10 questions you must ask during Requirements Gathering

In digital projects, poor planning almost always leads to poor outcomes. One of the most overlooked parts of a successful project is requirements gathering.

Requirements gathering is the process that shapes what you're building, why you're building it and how it will work.

Get this part right and everything else becomes clearer. Get it wrong and you're stuck with misaligned expectations, blown budgets and tech that doesn't deliver.

In this post, we’ll walk through 10 essential questions you need to ask during requirements gathering.

These are the questions we use in our Stack Refresh process to make sure digital tools and platforms aren’t just modern, but meaningful.

You’ll also find practical insights into documentation, stakeholder involvement and validation – all the ingredients needed to turn vague ideas into strategic decisions.

Why good questions matter in the requirements gathering process

Requirements gathering is where assumptions either get clarified or cause trouble. Good questions uncover what matters. They reveal gaps, confirm scope and help avoid surprises later. However, not all questions hold the same value.

This is especially true when multiple teams are involved. You might have business leads focused on outcomes, developers asking about APIs and operations teams worried about support. Unless the right people are engaged and the right questions asked, critical details will fall through the cracks.

To keep things focused, we recommend starting with key techniques like stakeholder interviews, business needs documentation and requirements validation. These help you find both functional and non-functional requirements. They also guide decisions about tech platforms, vendors, and integrations.

Requirements gathering techniques that actually work

There are many ways to approach requirements gathering, but not all are equally effective. Especially when working with complex systems, legacy platforms or high-stakes outcomes.

We aim to uncover what’s needed and align everyone involved.

Here are proven techniques we use with clients:

Stakeholder interviews

Structured conversations with key people from across the business. These help uncover goals, frustrations and practical constraints. Ask open-ended questions and dig beyond surface-level answers.

Workshops and discovery sessions

Bring cross-functional teams together to map out current pain points, identify gaps and prioritise needs. A good workshop can align vision, define scope and set the tone for the rest of the project.

User journey mapping

Helps visualise how users interact with a product or service. This surfaces both functional and non-functional requirements based on real behaviour rather than assumptions.

Prototyping and wireframing

Even low-fidelity prototypes can highlight missing requirements or usability issues early. These are especially useful when stakeholders struggle to articulate what they want.

Document and system reviews

Analyse existing platforms, technical documentation and operational processes to understand what’s in place and where issues are occurring.

Requirements documentation tools

Use collaborative platforms like Confluence, Jira, or FigJam to capture, organise and refine requirements. This ensures transparency and makes validation easier.

Each technique adds a layer of clarity. The right mix depends on the size of the project, its complexity, and how much is already known.

How to guide requirements during the project discovery phase

The project discovery phase sets the direction and scope for everything that follows. Where clarity begins is through structured conversation, strategic review, and honest evaluation.

To guide requirements properly, you need a repeatable approach that balances business context with technical depth.

That starts with documenting business needs in a way that is specific, prioritised and understood across the board. Vague goals like “improve experience” or “increase engagement” don’t help developers write code or help vendors understand scope.

Instead, define what success looks like and tie every requirement back to those needs. Here's a few examples of how you'd define what success looks like:

• Fewer support tickets

• Faster checkout times

• Better data visibility

This is also where you differentiate functional vs non-functional requirements.

Functional needs define what the system must do: user logins, data exports, admin roles.

Non-functional needs focus on how it must perform: speed, security, compliance, scalability. Both sets of requirements are critical and missing either leads to risk.

High-impact stakeholder engagement is essential, so engage early and widely. That means involving decision-makers, end users, tech leads and customer support teams. Each group sees a different part of the puzzle. Without their input, blind spots multiply.

To guide smarter decisions, use gap analysis tools. These help identify where current platforms fall short and where opportunities exist. Combined with a platform audit, this gives you the data you need to recommend the right changes – not just the most obvious ones.

From there, tech strategy planning takes over. Requirements are not simple checklists, they inform platform selection, architecture decisions, integration plans and future scalability.

When done right, this becomes the foundation for digital transformation.

When you properly guide requirements during discovery, you create a strategic asset, not just a document. One that drives clarity, accelerates delivery and sets the stage for platforms that actually solve problems.

