Why understanding the business model is step one
Great software doesn't start with code. It starts with understanding the business it serves. Here's how I run discovery before a single line is written.
Most software projects fail not because of bad code, but because the team never truly understood the business they were building for. Features get shipped that no one uses, architectures get chosen for the wrong reasons, and budgets evaporate on the wrong priorities.
That's why my first step with any client is always a discovery sprint. I want to understand your revenue model, your customers, your constraints and your real goals, the ones behind the stated ones.
Once the business model is clear, technical decisions become almost obvious. The data model falls out of how the business actually works. The architecture falls out of the traffic and reliability profile. The roadmap falls out of what actually moves the needle.
If you're hiring a developer who jumps straight to tech choices, you're missing the most valuable part of the engagement. The best engineers are business thinkers first.