Lots of times, I get a requests from sales like:
Customer X wants a report that lists each external link a user clicks on
Seems pretty clear. I had this exact request recently and we started developing BEFORE talking to the customer. I said it would take a couple days of development time and since it was an important customer, we started developing right away. When we sent an example report over, and the customer replied:
We said we wanted a report of advertisements each user clicks on and how long they spend watching videos
The first thing to recognize is that sales does not understand the technical details, nor should they take the time to do so. Their job is to sell, your job is to gather requirements and schedule the work, the developers job is to develop. You’re playing telephone here. We know this request has been relayed at least once from the customer to sales to you.
Even if it seems like a small task:
- get the client on the phone
- make sure the appropriate technical people are involved
- agree on the requirements
- send out an email detailing the requirements so everyone has them