Questions a Dev Agency Asks Before Starting

A software development agency will ask you about the problem your product solves, who uses it, what the must-have features are, what you've already built or designed, your timeline, your budget, and who on your side can make decisions. Those seven topics cover roughly 90% of what a first discovery call covers. Everything else is follow-up.

Knowing the questions in advance lets you prepare real answers instead of vague ones. Vague answers produce vague quotes, delayed starts, and scopes that drift. This article walks through each category so you arrive at that first call with something useful to say.

Why Agencies Ask These Questions at All

An agency is trying to do one thing in a discovery call: figure out whether they can build what you want, for what you can spend, in the time you have. Every question maps to one of those three constraints.

They are also screening for founder readiness. A founder who can't describe their user or articulate a single core feature is a risk. Agencies price that risk in, or they walk away. Either outcome costs you.

The Seven Categories of Discovery Questions

1. What Problem Are You Solving?

This is almost always the opening question, and many founders answer it by describing features rather than a problem. Agencies push back because a feature list without a problem statement produces software nobody wants to use.

Expect versions of:

• "What does your user currently do instead of using your product?"
• "What's broken or painful about that?"
• "How do you know this is a real problem?"

A useful answer is one or two sentences: who the user is, what they're struggling with, and why existing options fall short.

2. Who Is the User?

Agencies need to understand the end user before they can make good decisions about technology, interface complexity, and platform. A product for 60-year-old insurance brokers on desktop requires different choices than one for 22-year-old logistics drivers on Android.

Common questions:

• "Is this a consumer app or a business tool?"
• "What device will most users access it from?"
• "Roughly how many users do you expect in the first six months?"

You don't need precise market research. You do need a clear mental picture of one specific person.

3. What Are the Must-Have Features?

This is where founders often lose control of scope. The temptation is to list everything the product will eventually do. Agencies ask about must-haves specifically because they want to separate the core product from the nice-to-haves.

Expect:

• "If you launched tomorrow with only three features, what would they be?"
• "Which features would make the product useless if missing?"
• "What can wait until version two?"

If you can't answer the three-feature question, your scope isn't defined yet. Reviewing how to write a brief for a software developer before the call will help you get there.

4. What Have You Already Built or Designed?

Agencies want to know what assets exist so they're not duplicating work or ignoring constraints. Existing assets might include wireframes, a brand identity, a prototype, a spreadsheet-based manual version, or even a partially built codebase.

Expect:

• "Do you have wireframes or mockups?"
• "Is there any existing code?"
• "Have you validated the idea with users in any way?"

If you have wireframes, bring them. If you don't have any, knowing whether you need them before development starts is worth settling ahead of time. The article What Is a Wireframe and Do You Need One? covers that decision clearly.

5. What's Your Timeline?

Agencies ask about timeline because it directly affects team composition, approach, and sometimes technology choices. A founder who needs a working product in four weeks will get a different proposal than one who is comfortable with a four-month build.

Common questions:

• "When do you need to launch by?"
• "Is that date fixed (event, investor demo, regulatory) or flexible?"
• "Are you planning an MVP first, or a full product?"

Be honest about why the date matters. A hard deadline tied to a funding round is different from a personal preference.

6. What Is Your Budget?

Many founders dodge this question. Agencies ask it anyway because budget determines what's possible. Without a number, they either produce a proposal for everything (which overshoots) or guess conservatively (which underdelivers).

Expect:

• "Do you have a budget range in mind?"
• "Is this funded from savings, revenue, or investment?"
• "Are you open to a phased approach if the full scope exceeds your budget?"

You don't have to give a precise figure. A range like "between £15k and £30k" is enough for an agency to tell you whether the conversation should continue. Going into a call without any number puts you at a disadvantage.

7. Who Makes Decisions on Your Side?

Delays in software projects often come from the client side, not the agency. Agencies know this, so they ask who has authority to approve designs, sign off on scope changes, and answer questions quickly.

Expect:

• "Are you the sole decision-maker?"
• "Do you have a technical co-founder or advisor involved?"
• "How quickly can you give feedback during the build?"

If you have a co-founder or investor who needs to approve major decisions, mention it. Agencies build that into their process.

A Quick Reference: Questions by Category

What Agencies Do With Your Answers

The answers shape the proposal. A founder who says "I need a marketplace with payments, reviews, and messaging for £8,000 in three weeks" will either get a polite no or a scoped-down alternative. A founder who says "I need users to be able to book and pay for a service, nothing else, for around £20,000 in six weeks" gets a proposal that can actually be built.

Agencies also use discovery answers to assess whether the founder has done the thinking. Someone who knows their user, can name three features, and has a wireframe will get a more detailed, lower-risk proposal than someone starting from a napkin sketch.

If you want to understand what goes into the document they produce afterwards, the guide on what to prepare before hiring an app developer covers the preparation side in full.

How to Prepare Before the Call

Fifteen minutes of preparation before a discovery call saves weeks of back-and-forth. Work through these before you book:

Write one paragraph describing the problem. No features, just the problem and who has it.

Name your target user as a specific person. Not "small business owners" but "a freelance photographer who invoices 10 clients a month from her phone."

List three features only. The ones the product cannot launch without.

Know your number. At minimum, a range you're comfortable sharing.

Gather what you have. Even rough sketches, recorded demos, or a competitor's product you want to reference.

The agency will ask follow-up questions regardless of how prepared you are. The goal isn't perfection; it's having enough clarity that the call produces a concrete next step rather than homework on both sides.

FAQs

What if I don't know my budget yet?
Tell the agency that, and explain what you're trying to understand. Most will walk you through rough cost ranges based on scope, which gives you something to take to your financial planning. Refusing to discuss budget at all tends to stall the conversation.

Do agencies expect me to know the technology stack?
No. Choosing technology is the agency's job. They might ask if you have a preference (some founders want React Native, for instance), but no agency expects a non-technical founder to specify a stack. If they do, that's a flag.

What if my idea is under NDA?
Most agencies will sign a mutual NDA before a discovery call if you ask. Send the request when you book the meeting, not on the day. Established agencies sign these routinely.

How long does a discovery call usually last?
Between 30 minutes and one hour for most projects. Complex enterprise builds sometimes involve a longer discovery phase spread across multiple sessions. If an agency books only 15 minutes, expect surface-level questions.

What happens if I can't answer some of the questions?
Be direct about gaps. Saying "I haven't defined that yet" is useful information. It tells the agency where their proposal needs assumptions, and it opens a conversation about whether they can help you define it. Guessing and getting it wrong causes more damage than admitting uncertainty.