Mobile App Development Client Questionnaire: Every Detail You Want to Know

• Mobile
• January 19, 2024

by Beantsingh Duggal

Choosing the right outsourcing partner for your mobile app development can be effort-intensive, as you have to consider tons of things! From identifying the services they provide to analyzing clients and technical expertise and impacts they have delivered, you have to assess mobile app development companies in many ways. To ease your process of selection, in this blog, we have covered all the questions that you should ask your prospects for better decision-making.

When a business decides to build a mobile app, the first-ever challenge it faces is choosing the right mobile app development partner to outsource the project. As business-specific mobile app development is the mission, partnering with a skilled and highly experienced mobile app development company plays a vital role in taking your app towards success.

Unfortunately, not every business succeeds in finding the right mobile app development partner. Evidently, around 20-25% of global outsourcing relationships fail within 2 years of partnership establishment and 50% in 5 years.

You definitely don’t want that to happen to you! Considering the demand to find a reliable, long-term outsourcing partnership, we have curated a list of mobile app development interview questions that you may ask your prospective partners to select the right-fit one.

You can segment your questions based on the different categories and mobile app development demands you want to meet.

To Check Their Experience and Technology Expertise

It’s a must to check for the experience and technology expertise of the mobile app development company to find them relevant to your requirements. For that, you can ask them the following questions:

1. What is your expertise in mobile app development technology?

As you’re planning to develop your mobile app, you do want it to be high-performing, reliable, and scalable to meet fluctuating and evolving client demands. For that, having the back support from the right technology is required.

Regardless of everything, you do want to know the technology stack your mobile app development partner is going to use for your app. This question will help you tick your first checkbox, whether that company is relevant for your project or not.

Read also: Selecting the Best Technology Stack for Mobile App Development Project

At MindInventory, staying at the forefront of the technological revolution, we follow cutting-edge and reliable mobile app development technologies. We have designated teams possessing extensive knowledge and hands-on experience in specific mobile app development technologies.

• iOS development: Proficiency in Swift, providing sleek and optimized application development for Apple devices.
• Android Development: Mastery in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, delivering high-performance and user-friendly Android applications.
• Cross-Platform Development: Specialized teams working with frameworks like React Native and Flutter for efficient cross-platform app development, ensuring a consistent user experience across devices.

With expertise in all these technologies, we have successfully delivered hundreds – thousands of mobile apps to our global clients.

2. What types of mobile app development services do you provide?

An answer to this question will help you know whether that company offers the services that you need for your project or not.

There are chances you only want app support and maintenance services, which that company doesn’t consider, meaning they’re only focused on taking on big projects in which they can work from scratch. They might take your project, but you’re problem statement should be bigger, like completely revamping your app code that can add value to their portfolio as well. Just a Probability!

With a specialized team offering a comprehensive range of iOS and Android app development services, we utilize top-notch mobile app development technologies and boast an extensive in-house team of design experts, QA engineers, data scientists, AI/ML specialists, and cloud & DevOps professionals. Our expertise ensures full-cycle app development support.

Our scope of custom mobile app development services includes:

• Strategic consultation
• Market research and business analysis
• App UI/UX design – from user and design research, wireframing & prototyping to UX audit
• Native app development, utilizing technologies like Kotlin or Jetpack Compose for Android and Swift for iOS
• Cross-platform app development, utilizing frameworks such as React Native and Flutter
• App integration and migration
• Dedicated app support and maintenance
• AI-powered app development

3. Should I go for native or cross-platform app development?

This is the subjective question that you may ask when consulting with the mobile app development company. Based on your app idea and assessing your app requirements and budget, they will suggest the best-fit technology for your app development.

If going with Native Android app development then whether the Kotlin, Java, or Jetpack Compose would fit well with your concept. In the case of native iOS app development, they should assist you find the best technology fit for your concept – be it Swift or Objective-C.

When going with cross-platform app development, they should suggest whether Flutter is a good fit for your app or React Native.

With this guidance on technology, they should assist you throughout the app development lifecycle.

4. What industries do you serve?

After getting this answer, you can be one more percent sure whether that company will be able to cater to your business app requirements or not. Not every mobile app development company caters to all industries due to their knowledge of industry-based app development best practices and regulatory compliances.

