We start at the very beginning. Why are we doing this project? What is its purpose?
These might seem like blunt questions to ask but it is so important to establish this type of clarity before we go much further. You might think: "please can we just get on with it?" and you're probably itching to get on to a computer and start playing with some data, but these initial few stages of this methodology are very deliberately designed to get you in to the habit of this type of reflective or analytical assessment.
If you look at a dictionary definition for "purpose", it will usually say something similar to: reason for existing, intended effect. These two dimensions neatly capture the focus of our definition work at this point in the journey.