A discovery call with a developer isn't an interview where you assess their technical knowledge. You're assessing fit, transparency, and process. These ten questions are designed to reveal all three — ask them before you sign anything.
Questions about experience and specialisation
1. Have you built a store in my niche or with similar requirements before?
You're looking for specific experience, not a general yes. A developer who's built D2C skincare stores understands high-AOV buying behaviour, before/after photography, and ingredient transparency. One who's mainly done fashion stores may have gaps. Ask to see comparable work — live URLs, not screenshots.
A good answer: "Yes, here are two stores in the health and wellness space — [URL] and [URL]. The second one has a subscription flow similar to what you're describing."
A bad answer: "I've built hundreds of Shopify stores, so I can definitely handle yours."
2. Will you personally be writing the code, or will someone else be involved?
This question is essential when hiring an agency or anyone who presents as an individual but works with a team. You want to know exactly who is doing what. The person presenting the proposal and the person writing the code are often different people in an agency context — and the latter may be a junior developer you've never spoken to.
A good answer: "I write all the code myself. I may bring in a designer for Figma work, but all Shopify development is mine."
A bad answer: deflection, vague references to "my team", or a sudden reveal that the build will be handled by an offshore subcontractor.
3. What's your process for a project like mine, from brief to launch?
An experienced developer should be able to walk through their standard process clearly: discovery, design review, build phases, QA, launch. If they can't articulate a coherent workflow, they either don't have one or haven't done enough similar projects to have developed one. Both are problems.
Questions about scope and pricing
4. Do you price hourly or fixed?
Fixed-price projects align incentives — the developer is motivated to work efficiently because their time isn't billable. Hourly projects create the opposite incentive. They also put you in the position of monitoring hours rather than outcomes.
If they price hourly, ask for an estimate with a cap. Any developer with enough experience to quote accurately should be able to do this.
5. What's included in the quote and what's explicitly not included?
This question prevents the most common source of project disputes. A quote that says "Shopify store build" can mean anything. A quote that says "custom Shopify theme built from provided Figma designs, including homepage, collection page, product page, cart, and blog — excluding app installations, content upload, and photography" is something you can hold someone to.
Ask them to describe specifically what deliverables are in scope, and what you'll need to handle yourself or pay extra for.
6. What happens if the scope changes mid-project?
It will. Something always changes. How a developer handles this tells you a lot about how the rest of the project will go. A clear answer — "additional scope is quoted separately before work begins, with your approval" — is professional. Vagueness here usually means either ad-hoc charges or resentment when they absorb costs they didn't plan for.
Questions about their process and quality
7. Can you show me a live store you've built and talk through what you specifically built on it?
This is the portfolio question, asked properly. You don't want to see screenshots in a PDF — you want to interact with a real store, on mobile, with the developer explaining what's custom and what came with the theme. A developer who built a store from scratch can tell you exactly which elements are theirs. One who installed a theme and changed the colours won't be able to.
8. How do you handle QA and what does the handover look like?
QA is where quality either gets caught or shipped. A developer with a real QA process will mention specific checks: mobile testing on real devices, cross-browser testing, Core Web Vitals, checkout testing with real transactions. One who doesn't mention it probably doesn't have a structured process.
On handover: what documentation will you get? Will there be a training session? What ongoing support is available after launch? This matters especially if your team will be managing the store themselves.
Questions about the working relationship
9. What information do you need from me before you can start?
This question reveals how organised their intake process is. A developer who asks for brand guidelines, Figma files, product content, access credentials, and integration account details upfront is thinking about the project systematically. One who asks for "just the login" and figures the rest out later is setting up for a slower, messier project.
10. What's the one thing that most often delays projects like mine?
This is the best question on the list for filtering experienced developers from inexperienced ones. An experienced developer has a clear answer because they've seen it happen: usually content not ready, approval cycles taking too long, or scope additions mid-build. A developer without enough project experience gives a vague or irrelevant answer.
The answer also tells you what to prepare for. If they say "content is usually the bottleneck", have your product images, copy, and brand assets ready before the project starts.
What the answers tell you
You're not marking developers on technical knowledge — you're assessing whether they're transparent, process-driven, and experienced enough to handle your specific project.
A developer who deflects on who's doing the code, can't explain what's in scope, and gives vague answers about QA isn't being evasive because they're bad — they may just be inexperienced, disorganised, or used to clients who don't ask. All three lead to the same outcome for you.
The right developer answers every question directly, flags uncertainties honestly, and gives you enough specificity to hold them to the deliverables. That's who you want building your store.
For more on the hiring process, see the full guide to choosing a Shopify developer and the developer vs agency comparison.
