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We're a small team (2 developers and 2 designers), experimenting with Agile. Tomorrow is our first big meeting with a new client.

I'm wondering, How many people do you include in the Meeting?

If making user stories and discussing the design options is something the whole team is involved in, do you add everyone to the meeting as well? Or do you include them after the client meeting and explain the business requirements?

Curious about your ideas on this topic.

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    With only 4 people, why would you want to exclude anyone?
    – Todd A. Jacobs ♦
    Commented Feb 22, 2016 at 20:57
  • Unless one of the 4 is somebody who sabotages meetings (e.g. talks too long, too loud or loves to derail the topic), taking 4 people to a meeting isn't overdoing it. OTOH it sounds like a waste of resources to have duplicate developers and designers.
    – Danny Schoemann
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 14:40

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My suggestion, in a meeting only 2 people should go. One from business side and one from technical side but who understands business as well. For the first meeting, you certainly aren't going to close all the requirements then n there. First get to understand the requirements from the client side and ask technically apt questions to understand what all will come under the scope of work.

The scope of work from Business side can be as simple as registering a user into the system, but it might add more work in case the client says that you need to take care of CSRF. Now this would mean that you will have to implement a token for every request and in case you open the same page in 2 panels then one will have to logout etc etc. So having a techie might help.

Since you have already secured a meeting and I believe this is an advance level meeting and lots of discussions have already happened over phone or email, I believe you know how to sell stuff. If the previous statement is true, ignore reading rest - 2 people meeting is decent, taking all 4 for the first meeting might seem too desperate. Do not show this up to the client else you will lose all negotiation power. No matter how badly you want that project, just do not show it up.

All the best for your meeting. Do let us know what happened and how many people did you take and how it help.

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  • Thanks for your reponse, I (dev) and designer went.. He also know's the business side, and i'm learning the business side of sales by joining him. It was really good, Had first meeting.. didn't talk to long so we need more details in a second meeting, but they want a price indication first. as expected
    – Miguel Stevens
    Commented Feb 24, 2016 at 12:34
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This question will only lead to opinions. That said, here's mine: Never exceed the number of individuals the customer is bringing to the table and try to equal the number of individuals they are bringing. Further, ensure you have equivalent "rank" in the room, too. Is there science to back this up? Have no idea. This was told to me once as a good rule of thumb and I have done this ever since and it seems to work out okay.

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