What to prepare before hiring a technical consultant

A technical consultant can help much faster when the business context is clear. You do not need a perfect specification, but you do need concrete inputs.

Bring the business goal, the current workflow, the systems involved, the constraints, and the decision you need help making.

Screenshots, sample documents, anonymized data, and a short process description are often more useful than a long wishlist.

The best early outcome is a decision: build or buy, automate or simplify, prototype or wait, and what the next milestone should be.