish a clear, shared vision for the project.

By thoroughly preparing for this meeting and focusing on deep, empathetic listening, you'll be equipped to develop a robust Product Strategy that truly addresses your client's goals. Let's dive into the essentials that will make your first meeting a resounding success.

Understanding the Business Challenge

By understanding the core business objectives and the specific challenges faced by the client, you set a strong foundation for a productive discussion. This clarity will guide your solution development and ensure it aligns perfectly with the client's needs.

• Can you tell me about your business and its core objectives?

• What specific business challenge are you hoping to solve with our solution?
• Why do you seek a solution at this particular time??

Current Processes and Experiences

Understanding how the current processes work will give you a clear scope for your product. This insight helps in identifying gaps and areas for improvement, ensuring that your solution is well-tailored to the client's existing workflows.

• Can you describe your current process related to our solution?
• Have you considered or used similar solutions in the past? What worked and what didn’t? And why??

Users , Decision-Making and Stakeholders

It is essential to know the primary users to help you build your ideal user persona. Additionally, understanding who the decision-makers are and how decisions are made will aid in setting more reliable timelines and defining your stakeholders effectively.

• Who are the primary users of this product?
• Who are the decision-makers and stakeholders involved in this process?
• How do decisions get made within your organization regarding this project?
• Who will be the primary point of contact or decision-maker on your side for ongoing discussions?

Key Features and Priorities

Clients often have different perspectives and priorities based on their daily needs. For example, I once worked on an analytics tool that offered comprehensive numbers and charts tailored to business needs. While some teams found it perfect, the financial team deemed it useless because it lacked an export files feature. This highlights the importance of listening carefully to understand the key features from the client's point of view.

• What are the essential features and functionalities you envision for the product??
• Are there any specific technical requirements or integrations that are critical for the success of this project?
• When comparing solutions, what are the top three features or capabilities you cannot compromise on?
• Are there any performance, security, or compliance requirements that need to be addressed??
• What are your expectations regarding scalability and reliability of the product?
• What level of support and training will your team need?

Defining Success and Expectations

Defining the success criteria of your solution from the client's perspective is extremely important. For instance, you might develop a solution that replicates all current manual functionalities without accelerating the process. From your viewpoint, the solution is complete. However, from the client's perspective, it fails to add value since it doesn't enhance the efficiency of their current processes.

• What does success look like for you with this solution?
• What is the ideal outcome from your point of view?
• How will you know if this solution is working well for you?
• Are there specific KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) or metrics that you will use to evaluate the product's performance?

Potential Constraints and Challenges

Each domain has its own constraints and challenges that you can't ignore. For example, if you are working on a fintech solution, you must comply with Central Bank, User Data Privacy, and PCI regulations. Recently, I worked on an Islamic solution that had to be Shariah compliant. Therefore, it's crucial to ask these questions directly to avoid introducing something irrelevant that could harm the business.

• Do you have any legal or regulatory challenges that we need to address??
• Do you foresee any technical, operational, or budgetary constraints that we should be aware of now?
• Do you see any challenges or problems we might face with this project?

Existing Solutions and Competitors

Defining existing solutions and competitors will help you list your product's direct and indirect competitors. It also provides insight into how the client views the market landscape and what they value most in a solution.

• Are there any existing solutions or competitors in the market that you admire or wish to differentiate from?
• What do you perceive as strengths and weaknesses of existing solutions?

Revenue Model?

Getting the client's vision for the product's future, including how they plan to benefit financially, is vital. This insight will help you build a successful revenue model, whether it's based on commission, subscription, markup, or another approach.

• Do you have any plans to benefit financially from this solution ??
• How do you see the ideal revenue model in our case??

Timeline and Budget

Knowing the expected timeline and initial budget is essential as it influences most of your decisions. For example, if a client needs to go to market quickly and has a low budget, this may affect your plan to develop a high-quality native mobile app. Instead, you might adopt a hybrid approach to reduce costs. If your solution must integrate with different payment gateways, you may decide to integrate with a Money Orchestration platform rather than doing individual integrations with each payment platform.

• What is your timeline for decision-making and implementation?
• Do you have any budget constraints or financial considerations we should be aware of?

Aligning with Long-Term Goals?

Most of the previous questions have helped you define the solution, understand the revenue model, and get a clear idea about your MVP. But what about the entire roadmap? You need to understand the big goals to help you set parallel objectives and ensure long-term alignment with the client's vision.

• What are your big goals for your business, and how can this solution help you reach them?
• Can you share any information or examples that will help us understand your needs better?

Conclusion

From my point of view, the first meeting is the most important. It will help you put together a solid product strategy, so make the most of it by:

• Being prepared
• Dropping your assumptions aside
• Listening, listening, and listening some more

I highly advise having this meeting in person at the client’s premises. A comfortable environment will help the client share more and show you their files and documents, giving you a comprehensive understanding. Additionally, you must keep everything documented and recorded to refer back to later.

If you have more questions that should be added, please share them with me. Your input is valuable and can help improve the quality of our first meetings even further.