Speaking of which, MindInventory caters to a broad spectrum of industries, some of which include Healthcare, BFSI, Education, Real Estate, Real & E-commerce, Transportation & Logistics, Fitness, Travel, Media & Entertainment, and Sports.

5. Do you offer mobile app deployment assistance to the respective app store?

Yes, of course! In fact, most of the app development partners offer assistance with app publishing to respective app stores. However, some don’t. Publishing apps to different app stores, including Google Play Store and Apple App Store, asks for an understanding of their app acceptance eligibility and formalities.

At MindInventory, with app design and development, we also provide assistance to clients in publishing their apps on the app store.

Our experienced team guides clients through the entire submission process, ensuring adherence to platform guidelines and a smooth deployment experience. We handle everything from app preparation, and necessary documentation, to the final submission, aiming for a successful launch on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

If asked, we do avail our digital marketing team to help you optimize the presence of your app by following App Store Optimization (ASO) best practices.

6. Do you offer post-launch mobile app support and maintenance services?

Yes, absolutely! Every mobile app development company offers post-launch app support and maintenance services. Now, the question is, will that service be included within the app development package or do you have to opt for additional services?

This inclusion of mobile app support and maintenance services varies from company to company. Some mobile app development companies do provide inclusion of it within the development budget but with extra cost, whereas some ask for buying it additionally.

At MindInventory, we cater to clients’ needs for app maintenance and upgradation as they need. We allow them to purchase a flexible bucket of hours and utilize that for their app maintenance when and as needed.

7. How do you stay updated on the latest trends in mobile app development?

At MindInventory, staying at the forefront of mobile app development trends is ingrained in our ethos. We cultivate a culture of continuous learning and arrange frequent sessions to learn new technologies and upgrade our skills.

Our team actively engages with developer communities, follows thought leaders, and is up-to-date with technology trends. This commitment to ongoing education ensures that we are well-informed about emerging technologies, best practices, and innovative approaches, enabling us to deliver cutting-edge solutions to our clients.

Development Process and Methodologies

After confirming the expertise and the services they offer, you do want to know about the processes and methodologies they follow to deliver robust builds as per the decided timeline.

1. What is your app development process, and how do you ensure quality?

At MindInventory, we have a designated team for product analysis, project management, product development, and testing, who follow a well-defined and iterative approach to ensure the highest quality outcomes. Their process includes:

• Clearly understand client objectives and app requirements with thorough requirement analysis.
• Crafting user-centric designs and interactive prototypes for better feedback and design iteration.
• Following mobile app development best practices and utilizing cutting-edge technologies and frameworks to develop robust apps.
• Utilizing manual and automated QA test cases, we conduct rigorous testing at every stage of the development to deliver a well-performing build.
• Regularly updating clients with the development progress, conducting feedback sessions, and following collaborative decision-making throughout the development lifecycle.
• Complying with app deployment platform rules and regulations, we assist clients with seamless app deployment to the chosen app stores or platforms.

To ensure the quality, we conduct regular code reviews and optimize that with time, performance, and space complexity measures and thoroughly test the app code. 

Our commitment to quality is reflected in our dedication to adhering to industry best practices and delivering mobile applications that meet the highest standards of performance, security, and user experience.

2. Do you follow Agile or Scrum methodologies?

Seeing the urgency of getting into the market with your mobile app, it’s a must to ask this question. It’s because with Agile and Scrum methodologies, mobile app developers can plan the project effectively and deliver builds on time in less time to market without compromising on the build quality.

Yes, at MindInventory, we follow Agile methodologies for mobile app development with a particular focus on the Scrum framework. We also have dedicated SCRUM masters who manage the app development project effectively and even meet the changing client requirements.

Embracing Agile methodology for mobile app development enables us to enhance transparency, foster effective communication, and ensure that our clients are actively involved in the development process. This approach empowers us to deliver high-quality mobile app solutions that align with client expectations and industry standards.

3. How do you handle changes or updates during the development process?

Today’s defined scope for mobile app development with specific features may change or evolve with time and changing market conditions. Therefore, you need assurance whether your mobile app development partner will be able to meet your changing needs proactively or not, along with frequently meeting update needs.

