Behind the scenes here at 7Factor is where the magic happens. Our partnerships with clients start as soon as the discovery call begins, honestly, even before that. It starts with the marketing content we share online.
It’s about building trust.
It Starts With Trust
Our goal is always to be transparent and build trust, because that’s what every good relationship is based on.
When you jump on a discovery call with us, we’re asking questions to understand your business, your challenges, and what you’re really trying to accomplish. But we’re also figuring out whether you’re the right fit for us and whether we’re the right fit for you. That comes first.
Then comes kickoff. By the time we get to kickoff, we should already have a deep understanding of your business, your goals, and what success looks like for you. We should have a strong idea of the environment we’re working in and how to align your business outcomes with the way your engineering team works.
We should already understand the rules of engagement.
Most importantly, both sides should have a clear understanding of what we’re delivering and what we’re trying to achieve.
Because we’re a consulting company. We aren’t here just to follow instructions. We’re here to help you achieve your goals and sometimes, that means telling you no.
What You Want Isn’t Always What You Need
One of the biggest parts of consulting is asking the right questions.
What you want isn’t always what you need, and that’s why we come in with the questions that help uncover the actual problem. We’re not just looking at the technical requirements. We’re trying to understand the business problem behind them.
That’s where the difference between a development shop and a consulting company comes in. A traditional development shop might say, “Give me your requirements, and I’ll build it.”
A consulting firm says, “Talk to me about the problem you’re trying to solve, and I’ll help align the right solutions, people, and architecture to get you to the business outcome.” They’re very different things.
Finding Where We Fit
During discovery, we’re trying to understand your roadmap and figure out where we can make the biggest impact.
Maybe you already know the problem and the solution, and you need experienced engineers on the ground to work alongside your team. Maybe you know the problem but aren’t sure how to solve it, and you need us to help figure that out. Or maybe you’re looking for a consulting partner to help define the path forward.
That’s what discovery is for. We’re not just asking about requirements. We’re asking about the business problems. Our engineers don’t just know how to code. They know how to think through problems, challenge assumptions, and find ways to solve them. You hire us for that expertise. And that means we’re going to ask hard questions.
Kickoff Is About Setting Real Expectations
The primary goal of kickoff is to make sure everyone understands what we’re trying to achieve and what we expect from each other.
- What are the goals?
- What does success look like?
- What does the client own?
- What does 7Factor own?
- How are we going to work together?
Everyone needs to understand the expectations before we start moving forward.
We want to help our clients achieve more with less. But that doesn’t mean we set expectations once and never revisit them. We’re constantly resetting and re-baselining as things change.
Because business changes. The world changes. Priorities change. The problems we’re solving can change, too. Our approach is similar to just-in-time process. We don’t want to force a process simply because it’s the process we’ve always used.
We adapt to the goals, not the solutions we’re putting in place. It’s a Partnership, Not a Transaction.
We aren’t looking for transactional relationships where we show up, write code, and leave. We want to work with clients who want to solve hard problems, build better things, and create meaningful outcomes for their business. That starts before the discovery call. It continues through kickoff. And it carries through the entire engagement.
The goal is to create a strong foundation built on trust, transparency, shared expectations, and the freedom to solve the problem the right way.
Because the best work doesn’t come from simply following instructions.
It comes from understanding the problem, asking better questions, and working together toward the outcome.