For more on tech strategy planning, read our insights into common tech strategy mistakes and how to resolve them.

10 key questions for effective requirements gathering

Use these ten questions to guide your discovery process and build a clearer, stronger foundation for delivery.

These help avoid scope creep, uncover hidden needs and align everyone from day one.

1. What are the business goals this project supports?

This is your anchor. Every functional requirement, user feature or system update should link back to a defined business outcome. Whether it's improving efficiency, increasing revenue or reducing manual work, business goals give the project purpose and measurable direction.

2. Who are the primary stakeholders and users?

Stakeholders ultimately value the outcome. Users are the people interacting with the system. Knowing both groups helps clarify requirements and avoid surprises. Identify who needs to be involved in decisions, who needs consultation, and who needs to stay informed.

3. What pain points are we trying to solve?

Rather than starting with features, start with frustrations. What’s currently slow, clunky, broken or costing time? This can include poor user experience, integration issues, duplicated effort, manual data entry or lack of insight. These pain points shape meaningful requirements.

4. What systems or platforms are currently in use?

Understanding the current state is essential before suggesting improvements. What systems are doing their job well? Which ones are redundant, unsupported or duplicating effort? Tech audits show how teams use and misuse tools across the business.

5. What are the critical functional requirements?

These are the must-haves: the core tasks or features the platform must perform. Think booking systems, file uploads, dashboards, payment processing or user roles. Get clear, specific and documented. If you’re vague here, development slows and delivery suffers.

6. What are the non-functional requirements?

Often ignored, these can make or break a solution. They include performance targets, scalability, security, compliance, accessibility and uptime. For example, if a system must support 500 concurrent users with no drop in speed, that’s a non-functional requirement.

7. How will success be measured?

Success might look different depending on who you ask. Define measurable outcomes – reduced admin hours, faster page loads, fewer support tickets, or improved NPS. Metrics align teams and help validate whether the solution is working.

8. Are there integration needs with existing tools?

Few platforms operate in isolation. You’ll need to consider how the new solution will connect with CRMs, analytics tools, ERPs or payment gateways. Get this wrong, and downstream systems suffer. Get it right, and data flows seamlessly.

9. Who will maintain or operate the solution?

Teams often skip planning for post-launch. Specify who will be responsible for the system long-term.

Will they need admin training? Will we handle support in-house or externally? Requirements should reflect the reality of future operations.

10. How will requirements be validated and documented?

After gathering the requirements, the team must review and sign them off. Use shared documentation tools, user stories or acceptance criteria to keep everyone aligned. This is the foundation of the requirements validation process – the point where assumptions meet clarity.

Avoiding project risk with better requirements gathering

Many digital projects go off track not because the technology failed, but because requirements were vague, assumed or rushed.

Here’s how to avoid the most common pitfalls in the requirements gathering process.

Assumptions instead of evidence

One of the biggest risks is starting from what people think the problem is, rather than validating it. Good requirements come from evidence – interviews, audits, user feedback – not guesswork.

Failing to engage the right people

If you miss key voices during discovery, expect issues later such as:

• Business stakeholders who own outcomes

• End users who understand real-world use cases

• Technical leads who can flag system constraints

Skipping non-functional requirements

These often only surface once the system is live – when it’s too late. Make non-functional needs part of the initial conversation, not an afterthought.

Poor documentation

Requirements trapped in email threads or spreadsheets slow down progress and create risk. Use a central, collaborative tool to capture and validate everything.

Lack of validation and sign-off

If stakeholders haven’t reviewed and approved the documented requirements, nothing is truly agreed. Make validation a formal part of the process before build begins.

By avoiding these issues, you increase clarity, reduce rework and build solutions that actually solve problems.

The difference great requirements make

At its best, requirements gathering isn’t about documentation. It focuses on clarity, helping teams decide what’s needed and what isn’t. About understanding where the business is now and where it wants to go.

When done properly, it makes design smarter, build smoother, and delivery more impactful.

If you’re planning a platform refresh or considering new digital tools, start with the right questions. We built our Stack Refresh service around these questions and the answers that follow.

Let’s discuss how we can help lighten the load, close the gaps, and create tools that actually work.