At MindInventory, we understand that changes or updates may arise during the development process. Considering all possibilities, we follow a well-defined process to handle such scenarios:

• We maintain transparent and open communication channels with clients to take their feedback.
• Conduct a thorough impact assessment to understand the implications of the proposed changes on timelines, budget, and overall project objectives.
• We collaborate closely with clients, discussing the proposed changes, providing insights into potential impacts, and jointly deciding on the best course of action.
• Our agile approach to mobile app development lets us integrate changes seamlessly, ensuring the flexibility of the project with evolving requirements.
• Understanding the importance of each change in the development, we keep all project management documents up-to-date with approved changes to ensure clarity and alignment across the development team.

Overall, be it a service-based or product-based company, following a client-centric approach should be at the core in order to thrive in this competitive landscape.

Security and Privacy

Of course, you should be concerned about the data you share with your mobile app development partner. Hence, asking the following questions would become essential:

1. How do you ensure the privacy of the provided intellectual property?

There are times when you’re concerned about your intellectual property and sometimes even revealing your brand name to the public that you have taken service of some company. At that time, this question would give you assurance on trust factors for the mobile app development company.

By asking this question, you do want to confirm whether they sign a non-disclosure agreement and have intellectual property security best practices and secured systems in place or not.

Ensuring the confidentiality and security of our clients’ intellectual property is our top priority. So, to safeguard their information, we ensure to:

• Sign an NDA with our clients.
• Ensure strict access controls to project-related information with authorized personnel only.
• Secure the development environment with industry best practices, like encryption protocols and secure sockets layer (SSL).
• In cases where source code repositories are used, clients maintain control and ownership, ensuring the security of their intellectual property.
• Give full ownership of the intellectual property to the client, including source code and other project assets, upon project completion.

2. Are you familiar with industry compliance standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA)?

Does your business serve in the European Region? Does your healthcare business serve in the US region? Then, it’s a must to know whether your mobile app development services provider has knowledge of industry-specific compliances, especially GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). Utilizing the rules mentioned in these compliances, developers can help you with a GDPR and HIPAA-compliant mobile app development on which users can rely.

Speaking about our experience, absolutely, we are well-versed in industry compliance standards, including GDPR and HIPAA. Our team is committed to ensuring that our mobile app development processes align with these standards to safeguard the privacy and security of user data.

Communication and Collaboration

Knowing about their mobile app development approach and security and privacy practices is okay, but what about maintaining effective communication and collaboration with them? That’s where these questions would help you know their approaches better:

1. Who will be my point of contact after project onboarding, can I work closely with the provided developer?

When associating with startups, it’s quite obvious to have direct contact with the responsible talent. But in the case of big companies following hierarchy, it’s a must for you to know your point of contact.

Some companies have dedicated project managers who are responsible for communicating with clients to understand their needs and know their feedback and then relay that information to the responsible developer.

At MindInventory, we offer clients with flexibility to choose the engagement they like. If they want a Project Manager/Scrum master to handle their project, we make that possible. If clients want to directly work with the development team, they can do that too by opting for the dedicated hiring model.

2. How can I get in touch with the team and track their progress?

Every development team uses different communication and collaboration tools to work in a team and get in touch with clients. Every client is also familiar with their specific tools for the same. Based on the mutual agreement, clients can get in touch with the team and track the progress of their mobile app development project.

You can ask them about how frequently they report to you, how they share their work progress with you, with whom you can directly contact, what communication medium they prefer, whether they are familiar with the tools you use for communication and collaboration, etc.

At MindInventory, we use agile project management tools (like Kanban boards) to keep track of the app development progress managed by a dedicated agile project manager. With access to this, our clients can keep track of the progress of their mobile app development projects. Apart from that, we do provide daily/weekly/monthly reporting of the work done through the mutually-preferred communication medium (like Skype, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Basecamp, etc.).

Mobile App Scalability and Future Support

With robust app development and its security measures, you do want to know about what actions your mobile app development partner takes to ensure the future relevancy of your app. Asking the below-mentioned questions would help you get assurance on the same.

1. Is the app designed to scale with increased user demand?

Well, the answer to this question totally depends on the type of investment you would like to make in your app, especially in empowering it with cloud capabilities and writing code in such a way that supports future scaling of the app.

In this, you also have to be in touch with developers to keep updating your app as per changing user demands and technology trends. For this, post-app deployment, you can opt for dedicated app support and maintenance services.

