How to formulate a development request: a guide for entrepreneurs

Hello, I'm Maxim from Sailet. We specialize in custom development, having worked since 2017, completed numerous interesting projects, shared insights on automation, and developed our own Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system.

Through constant communication with entrepreneurs, we know that many of them spend a significant amount of their own time—and others'—searching for an IT contractor: "to develop a system." Afterward, they tell us that there's a shortage of specialists, companies don't understand them, and generally, all these studios are just "ugh."
I decided to create a comprehensive manual for all future clients, hoping it will improve the lives of many. Let's go!

Goal – sets the direction for the entire project. If you don’t have a clear understanding of why you need this system, it’s best to stop right here. It’s better if the goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (the classic SMART criteria). No contractor will define the goal for you, because then it would be their goal, not yours.

1. Problem or Need Definition — What do I want to solve/get from the future system?

2. Target Audience (TA) Definition — Who will actually use my system? Employees are also an internal TA. Lidia Mikhailovna in accounting and Sergey Fyodorovich on production can be one segment depending on the task. Twenty-year-old support specialists are another.

3. Market and Competitor Analysis — How does it work for them? Do I even need this product? We’ve had a couple dozen requests to develop a taxi service ("Brother, I want something like Yandex"). Questions like "Why?" or "What’s the goal?" naturally went unanswered.

4. Goal Formulation — Hopefully, SMART is already classic everywhere. If not, then the responsibility lies with the speaker at that moment. In other words, goals cannot be things like “I want the company to take off” or “I'm doing it because our competitors have it” or "We need to spend the budget." These are real examples...

5. Prioritization of Needs — What's most important right now? "We want to automate the entire company, create a unified portal" usually means we don't know what we want; processes aren't documented.

6. Stakeholder Engagement — Do users really need the system? Of course, people generally fear new things, but here it's about classic change management: first, we sell and communicate value, then implement and train.

7. Documentation — It's clear that great Agile tells us that a working product is more important than exhaustive documentation, but that doesn't negate its overall importance. There should always be a guideline, and if it's not written down, it's not true.

Steps to define a goal:

Helps visualize your idea and breaks it down step by step..

Use them to get feedback from your potential audience to understand their needs.

Of course, during the sales stage, when we receive a request, if it aligns with ours, we formulate it together, transfer it into a mind map, create a project structure, etc. Below are a few examples of how this might look. You can submit an application via the link. We only do this after qualification.

All formats actually work, the main thing is to be able to apply them.

Let's consider three simple examples of queries and why they might not meet the requirements for a quality query.

Too general request: "We need a website for our business"

Problem: Lack of details. It's unclear what type of website is needed, what features it should have, or who the target audience is.

Request without budget and timeline: "We want to develop a mobile app for online courses"

Problem: Absence of specific constraints. It’s difficult for the developer to assess the project and offer solutions that fit within the client's limitations.

Technically overloaded request from a non-professional: "We need an application built with React using GraphQL for backend and Firebase for authentication"

Problem: Technological preferences without clear goals or objectives. Maybe it's actually a pyramid or a web service written in raw C?

Title: Company X
Request: We are looking for a team to develop a mobile app that helps users form and track daily habits. The goal is to launch an MVP within 4 months with features such as habit creation, reminders, and progress analytics. Our target audience consists of young professionals aged 25-35. Budget: up to $20,000. Examples we consider include "Habitica" and "Todoist".

Title: "Educate and Point"
Request: It is necessary to create a web platform for professional development courses. The task is to provide access to educational materials, video lectures, and tests with the ability to track performance. There will be 1,000 students on the course. Target audience: adult learners aged 30-45. Project budget is limited to $10,000, timeline: up to 6 months. Reference examples: "Coursera" and "Udemy".

Title: LLP "Sailet"
Request: We plan to develop a system for automating inventory management in small retail businesses. We aim to simplify inventory tracking and product accounting, reducing data processing time for owners of small shops. Project budget: up to $40,000; desired implementation period: 3 months. Desired features: barcode scanning, integration with existing accounting systems, reporting. We are guided by the functionality of "Square" and "Shopify".

These are examples of real requests, slightly modified and anonymized.

In essence, we have two target audiences, with whom our work is structured somewhat differently. It's clear that there are dozens more qualification points, but broadly speaking: the first group consists of people/companies with ideas, while the second group comprises companies with established processes. Therefore, below are descriptions of these two scenarios.

More information about the processes can be found here:

I admit I may have overwhelmed you a bit, and it might seem like I'm shifting responsibility onto you (the future client), because quality service equals good customer care. However, the success of a project always depends on both parties. If the project isn't a priority for you from the beginning and you're not willing to invest time into understanding it or formulating something, then you'll likely finish it with a probability of only 1% (stated as a statistical margin of error).

I'm not sure if it's clear from the article that we take our work seriously, focus on improving processes, and strive to provide the best service (there's always room for improvement) while also being skilled in development (you can read about this in previous articles, for example). But if it's still unclear, feel free to leave an inquiry on our website, and we'll tell you about another dozen advantages, such as weekly demo results, transparent processes, and flexible payment options based on hourly packages. Everything aligns with the entrepreneur's creed: minimize risks, maximize profits. Good luck!