Discovery Call — The Questions That a Software House Will Ask

A discovery call is an in-depth conversation, so it requires asking many questions to collect valuable insights. Hence honest and detailed answers really matter. Read on to see the questions a software house will ask during a discovery call. 

We’ve explained what the discovery call is and how it can help you create a successful web app, so it’s time to learn more about the process. You know that a well conducted discovery call leads a software house to understanding your concerns and challenges, so now it’s time to dive deeper into the questions that you can hear during the call. 

What are you looking for?

This can be one of the first questions, as the call is all about you. It gives us a better understanding of how to approach a project. So, you should provide a software house with your general needs and the desired results. Should it be a web app or a mobile app? Do you want to build a product from scratch or do you need resources to help you develop the idea? And how did you come up with the idea? 

The more details you share, the better. 

Problems and pain points

A software house needs to understand your concerns and obstacles or challenges you experience to uncover the real problems. It’s also important how you’re addressing the problem today. Focus on the problems you’re trying to solve and what has driven you to find the solution. 

With an answer to this question a software house can determine whether it can help you reach goals. Perhaps you have in mind a product that seems to be ideal, but, in reality, needs many improvements that you’re not aware of. 

Understanding your competitors

I guess you’ve made the industry and competitive analysis, so you know exactly who you compete with and how you can compare with them. It’s also about the companies that could become competitors. 

Tell a software house everything you can about the main competitors, why you think they do their job well or what they do wrong. You should also determine in what way they are similar to your company and what you can learn from them. 

What’s your experience? 

Another thing that is equally important is whether you’ve worked with a similar vendor before. If yes, how did it go? What was the project about? Which methodologies were used? What worked best? Did you like it? Did the collaboration go as planned? And what are the main pain points that you want to fix?

Armed with this knowledge we will get a better grasp of the business situation, so it will help us determine whether we fit your vision. 

What motivates you to choose a vendor? 

It’s no secret that you consider several vendors to work with. This is why one of our questions can be about what’s most important to you when choosing a software house for your project. 

Some of the things that you should take into consideration are a portfolio (does the vendor have experience with similar projects?), price, technology used by the software house, time to deliver, and much more. All of these factors influence your decision making process. 

Defining your internal resources

Knowing all the capabilities within your business makes you aware of your company’s inner strengths and weaknesses. When you ask a software house for help, it’s good to have a technical person on the team, as there will be important product decisions to make. And what can help to make the collaboration smooth is having a product owner on board — someone whose decisions are respected by your organization. 

It’s also good to know who else on your team will be involved in the project. All the information will help us to decide whether we have the resources to fill the gap. 

Generally, a software house wants to know your commitment to the project. 

Setting a realistic timeline of goals

When you set your product plans, you possibly know when you would like to be up and running with a solution. So what are your expectations? How long should it take to build a test product or its live version? What about the launch? Always be realistic here.

We can then create a roadmap of the project together and set a timeline and deadline. 

How best to use your budget?

It’s time to talk about the budget. You’ll be asked about how much you can spend on the project. But note that it’s not about how much money it will take to finish the project. A software house needs to know your key cost constraints to help them to estimate the cost and plan the budget. 

Perhaps the budget has been the main blocker to get the project done before. Probing questions help uncover the real problems. 

Next steps —  what do you need from a software house?

It’s time to identify what’s your main goal of the collaboration. At this stage it’s time to take a proactive approach and suggest the next steps clearly. 

Find the right fit on the discovery call

Questions asked during a discovery call are focused 100% on your needs. It’s important for a vendor to identify the most critical goals, the main roadblocks, and to understand the business drivers. 

You may feel a little overwhelmed by the number of questions you will face and the details that you need to share, so it’s better to prepare. However, remember that it’s important to create a product that fully fits your business needs. It’s also an indicator of how professional is the company that you plan to work with. 

The more detailed questions you get from them, the more engaged they are to create what you want. All that sets you up for success and helps to establish realistic expectations.