You do not need to select technologies or write a long specification before starting a conversation. Describing the situation and what needs to change is more useful. Use these questions as the basis for your initial inquiry.
1. What happens today?
Describe the process through one concrete example: who starts the work, which actions they take and where a difficulty occurs. Identify the applications and documents involved.
2. What outcome do you need?
Explain what a user should be able to do after the project and how you will recognize success. For example, a manager sees an order's status in one place and no longer re-enters the same information into two systems.
3. Who will use the solution?
List the roles, approximate number of users and office or remote teams. Note whether their permissions differ and whether customers or partners need to interact with the solution.
4. What already exists?
Name the products and systems that need to remain or connect, and who owns them internally. Names and descriptions are enough at this stage; production passwords and personal data exports are not required.
5. What are the constraints?
Share your preferred launch date and why it matters, a budget range and required data placement or availability conditions. If there is no precise estimate yet, explain the priorities and what could wait for a later stage.
6. Who makes decisions?
Identify a point of contact and acceptance participants. It helps to know who approves the process, provides technical access and confirms the budget.
A first-message template
Our business does … Today the process works like this: … The main difficulty is … We want to achieve … The users will be … We already use … We need to account for … The person to contact is …
If some answers are still unknown, leave them open. Send a description of your challenge and we will explore the missing context together.