1. Business situation
Current operating model, stated request, strategic objective, existing constraint, known system environment and material change where relevant.
Account research before discovery
Account research before a client discovery call
Pre-call research is most useful when it changes the questions or areas of investigation. The output should be a small number of evidence-backed hypotheses rather than a general company profile.
Start with the decision
Research scope
The starting point is the reason for the conversation, the stakeholder involved and the provider’s relevant capability. General firmographics are included only when they affect the analysis.
The analysis asks which decisions, controls or dependencies matter to the stakeholder in the current business situation, and where the existing process, information or technology environment may not support them.
Five useful layers
Analytical sequence
2. Stakeholder
Which role owns the relevant decision, and what does that role need to know, compare, coordinate or control?
3. Possible gap
Where may the current process, information, handoff, control or technology environment fail to support that decision?
4. Provider relevance
Is the hypothesis credibly adjacent to what this IT provider actually delivers?
5. Rejection condition
What client answer would show the hypothesis is wrong or already solved?
Inbound and proactive
Different starting evidence
Inbound: the client mentions reporting. Research reconstructs the operating situation behind that request. A recent change may explain it, but an existing multi-service, multi-team or fragmented-system environment may be enough.
Proactive: the provider has chosen an account because a new Commercial Director joined. Here the visible change is the trigger; research asks which decisions that role may now own and whether any are relevant to the provider’s capabilities.
In both cases the result is a set of hypotheses and questions for client validation.
Stopping rule
Research stopping rule
Additional research is useful only while it changes the questions, stakeholder focus or measures worth exploring if an issue is confirmed.
Retain
A fact changes the question, the stakeholder lens or the possible impact worth testing.
Exclude
Facts that do not affect the conversation are excluded from the brief.
Client-dependent facts
Pain, budget, Champion, Economic Buyer and live Decision Process still have to come from the client.
The intended result is a more specific decision about where to focus discovery.
Research vs qualification
Relationship to qualification
Research can prepare business context, stakeholder responsibilities, possible constraints and measures worth exploring. Buyer-dependent qualification fields require client evidence.
Pre-call
Prepare account evidence, stakeholder context, hypotheses, questions and possible measures.
In the call
Establish Pain, impact, buying roles, decision process, priority and next step from the client.
Pre-discovery Brief
Research for one upcoming client conversation.
The brief prepares account context, areas worth testing and questions for client validation. Delivery is within two working days.