Problem discovery call
Run discovery that produces testable evidence instead of a tour of generic pain points.
Use before proposing a solution or building a demo for a new buying situation.
Before the working session
- Research the role, company context, and plausible workflow from public information. Mark assumptions as questions.
- Agree internally on the decision the call needs to inform: fit, urgency, technical feasibility, or buying path.
Run the process
Contract for the conversation
State the working hypothesis and ask the buyer to correct it. Confirm time, objective, and whether a next step is appropriate.
Reconstruct a recent event
Ask: “Walk me through the last time this happened.” Capture trigger, sequence, people, tools, handoffs, duration, workarounds, and where evidence lives.
Quantify without leading
Ask what delayed work displaced, how often it recurs, and who feels the consequence. Distinguish a buyer estimate from a measured number.
Map the decision
Ask what changed recently, who owns the problem, what alternatives are being considered, what proof is needed, and what would block action. Summarize what you heard and invite correction.
Fictional example: A buyer says “reporting is slow.” The operator asks for last Friday’s report: four exports, two manual reconciliations, a missed review deadline, and one operations owner. The agreed next step is to test whether the product can surface the disputed records in a sample file.
Failure checks
- “How much time would you save?” invites a made-up number.
- A pleasant meeting is not evidence of a project.
- Do not collect confidential data for a generic discovery exercise.
Working worksheet
DISCOVERY EVIDENCE RECORD Call date / participants / decision to inform: Buyer words describing the job: Most recent occurrence and source of evidence: Trigger → steps → people → tools → exception → consequence: Frequency and impact (measured, estimated, or unknown): Current alternative and why it persists: Why now / deadline / cost of inaction: Decision owner / influencers / approval path: Proof buyer says is necessary: Unknowns, disqualifiers, and next decision with date: