hardScenarioCase StudyMidSeniorStaffLead
The customer keeps asking for one thing and everything else you hear says they need something different. What do you do with that in discovery?
5 min readUpdated 2026-08-15
Answer
Short answer
Treat the contradiction as information rather than an error to correct: work out whether the stated requirement is stale, a proxy for a driver nobody will say aloud, or a political commitment, then test it against something already decided, and put both readings in writing with a price on each.
Discovery matters here because the the stated requirement contradicts the real answer has to show the boundary, not just the happy path.
Was this answer helpful?
Likely follow-ups
- The person who wrote the requirement is the champion who invited you in. How does that change your approach?
- You are in a scored RFP where deviating from the stated requirement costs marks. What do you submit?
- How do you tell the difference between a stale requirement and one you simply do not understand yet?
- Six weeks later the customer confirms your reading was right. What do you do with that?
Related questions
- Take me through how you run a technical discovery call.mediumAlso on discovery and qualification7 min
- The domain expert tells you one thing and the written procedure says another. How do you work out which one the system should follow?hardAlso on requirements and discovery5 min
- Your POC met every exit criterion and the customer bought from someone else. What went wrong?hardAlso on stakeholder-mapping and presales5 min
- An RFP has just landed. How do you decide whether to bid on it?mediumAlso on qualification and presales6 min