Starting a project usually involves coming up with an idea and discussing it with all those involved in a series of exploratory meetings. In these meeting, it may be the producer who is involved mainly with the client, taking account of a wide range of client considerations in order to construct a profile of the client.
At these meetings it will be important to establish the aims and objectives of the proposed project. Doing so involves identifying and clarifying what the problem or need is: carrying out a "user needs analysis", always bearing in mind that the commissioning client is not necessarily the end-user of the product. Such an analysis involves doing market research, modelling the end-user (asking questions about their age, skills, background experiences and knowledge, etc.) and the user environment (where is the resource to be used: home, classroom, workplace, public space? What is the expected contact time with the resource?) and then asking whether or not the proposed resource is feasible.