Develop a sense of the vendor’s experience, approach, and organization
Align on project expectations
Are you ready to get started?
Follow these simple and effective steps:
1. Get an NDA prepared for both parties to sign
An NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) will not only protect both parties, but it is a way for potential vendors to demonstrate trust and professionalism.
2. Gather your business documents that will help the team understand your ultimate vision, customers, market, and revenue model.
What to include:
Pitch deck that you might use for potential customers
We want to understand who you are trying to sell to, what you plan to solve for them, and why it’s important. Nothing gets us more inspired than seeing fire in an entrepreneur’s belly when walking us through their vision. Let’s gooo!
We use this tool to get a sense of how aligned your services and/or features are to what your customers might need.
3. How have you validated your product idea with potential users and/or customers?
Things to share:
Surveys
Polls
Quotes/transcripts from people you talked to
Wireframes and/or design mocks with feedback from people
Before you have validated your product, it’s wise to consider feedback from users that will be engaging with your product or service. A “UX/UI designer” also known as a “user experience designer” will help you conduct preliminary research for your target audience.
4. Who are your customers and what problems is your product going to solve for them?
In order to design an outstanding user experience, we have to gain empathy for our user and potential problems we are trying to solve. Based on crucial customer feedback, you will be able to more clearly define your goals. As a result, you can focus on what’s important allowing you to save time and money. Timelines can be a significant part of the process. Make sure to share any promised major events or dates to various stakeholders, investors, and/or customers. Depending on the dates and project needs the vendor may recommend different approaches for completion.
5. Be clear about where you are as a business, what your goals are, and what would the new product design do for your business
Where are you on your journey?
Are you trying to raise money?
Are you trying to launch a simple product that real users can start to use?
What are your goals with the product after you launch it?
What percentage of conversion, awareness, and retention are you focused on and why?
Do you have any tangible key performance indicators (KPIs) that you want to go after and if so, how did you come up with those metrics?
6. Be clear about where you are as a business, what your goals are, and what would the new product design do for your business
Roles and responsibilities
Who is the person that will be responsive for “approving” assets and deliverables along the way?
What’s the best way to contact them? Email, Slack, etc.?
7. Be honest about your technical background and share why you want to potentially work with this solution.
What is your availability on a weekly basis?
Who will be in charge of key decisions in the process?
Do you plan to be available for all weekly check-ins and any collaborative workshops?
In order to abide by the scheduled timeline, it’s critical to have key stakeholders from your team present for all meetings to make timely decisions
Are you wanting to learn along the way and if so, what exactly and why?
Some of our clients prefer to be more hands-on with the creative process like jumping in our design tool of preference, Figma, to help leave comments and edit text (copywriting) directly.
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