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Discovery questions and validation plan

This document contains the questions and validation work needed before turning the product opportunity into a committed build scope.

At a glance

The next step is evidence gathering with at least two builder companies.

Compare their real project workflows. Identify what they use in CoConstruct every week. Agree on accounting, permissions, ownership and migration requirements.

The output should be a small set of shared workflows tested against real project records—not another broad feature list.

Validation loop at a glance

flowchart LR
  interviews["Builder interviews"] --> workflows["Map real jobs"]
  workflows --> common["Separate shared and company-specific work"]
  common --> prototype["Prototype one complete workflow"]
  prototype --> pilot["Test on a live or recent job"]
  pilot --> scope["Commit the first release"]
  scope --> interviews

Users and business

  • How many active projects does each company run?
  • What types of work do they do: custom homes, renovations, maintenance or commercial work?
  • Who estimates, sells, manages, supervises and administers each job?
  • Which users need mobile access?
  • Which outside parties need access: clients, trades, suppliers, designers or consultants?

Current workflow

  • Walk through one recently completed project from first estimate to final handover.
  • Which records are created once and copied into other systems?
  • Where do scope, price, selections, approvals and schedule dates currently live?
  • What generates the most phone calls, email threads or spreadsheet work?
  • What errors are expensive or embarrassing?
  • What information must a project manager see every morning?

CoConstruct usage

  • Which CoConstruct screens are used weekly?
  • Which features are never used?
  • Which reports or exports are relied on?
  • Which CoConstruct behaviors must be preserved exactly?
  • Which behaviors are disliked and should not be copied?
  • What historical information must remain accessible after migration?

Financial and integration requirements

  • What accounting system is the source of truth?
  • Are jobs fixed-price, cost-plus, open-book or a mixture?
  • How are allowances, markups, margins, taxes and variations handled?
  • How are POs, bills, invoices and payments currently reconciled?
  • Are Xero, QuickBooks, payroll, calendars, storage or messaging integrations required?

Commercial and ownership model

  • Who funds the initial build?
  • Who owns the resulting software and data?
  • Is this a shared product, a cooperative, a vendor-built private system or a future SaaS?
  • What is the minimum useful first release?
  • What would make them deploy it on a live project?
  • What support, hosting and ongoing development model do they expect?
  1. Interview at least two builder companies separately before agreeing on a shared feature list.
  2. Obtain a real estimate, proposal, selection sheet, budget, change order and schedule from each company.
  3. Map the same job through both companies and mark common versus company-specific workflow.
  4. Observe a project manager and a field worker using the current system.
  5. Identify the accounting source of truth and the minimum acceptable import/export path.
  6. Prototype the estimate → selection → change-order → client-approval loop.
  7. Test the prototype with one live or recently completed job.
  8. Agree on ownership, hosting, data retention, support and change-control terms before production work.