It is important to meet with the customer to discuss requirements. This may happen before and/or after you develop initial business and data understanding. During this meeting, you can identify:
- in more detail what they are looking to do within the initiative
- what outputs they are expecting to see, in which format
- any business knowledge or insights they can provide to aid your work
- any data limitations and possible solutions
- if there are any additional data sources to be considered
- the required timescales
This meeting is important, as it can help to refine the problem definition within section 2.
General considerations
- If you have any questions for the customer send them prior to the meeting. If you encountered any data issues, some examples could also help them prepare answers.
- If the work is particularly urgent, more colleagues and resource can be assigned accordingly.
- Some customers will have busy schedules so it is important to setup the meeting in advance so the project can progress.
- Your critical friend should attend the meeting to share knowledge and be clear on the scope of the project.
- Document any actions agreed at the meeting.
- Set up recurring follow up meetings at regular intervals.
- Any open questions following the meeting should be chased using either Teams or email.