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How Client Discovery works
Creating an account and signing in
Create an account with your email address and a password of at least ten characters. We email a confirmation link; open it in the same browser, then sign in. If you forget your password, choose “Forgot your password?” on the sign-in page to receive a reset link. Resetting a password does not change your saved interviews.
The interview
You choose a starting point, then answer one question at a time in your own words. The questions are written by an AI interviewer that follows what you describe, so the conversation can move away from the starting point you chose. The very first question is a fixed one for your starting choice.
The interviewer cannot quote a price, estimate a timeline or promise that anything will be built. John reads the result and follows up with you separately.
Saving your work
When you send an answer it is saved first. The page then shows “Your answer is saved” while the interviewer prepares the next question, which is a separate step. If that step fails, your answer stays saved; choose Try again to have the same answer processed again. It is never sent twice.
Preparing the next question happens while the interview page is open. If you close the page first, your answer is still saved and the step continues the next time you open the interview.
While a question is being prepared you can keep writing and choose Save draft; sending the next answer waits until the step has finished. Choose Save draft before leaving whenever you are not ready to send.
Speaking instead of typing
Choose Record your answer, allow the microphone when your browser asks, speak, then choose Stop recording. What you said is turned into text and added to the end of your answer, where you can edit it. Nothing is sent until you choose Send answer.
Read the text before sending. Names, numbers and words like “not” are the most likely to be wrong, and if you corrected yourself while speaking, both versions may be there.
A recording can be up to three minutes. It is used once to make the text and is not kept: it is not saved with your interview and cannot be played back. If the microphone is refused, missing or the text cannot be made, the page says so and what you had typed stays as it was. You can always type instead.
Adding reference material
Below your answer you can add files that show how the work is done: a spreadsheet, an export, a form, a written procedure. Say what each file shows and how you use it. Your description matters more than the file, and it is what the interviewer relies on when a file cannot be read.
Files are private to you and John. You can add text, CSV, Excel (.xlsx), Word (.docx) and PDF files, and PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP pictures, up to 10 MB each. Other kinds, including older Excel and Word formats and files with macros enabled, are not accepted; save them in one of these formats first.
Uploading and reading are separate steps, and the page shows each. After a file is uploaded, its text is read:
- Spreadsheets are read cell by cell. Formulas are not recalculated; the result last saved in the file is shown and marked as such. Macros are never run. Dates can appear as plain numbers.
- Word files are read for their main text. Headers, footers, footnotes and comments are not read.
- PDFs are read for text only. A scanned page has no text to read.
- Pictures are kept but not read. The interviewer knows only what you wrote about them.
- Very long files are read from the start up to a limit, and the page says when that happened.
If a file cannot be read, it is still kept and the page says why. The interviewer treats what it reads from a file as information to ask you about, not as instructions and not as something you have confirmed. Notes that come from a file say which file and which part.
You can replace a file with a newer one; the newer file is used from then on, and notes made from the older one still say which version they came from. You can delete a file while the interview is open. Deleting removes the file and the text read from it. Notes and briefs that already mention it keep the file name and the place they pointed to, and say that the file has been deleted. While an interview is with John for review, its files cannot be changed.
Working in more than one tab
If the same interview is open in two tabs or devices, only the tab holding the latest saved version can save or send. The other tab shows a notice, keeps your unsent text in the editor, and lets you keep it or switch to the version saved elsewhere. Nothing is overwritten without your choice.
Checking the notes and confirming your brief
As you answer, the interviewer writes short notes: who is involved, the steps, the tools, the rules, the exceptions, the results you want and the questions still open. Each note says whether it was recorded from your answers or is the interviewer’s own suggestion or assumption, and which of your messages it is based on.
No note counts as confirmed until you say so. On the review page you can mark a note as right or wrong, or replace it with your own wording, and add a note of your own for John.
When you have said everything, run the final check. The interviewer looks for anything important that is still missing and may ask one more question. After the final check you can prepare your brief. Each brief is a numbered version that is never changed afterwards; if you change a note or answer another question, you prepare a new version.
Confirming a brief sends that version to John and closes the interview to changes. Confirmation does not mean the brief is complete, and it does not commit you or John to a project. If John has a question he can reopen the interview; his question appears in the conversation, and you run the final check and confirm a new brief when you have answered.
Limits you may see
There are daily limits on how many replies the interviewer prepares and how many recordings are turned into text, for each person and for the service as a whole. There are limits on how long one interview can grow, and on the number and total size of files in an interview and across your account. If you reach one, the page says so, nothing you wrote is lost, and no reply or text is made up in its place.