The quality of an agency engagement is set before the kickoff call. It's set during the twenty minutes the founder spent asking the hard questions, or didn't.
Here are the ten questions I wish every prospective client asked us. Ask us. Ask every studio you're talking to. Compare the answers.
1. Who on your team actually writes the code?
A good answer names a person. A bad answer says "our delivery team." If that name changes between the pitch and the first sprint, walk.
2. Can you show me the last three things you shipped, and link me to the founder of each?
Good studios have happy founders who will take a 15-minute call. Bad studios have polished case studies and silent clients.
3. How do you handle scope changes mid-build?
The answer should involve the words "in writing." Anything softer will turn into a fight by week six.
4. What would make you turn down my project?
If they can't name three things, they'll take any work. A studio with a decline list has a taste.
5. Who is my single point of contact, and is that person the same for technical and commercial questions?
Two points of contact means a PM layer. PM layers soften scope and slow decisions.
6. When do I see working software on a staging URL?
"Day one" or "inside the first week" is the right answer. Anything beyond that means they are building in secret.
7. What does your post-launch engagement look like?
Retainer, stabilisation window, or clean handover. One of those three, chosen before signature, never after launch.
8. How many other clients do you have right now, and how do you decide who gets priority in a bad week?
Four or fewer per senior builder is a healthy answer. Anything larger becomes a quality problem under load.
9. What's your default stack, and when do you deviate from it?
A studio with no default has no opinion. A studio that never deviates has no experience.
10. What is the single biggest risk to the timeline you just proposed?
If the answer is "nothing, it's locked in," run. Every build has one thing that could blow the schedule, and a studio that knows its business knows what that thing is.
Heuristics
- The hardest question for an agency to answer cleanly is who is the single point of contact. The clean answer correlates with everything else.
- If the pitch and the contract don't match in names, scope, or date, the contract wins. Make sure the pitch is the thing you're buying.
- Ten minutes of honest conversation beats ten slides of case study.
Ask these first. The rest follows.
Written 2024-06-15 by Abhiraj Sakargaye.