Most bad vendor relationships were predictable from the first call — the buyer just didn't ask the right questions. Sales decks all say the same things: senior talent, proven process, happy clients. The differences that matter live in the contract details and the answers a vendor gives when you push past the pitch. Here are the seven questions we'd ask any provider, including us. A good partner answers all seven quickly and in writing.
1. Who owns the intellectual property — and when?
The only acceptable answer: you own everything, from the first commit, unconditionally. Watch for IP assignment that triggers only "upon full payment" — a clause that can hold your codebase hostage in any billing dispute — and confirm the vendor has matching IP agreements with each individual engineer. The chain has to be complete: engineer to vendor to you. Ask to see the actual clause, not a reassurance.
2. Can I see your margin?
Ask exactly what the engineer is paid and what the agency keeps. Most vendors will deflect — "that's commercially sensitive" — which tells you the gap is large enough to be embarrassing. Opaque margins matter beyond fairness: when a vendor pockets a big spread, they're incentivized to staff the cheapest engineer you won't notice, and the best engineers quietly leave for arrangements that pay them more of the rate. Transparent, flat margins align everyone. (This question is the heart of our own model — see Why Dillo.)
3. Can I interview the actual engineers?
Not "a representative profile." Not a solutions architect who vanishes after kickoff. The specific humans who will write your code, in a live technical conversation with your team, before you sign. Any hesitation here is disqualifying — bait-and-switch staffing is the single most common failure mode in this industry, and this question eliminates it in one move.
Rule of thumb: if a vendor resists any question on this list, the resistance itself is the answer. Transparent partners find these questions easy.
4. What happens if an engineer leaves?
People leave — the question is whether the vendor has a plan or a shrug. Ask about the guaranteed replacement window, who pays for the new engineer's ramp-up time, and how knowledge transfer is handled (documentation standards, overlap period, access handover). A serious provider offers a replacement at no placement cost, an overlap period where feasible, and a bench or pipeline deep enough that "weeks" means weeks, not a quarter.
5. What are the non-solicitation terms — in both directions?
Read this clause before you fall in love with an engineer. Some contracts impose punishing buyout fees if you ever want to hire the person directly; others quietly allow the vendor to poach your staff. Look for terms that are symmetric, time-limited, and — ideally — include a reasonable, pre-agreed conversion path if you want to bring an engineer in-house someday. A vendor confident in their value doesn't need to trap you.
6. What time-zone overlap do I actually get?
"We work with US clients" can mean anything from full working-day overlap to a single awkward 7 a.m. call. Pin it down: how many hours of guaranteed overlap with your core team, will engineers attend your standups live, and what is the expected response time during your business hours? In our experience, around four hours of true overlap is the practical minimum for engineers embedded in your team; async-only setups work for well-scoped outsourced projects but rarely for augmented staff.
7. What are your security practices?
Your engineers will hold keys to your systems, so ask the unglamorous questions: NDAs signed by every individual (not just the entity), device policies (disk encryption, screen lock, managed or verified machines), access via your SSO and your repositories with least-privilege permissions, offboarding checklists that revoke access the day an engagement ends, and how credentials are stored and shared. You don't need a vendor with a wall of certifications; you need one that answers these specifics without improvising.
Putting it to work
Send all seven questions by email before the first call and ask for written answers. The speed, directness, and completeness of the reply is itself a diagnostic — the partners worth working with treat these as softballs, because their model has nothing to hide. Then verify the two that matter most in person: interview the actual engineers, and read the IP and non-solicitation clauses in the actual contract.
Key takeaways
- IP must be yours from the first commit, with a complete engineer-to-vendor-to-you assignment chain.
- Margin transparency predicts vendor behavior better than any testimonial.
- Always interview the specific engineers who will do the work — this single question kills the bait-and-switch.
- Departures, non-solicitation, time-zone overlap, and security should be answered in writing, before you sign.
- Resistance to any of these questions is itself the answer.
Want to test us? Send us all seven questions — we'll answer in writing, and then show you the work to back it up.