For Freelance Web Developers ·
What you'll accomplish
Right now you're probably splitting attention during discovery calls between listening to a prospective client and scribbling half-finished notes. Set up Otter.ai once, and you can put the notepad away entirely. You get a full transcript and a topic-organized summary within minutes of hanging up, which means you actually catch the requirement mentioned in passing at minute 38 instead of losing it.
What you'll need
Go to Otter.ai and sign up with your email or a Google account. You'll land on a mostly empty dashboard until you record or upload your first conversation.
What you should see: A home screen with a record button and a prompt to connect a calendar.
If most of your discovery calls happen on Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams, connect your calendar so Otter can automatically join scheduled meetings as a recording participant.
What you should see: Your next scheduled meeting listed with an option to have Otter join automatically.
Troubleshooting: If a meeting doesn't show up, double check you connected the same calendar account you actually use to book client calls. Freelancers who run separate business and personal calendars sometimes connect the wrong one.
Not every discovery call happens over video. For phone calls or in-person coffee-shop meetings, install the Otter mobile app and use it to record directly.
What you should see: A live, scrolling transcript appearing on your phone screen as the conversation happens.
Before any call, video or phone, tell the prospective client you're recording and transcribing for your own notes, and confirm they're fine with it. A simple line works: "Do you mind if I record this so I can focus on the conversation instead of note-taking? It's just for my own reference." Some states and countries require this consent by law regardless of courtesy, so treat it as a required step, not an optional one. If the client declines, take manual notes instead and don't route around the request.
Once the call ends (or you stop the recording), Otter processes the audio and generates a full transcript along with a summary.
What you should see: A summary section at the top with topic headers and bullets, and the full speaker-labeled transcript below it.
Troubleshooting: If speaker labels are wrong (the client's name attributed to your own comments), most plans let you correct the label once and Otter applies it retroactively through the rest of that transcript.
The raw transcript is useful, but a client-ready or project-ready requirements document needs a pass to organize it. Export the summary and transcript, then paste the relevant sections into claude.ai with a prompt asking it to extract stated requirements, budget signals, and timeline expectations into a structured document. Review the AI's draft against your own memory of the call before you treat anything as final. A transcription and summarization tool can mishear a word or misattribute a sentence, so don't skip this check on anything that affects scope or price.
What you should see: A structured draft with sections like "Project Goals," "Must-Have Features," "Nice-to-Haves," "Budget Signals," and "Open Questions," ready to copy into your proposal template.