Can Wavesteam start with product design and business discovery when requirements are unclear?

Yes. Initial conversations to understand the objective, assess fit, and give scope-level guidance are normally not charged separately. A complete workflow, PRD, prototype, data/interface proof, or solution that another team can implement is an independent consulting phase whose price, artifacts, editable source, and rights are agreed first.

Unclear requirements do not mean the client supplies nothing or the developer decides the business. Wavesteam leads interviews, process modelling, product structure, prototypes, and technical-risk analysis. The client assigns an accountable business owner, provides sanitized real examples and current constraints, and confirms the business rules. Together, the parties turn an idea into testable assumptions and deliverable scope.

Service level	Typical work	Deliverable	Commercial boundary
Initial presales diagnosis	Essential discussion, broad goal/scope, major risks	Brief notes or scope direction	Normally uncharged; no unlimited workshops, full PRD, or fixed estimate accuracy
Discovery/product design	Interviews, current flow, roles/rules, first scope, low-fidelity prototype	Requirements, workflows, prototype, risks, estimate	Fixed scope, capped time, or stage fee
Technical proof	APIs, device, data, OCR/AI samples, performance	Working proof, measured results, limits, route	Priced by proof objective and samples; not a production product
Complete product plan	PRD, high-fidelity design, technical solution, acceptance and implementation	Portable internal approval or development package	Separate contract with source files, revisions, and usage rights

Free presales determines whether further investment makes sense. It commonly covers objective, users, core path, systems, dependencies, and budget level. It is neither an indefinite workshop nor a complete tender document. Effort varies with roles, systems, location, samples, and decision speed and is agreed before work.

Paid discovery maps the current state before drawing a new system. Interviews and documents show who does what, when, from which source, and where work waits or repeats. The target flow then defines roles, permissions, measures, and exclusions. ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148 provides a reference for requirements work, but Wavesteam selects risk-relevant content rather than filling a template.

Where technology is the main risk, pair design with a proof: validate WeCom/ERP authorization and writes, device protocols, OCR/AI sample results, or cross-border payment entity and countries. A failed proof can be valuable by eliminating a route before full investment. The report retains sample scope, environment, results, and limitations rather than saying only “feasible.”

Define the purpose of the output. Documents used only for Wavesteam's later implementation can be lighter. A tender or supplier-neutral package needs complete fields, exceptions, interfaces, non-functional requirements, acceptance, and editable source. The contract states interviews, client inputs, prototype scope, revisions, formats, approval times, IP, and whether later development credits any fee.

Fixed stage pricing suits clear outputs; capped time suits multi-department exploration and needs weekly records and a budget ceiling. No single price fits differing roles, pages, interfaces, and devices. The project budget guide explains the cost basis.

Acceptance is not page count. Business owners walk real cases through the target flow, engineers can identify interfaces and risks, estimates trace to scope, testers can write normal and exception cases, and unresolved items have owners and dates. A polished PDF without these outcomes is incomplete.

After design, the client may commission Wavesteam or use the output elsewhere under the contract; source files should not be withheld to force continuation. The service process and Transparent Delivery Standard publish the general boundary, while the consulting contract controls the actual work.