When associating with MindInventory, you can opt for app support and maintenance services with a flexible hourly bucket engagement model. This lets you utilize our resources when and as needed to upgrade your app.

2. How do you handle updates and enhancements after the app is live?

If you opt for the dedicated engagement model and partner up with MindInventory, our team will work closely with you and ensure effective communication to know the app upgrade you require. If asked, we do assign our digital marketing team and product management team to keep track of your product statistics, usage analytics, and more, and based on their research, suggest app upgrades that would benefit your business.

Mobile App Development Partner’s Portfolio Assessment

This will help you learn more about the capabilities and business relationships of the company’s clients that you’re interviewing. And get you a bit closer to making a decision on whether this company would be an ideal fit for your project or not.

Can you please let us know about your clientele?

You have confirmed everything, but have you checked upon the project they have worked on previously and how much impact that mobile app development company has delivered to their clients? Then, it’s time to do your assessment to check their portfolio, find out their association with their clients, what their clients share about their experience with this company, and whatnot.

Regardless of the business type, good client reviews/testimonials always act as a dealbreaker. Based on the experience their previous clients had, you can expect your association with the company you’re interviewing to.

To get assurance on such, you can do your own research and even ask the company to provide you with the names of the clients and their testimonials (in video form would be a plus point) that prove its work ethics, professionalism, and services’ impact on client’s business.

At MindInventory, we have clients from different global locations, such as the USA, UK, Australia, Spain, Germany, South Korea, etc. If talking about the longest association with clients, we have clients with whom we have been working for 11+ years.

We also have clients who are celebrities, such as Will.I.AM – who trusted us with his I.AM+ super app, and fitness coach Jeff Cavaliere – who trusted us with his fitness app called 6PP – Six Pack Promise. 

When talking about big accounts in the bag, we have worked with AirAsia for its app design and upgradation, worked with KFC (Indonesia) for POS and client-side app development, Passio.AI – one of the leading edge-AI platform leader for AI/ML solutions, AR/VR support, and mobile app development. 

We also have repetitive clients who came to us just for the MVP development and then spanned their project to full-cycle product development and even came back to us after a few years to revamp and upgrade their apps.

Be it research-oriented projects, full-fledged development, or rapid app development projects, we have served our clients with top-notch app development services and exceeded their expectations with each deliverable.

Cost and Timeline Considerations

Every mobile app development company follows different pricing structures and has different expertise affecting their timeline. Hence, it’s a must for you to ask them questions to know their costing and timeline considerations:

1. How do you estimate project cost and timeline?

App development cost is something that you want to know as soon as possible for your budget utilization and future scaling planning. The company you are considering for your app development project should explain their process for cost and timeline estimation based on your requirements.

In other cost-affecting factors like technologies to be used, the experience of the talent, and the services selected, engagement models also play an essential role in it.

There are mainly three types of engagement models IT companies follow: Fixed Cost, Dedicated Hiring, and Flexible Hourly Bucket Model (Time & Material).

Now, the question is how the prices are calculated for each engagement model. The below table is the answer to all your queries.

At last, companies would suggest the best model for your project type while calculating the fair price matching your requirements.

2. What advantages are there to selecting a dedicated hiring model over a fixed-price model?

Opting for a dedicated hiring model offers several advantages over a fixed-price model:

• In a dedicated hiring model, you can tailor the team composition and skill sets according to your project’s unique requirements.
• With dedicated hiring, you have direct contact with your resources and utilize them as per your changing needs efficiently.
• In this, you have direct control and oversight over the development process and make real-time adjustments as needed.
• Hire dedicated mobile app developers to foster better collaboration and communication with your team.
• Dedicated hiring often leads to long-term partnerships between clients and service providers.
• While dedicated hiring may initially seem a bit more expensive than a fixed-price model, it can offer cost savings in the long run.

3. Do you facilitate accelerated app development, if required?

In fast-moving industries, being first to market or quickly iterating on features can provide a competitive edge. Because of this reason or any other one, you might have to meet strict deadlines. 

If they say yes, you can ask them about the measures they take for the development project that needs to be developed quickly without compromising the quality. Have they done any accelerated app development previously? What was the client’s experience then working with them? 

Regardless of what, the answer to this question helps you get surety on whether the development company can deliver high-quality results within the required timeframe.

