The world is a noisy place, and we won’t be remembered for many things. One thing we want to be remembered for, though, is “We want make our client technology investments profitable.”
We design a service to deliver that promise.
For example, we build teams around business or product problems and measure progress with business or product metrics. This creates a natural feedback loop for the team to help them understand whether they solved a problem or not. It allows for faster iteration and reporting on the right problem.
Another feature is continuous problem discovery. As we work for the client, we learn new things about our environment. Based on these insights, we can reprioritize problems to maximize the value we deliver to our clients.
We should actively work on our service and its features and optimize it to meet our promises.
It starts with deeply understanding our client’s goals, pains, and opportunities. We should assume that, due to deep analysis, we can understand the problem better than the client (they might only see the top of the iceberg).
By better understanding the client's goals, we can build a better Approach using our expertise. We increase the effectiveness of every penny invested by building up the right plan from the beginning. We should have the client’s buy-in to our plan to maximize trust from the beginning.
By aligning with a client on the Approach proposed to the problem, we can execute it effectively. We have more autonomy and less communication; we circle back to the original plan. We can iterate faster. That increases the chances of validating ideas more effectively. This means that we can use capital more effectively. If we use AI tools, platforms, frameworks, DORA, etc., we will be faster at delivery. Again, we will improve capital utilization.
If we match best people to solve the problem, we might increase the chances for success or decrease costs (the level of the problem will be aligned with the level of the person executing it). If we assign people who have already solved this problem, we minimize risks and the learning curve; we are more effective. If we assign a cheaper team, we can offer better proposals to the client, minimizing their capital investment.
Internally, we should also organize our projects or activities around Return on the investment (ROI). For example, we want to be effective how marketing distribute the information about results we brought to our clients or problems we solved. That will allow us to interest executives and managers that have similar problems and might be looking for fast solution. It will mean less indirect (fixed) costs distributed among our product teams.
Our brand promise can be opener to the discussion with our client
This promise is very powerful tool when you educate the client. Every client wants to get the best from their investments. That’s a first principle. Whenever the client doesn’t want to share goals, or you have troubles understanding their situation you can use this phrase “Appunite is built on one idea ’We want to make our clients’ technology investments profitable’. If we understand your goals/context/situation we will be able to deliver higher returns on your investments”.
Our brand promise can be powerful negotiation tool
This promise is very powerful tool when you negotiate with the client. If we ensure that our client technology investments are profitable the price gets out of the equation. Its on us to prepare approach that makes the investments profitable, so the price for the service is just a part of the plan that we prapre for the client. We can use that argument during the discussion.
To achieve continuous growth, we aim to tackle bigger problems with each iteration. Relying solely on our current portfolio will not consistently generate new business or product challenges. To sustain momentum, we need a steady inflow of new problems from the market.
This process begins by deeply understanding client problems—often better than they understand themselves. Using our expertise, we can define an effective Approach to address these challenges. This forms the foundation of what we call a “quest”—a structured plan to solve a specific problem or class of problems.
Once we begin executing the quest, adaptability becomes crucial. Unexpected challenges will arise—bumps, obstacles, and scenarios we didn’t predict. That’s okay. Our initial Approach serves as a baseline, and we continuously refine it based on what works and what doesn’t. Documenting these reflections ensures we build a materials to describe those problems, the path to solve and use it for promotion.
After a quest is successfully delivered, it transitions to the growth team. Their role is to package the solution—complete with reflections, learnings, and outcomes—and share it with the relevant audience. This structured documentation and distribution amplify our impact and attract new opportunities.
In an era shaped by advanced AI tools like Large Language Models (LLMs), authenticity is more critical than ever. Generic, one-size-fits-all content will no longer resonate. Instead, we must focus on meaningful, tailored conversations that demonstrate our expertise and showcase how we’ve solved real business challenges in the past.
We can address a wide range of problems on behalf of our clients, which we categorize into four main buckets:
The bucket we focus on depends on the agreement with the client—specifically, what we are responsible for and what we will be held accountable for.
The most basic bucket is People problems. Here, we are responsible for providing the right people to solve the client’s challenges. Our accountability lies in the quality of the individuals we deliver and how effectively they enable the client to accelerate their roadmap.
A higher-value problem is at the Technology level. In this bucket, we take responsibility for delivering specific technical solutions or addressing architectural challenges. We are held accountable for meeting delivery timelines or enabling the business to achieve capabilities that were previously out of reach. Solving these problems requires us to manage people problems on behalf of the client.
The next level is Product problems, which is where we aim to be recognized. At this level, we take responsibility for achieving specific product metric outcomes. We are held accountable for improving product metrics, defining and executing product strategy, and ensuring measurable results. To succeed, we need to collaborate with the client’s users and handle both people and technology problems on their behalf.
The highest-value bucket is Business problems. Here, we take responsibility for delivering outcomes tied to business metrics such as revenue, cost reductions, or the success of an entire business line. We are held accountable for driving changes in business metrics, formulating business strategies, and executing them effectively. At this level, we must manage people, product, and technology problems on behalf of the client to ensure success.
How our progress is measured by the client?
To deliver great work and ensure alignment, we must ensure that clients measure our progress in the same way we evaluate our success internally. At the heart of this is a shared understanding of the problem, the approach we’ve designed, and the metrics we use to track results.
By fostering a shared perspective on problem definition, solution design, and progress measurement, we can ensure that our clients see the value of our work the same way we do. This alignment is critical to delivering exceptional results and building lasting trust.
Problems and approaches often evolve as we learn more or as circumstances change. When this happens, we ensure that every stakeholder—both on the client’s side and internally—stays aligned. This requires ongoing communication, regular reviews, and shared updates to keep everyone on the same page.