Discovery call questions for web design agencies
The discovery call is the most expensive conversation in your business. Ask the wrong questions and you spend the next 3 months fixing the brief. Ask the right ones and you scope, quote, and close with confidence.
New website build
For agencies scoping a brand new marketing site or product site.
- 1
What does success look like 90 days after launch?
Good answer: Specific metrics (3x demo bookings, 25% organic growth).
Vague answer: ‘Bring in more business.’
- 2
Who are your three closest competitors and what do you envy about each? Red-flag question
Good answer: Named competitors with concrete reasons.
Vague answer: ‘There's no one really like us.’
- 3
Who is the primary visitor — describe them like a real person. Red-flag question
Good answer: Role, company size, what they're trying to do.
Vague answer: ‘Everyone.’
- 4
What's the one action you want most visitors to take?
Good answer: Book a call, request a quote, sign up free.
Vague answer: ‘Just explore.’
- 5
What pages do you absolutely need on day one?
Good answer: Named page list with rough content owner per page.
- 6
Who is writing the copy? Red-flag question
Good answer: Named person or copywriter agreed.
Vague answer: ‘We'll figure it out.’
- 7
What's the hard launch deadline and why?
Good answer: A real event tied to a business reason.
- 8
What's the budget range? Red-flag question
Good answer: A range or ceiling, even rough.
Vague answer: ‘Let's see what you come back with.’
- 9
Who has the final say on creative direction?
Good answer: One named decision maker.
- 10
What three brand words do you want this site to feel like?
- 11
What three words should it NEVER feel like?
- 12
What integrations or third-party tools must this site speak to?
Website redesign
When the brief is to rebuild an existing site, not start from scratch.
- 1
What's working on the current site that you want to keep?
- 2
What's the single biggest problem you want this redesign to solve?
Good answer: A specific metric or user complaint.
Vague answer: ‘It feels old.’
- 3
Have you run user research or analytics — can we see it?
- 4
What's the current monthly traffic and conversion rate?
Good answer: Numbers, even rough.
- 5
What content will be migrated, rewritten, or retired?
- 6
Are there any SEO rankings we must protect?
- 7
Who owns the existing domain, hosting, and CMS access?
- 8
What integrations are live today and which must continue working?
- 9
What's the budget and is it firm or directional?
- 10
What's driving the timeline — funding round, rebrand, campaign?
- 11
Who internally is championing this project?
- 12
Who internally is most likely to push back, and on what? Red-flag question
E-commerce
For Shopify, Woo, BigCommerce, or custom storefront projects.
- 1
How many SKUs at launch and projected in 12 months?
- 2
Platform preference and reasoning (Shopify, Woo, custom)?
- 3
Average order value and target conversion rate?
- 4
How are products being managed today — spreadsheet, PIM, existing store?
- 5
Which payment methods, shipping carriers and tax tools must integrate?
- 6
Who's responsible for product photography and copy? Red-flag question
- 7
What's the returns and customer service workflow?
- 8
Are there subscriptions, bundles, or multi-currency requirements?
- 9
What email and CRM tools are in play (Klaviyo, HubSpot, etc.)?
- 10
What does the launch promo plan look like?
- 11
Budget range for build vs ongoing optimisation?
- 12
Who owns conversion rate after launch — you or us?
Brand identity
For logo, visual system, and brand strategy projects.
- 1
Why are you investing in brand now?
- 2
Three brands you admire — visually and strategically — and why?
- 3
Three brands in your space you actively don't want to look like?
- 4
Where will this brand show up most — digital, print, retail, packaging?
- 5
Who is the audience this brand needs to resonate with first?
- 6
What are the non-negotiables (existing wordmark, colour, founder preferences)? Red-flag question
- 7
Who has final say — and how many people are in that final-say room?
- 8
Will we produce brand guidelines, or just the marks and palette?
- 9
What's the rollout plan once the identity is delivered?
- 10
Budget range — for identity only, or identity + rollout?
Landing page
Single-page campaign or product launch work.
- 1
What is the one outcome this page exists to drive?
- 2
Where is the traffic coming from — paid, organic, email, partners?
- 3
Who is writing the copy and when will it be ready? Red-flag question
- 4
Do we have a hero offer, lead magnet, or pricing structure to centre on?
- 5
Are we A/B testing or shipping a single version?
- 6
Which analytics, pixels, and CRM connections must be wired in?
- 7
What's the launch date and how firm is it?
- 8
What does ‘winning’ look like in week one?
Web app or SaaS
For MVP builds, product redesigns, and feature additions.
- 1
Walk me through the core user journey in one paragraph.
- 2
Which user roles need different views or permissions?
- 3
What's the must-have feature list for v1 vs nice-to-have?
- 4
What's your stack today and any technical constraints?
- 5
Who owns the data model and infrastructure decisions?
- 6
Authentication: email, social, SSO, enterprise?
- 7
What integrations are required (Stripe, Slack, Salesforce, etc.)?
- 8
What does the QA and release process look like?
- 9
Who handles support and customer feedback post-launch?
- 10
What's the funding situation and runway? Red-flag question
- 11
What's the realistic go-live date and what does it depend on?
- 12
Who else will be involved in product reviews?
Skip the discovery call entirely.
Send a smart intake link instead — ScopePilot asks all the right questions and turns the answers into a structured brief.