Most Important Questions to Ask to Confirm Your Outsourcing Partner

You have confirmed many things about your mobile app development outsourcing partner. How about now confirming some business clauses? Let’s do this:

1. I don’t have a clear picture for my mobile app, will you help me develop its MVP?

There are times when you have the vision to digitize your business services and want to develop an app for the same but don’t have a clear idea about the app. For example, you own a retail store and want to create an e-commerce app but are not sure about features that should be included in it and the design that you want for it.

In that case, you can ask the mobile app development partner to provide you with business analysis services to do the market research, gather requirements, and finalize features and functionalities that help you develop your MVP and launch with confidence.

2. I have one unfinished mobile app development project, will you help me complete it?

We have come across clients who were once associated with other app development service providers, but due to some reasons, they had to discontinue their services. After that, they came to us to complete their unfinished app development.

Asking this question is important because not all companies take unfinished app development projects, as it could be a headache for them to first understand the code flow, check code complexities, and refactor it according to their coding standards. 

Getting an answer to this question would help you get on more step closer to finalizing your app development partner.

But yes, before confirming, you should ask them about their process to work on an unfinished app development project.

3. How quickly will the client be able to start a mobile app development project with the company?

There are many processes that need to be completed before onboarding the project and starting to work on it. It may include signing an NDA contract, service level agreement, partial/full payment confirmation, and a lot more. Some companies may onboard the project and start working on it within 2 business days, while some may take more days.

To confirm this, you need to ask your potential mobile app development company regarding their process to start their association with the client, milestone planning process, approval process, and a lot more.

4. How will you identify the best-fit talent to work on my project?

Knowing this is very important to explore options to hire the best-fit talent and onboard to work on your app development project.

The most common process to filter out the best-fit talent for your project is:

1. Assessing your requirements
2. Curating a pool of talents who have worked on similar projects or skills to meet your expectations
3. Asking you to select the talent for the interview
4. Finalizing the talent and completing the onboarding process.

To get more assurance on this, you may ask the service provider regarding their interview process and parameters to consider when choosing the talent for your project.

5. What does a developer need from the client to start working on application development?

This is the most important question you need to ask the company before making your decision. An answer to this question will help you confirm how much of your inputs are needed to get your app built.

Of course, you have to provide a basic app idea and some references that the developer can follow for the app development with clarity. If your app concept includes AI/ML inclusion, you may need to ask whether you have to provide the data to train the ML models or if they will help with the same. If they help with data gathering and engineering, how much will they charge extra?

So, knowing all these is necessary to ensure that you and they are prepared for the collaboration effectively.

6. How involved will I be in the mobile app development process?

You have provided all the information to the development team, and they have started to work on your app development. Now, the question is how frequently they ask for your feedback or meet with you to confirm what exactly you need.

Well, asking questions to you to know your requirements clearly and your likings is great, but asking too many questions and disturbing, again and again, to confirm even the slightest thing would be a negative impression. If that’s the thing, what’s the benefit of outsourcing your app development project? This will not just ask for your time but also their time, leading to delays in the product’s time to market.

Hence, you need to confirm how frequently they arrange meetings, share the project progress, and, in urgent cases, who will be the contact person.

7. Will I get rights to the app’s source code post-project completion?

This is extremely important to know to ensure your ownership of your app. By obtaining the rights to the app’s source code, you maintain ownership and control over their intellectual property. This ensures that you can make modifications, enhancements, or updates to the app as needed without relying solely on the development company.

With access to the source code, you can flexibly work with different app development teams in the future and avoid vendor lock-in.

Owning the source code provides better control over security measures and ensures that sensitive business logic or proprietary algorithms remain confidential. It reduces the risk of unauthorized access or intellectual property theft.

In some industries or jurisdictions, ownership of the source code may be required for compliance with regulatory standards or legal obligations.

In short, you should ask for this to safeguard your ownership, control, flexibility, security, and investment in the app development process.

Final Words

When a client and an experienced app developer sit on the two sides of a table, they go through a meticulous discussion covering all the vital aspects that are related to app development.

The key areas of focus remain on the app development technique, design process, the cost of app development, budget estimate, technical issues, and the security aspects of the app.

If you have any questions related to app development, please feel free to get in touch with our expert app developers.