What to Prepare Before Your First Call With a Designer (For MVP and Startup Founders)

That first call you book with a designer isn’t a small step. It’s the moment your idea starts taking shape, where the designer gets a first look at what you’re building, and where you both figure out whether this partnership makes sense. The funny thing is, most founders come to this call completely unprepared, which slows everything down more than they expect.

They have the vision. They know the problem they want to solve. They might even have a scrappy prototype or a few early screens. But when it’s time to talk through the details that actually affect scope, timeline, or the overall approach, things get fuzzy fast. That’s usually why proposals end up vague, delayed, or misaligned.

This call isn’t about committing to anything. It’s about giving the designer enough context to ask meaningful questions, walk you through how they work, and see whether the fit is right on both sides. When you come prepared, the conversation gets deeper, clearer, and far more productive.

In this post, I’ll walk you through exactly what to gather before that call so you can get the most out of it, and set the stage for an MVP that moves from idea to reality with confidence.

What the Designer Actually Needs to Know (And Why)

A seasoned designer will always guide the conversation and ask the right questions, but this first call moves much more smoothly when you know what kind of information they’ll be looking for. This isn’t a strategy session or a deep dive into your product. It’s simply about covering the basics so the designer can assess fit, feasibility, and what the overall project might look like.

Most founders come in saying things like “We need a redesign” or “We want to look more professional.” Those are perfectly valid starting points, but they don’t explain the essentials a designer needs to understand: what you’re trying to build, who it’s for, what success means to you, and what constraints might shape the project.

Having this clarity upfront helps the designer understand the full picture without having to pause the conversation to dig for missing details. You don’t need polished answers, just enough context for us to determine whether the project aligns with our work, your timeline, and the type of support you’re looking for.

Here’s the kind of information that helps make that first conversation clear and productive.

1. Your Current State: Be Honest About Where You Are

Before we talk about what you want to build, it helps to understand what already exists. Some founders come in with a rough prototype, some with a password-protected demo, and others with nothing more than an idea and a few notes. All of these are completely valid starting points, as long as you’re honest about where you are today.

If you do have something built, share access during the call. A live link, a staging environment, a simple screen recording, or an early mobile build gives us a sense of how far along you are and what foundation we’re working from. It isn’t about judging the quality, it’s about understanding the baseline.

If you have any analytics, even the messy ones, bring them. Drop off points, early conversion numbers, traffic sources, or support tickets can tell us what your users are struggling with. And if you’ve tried things already, even if they didn’t work, that information is incredibly useful.

And if you have nothing built yet, that’s completely fine. In those cases, I recommend putting all your thoughts in a simple Google Doc. Vision, features, screenshots, references, questions, anything that helps me understand what’s in your head. Even a rough document gives the conversation structure.

It also helps to know your funding stage. A pre-seed MVP looks very different from a product being shaped after a recent raise. This context lets the designer tailor the scope to what’s realistic for where you are right now.

2. Your Users: Who Am I Actually Designing For?

One of the most helpful things you can bring to the first call is clarity about who your product is meant to serve. Not broad demographics like “women aged 25 to 40,” but real people in real contexts. For example, “first-time moms in their first trimester who mostly use the app late at night,” or “women tracking PCOS symptoms who have been dismissed by multiple doctors and want something that gives them back a sense of control.” This kind of detail helps us understand the environment, emotions, and constraints your users are dealing with.

You don’t need a long research document or formal interviews to talk about your users. What matters is taking a moment before the call to think through what you already know. If you do have notes, surveys, or support messages, simply reviewing them ahead of time can help you articulate the patterns you’re seeing. It keeps the conversation grounded in real user needs rather than broad assumptions.

It’s also helpful to know who makes the purchase decision and whether privacy plays a role for your audience. In women’s health or family-tech especially, concerns about who might see sensitive data often shape early product decisions. Bringing this context to the call gives the designer a much clearer sense of who we’re designing for.

3. Your Business Constraints: What I'm Working Within

This part isn’t about locking anything in. It is simply about giving the designer a sense of the realities surrounding your project so we can understand what is feasible and what your MVP needs to prioritize.

Start with your budget. Not the dream budget, not the “maybe if things go well” number, but the real one. A designer doesn’t need a perfect figure on the call, but having a range helps us understand whether we are talking about a focused MVP, a more polished build, or something in between.

Timelines matter too. A product needed before an investor meeting in eight weeks is very different from something you are shaping gradually. If you have external deadlines like pitch dates, partnership agreements, or beta commitments, share those early.

It also helps to know how the work will be used. Do you need designs that are fully ready for development, or is a clickable prototype enough for where you are right now? This shapes how deep we go with UX, systems, and visual detail.

Your technical setup matters as well. Whether you already have a developer, any tech debt to be aware of, or platform limitations, these details guide the plan.

If you do have a team, share how they work. Some teams move in biweekly sprints, others in weekly, four-week, or even six-week cycles. That rhythm helps the designer understand how to integrate smoothly into your process.

And finally, a quick sense of your internal capacity goes a long way: who will review designs, how many decision-makers are involved, and what your feedback pace usually looks like.

4. Success: What Does "Done" Look Like?

A big part of the first call is simply understanding what success means for your MVP. Not the polished version, not the long term vision, just the north star you are aiming for right now. Saying “better conversion” is too broad, while something like “increase trial to paid conversion from 8 percent to 15 percent” gives us a clearer sense of the outcome you want to reach. The same goes for visual clarity. “More professional” can mean many things, but “look credible enough that investors take us seriously” points us in the right direction.

If there are a few products or experiences you admire, mentioning what you like about them can help me understand the style or tone you gravitate toward. You do not need a full analytics breakdown or a deep competitor analysis. You also do not need to bring dozens of examples. We will not be reviewing them in detail on the call. They simply add context.

It also helps to know what worries you. Early concerns often reveal the real priorities behind your project, and naming them makes the whole conversation clearer from the start.

5. Questions to Ask the Designer

This call is not just for the designer to learn about you. It is also your opportunity to understand how they work and whether the partnership feels right. Prepare a few questions that help you see how they think, how they collaborate, and how they approach projects like yours. You might ask whether they have worked with similar audiences, how they handle a challenge you already know you will face, or what their overall process looks like from start to finish. You can also ask how they work with developers or what they need from you to do their best work.

It is also helpful to pay attention to a few red flags. If a designer does not ask about your users, promises exact timelines before understanding the scope, or ignores your constraints and goals, that is usually a sign to pause and reassess.

A Little Prep Goes a Long Way

When you take a little time to prepare before the call, everything becomes smoother. The designer can understand your situation faster, ask more focused questions, and get a clearer sense of whether the project is feasible within your timeline and budget. You end up with a conversation that feels structured and productive instead of a scramble to remember details on the spot.

When preparation is missing, it becomes harder to assess fit, the goals stay vague, and both sides walk away guessing about what is realistic. Sometimes the next step is a proposal. Other times it might be a deeper session to define scope. Preparation simply helps us figure that out sooner.

A small investment of time before the call makes the entire process more grounded and much easier for everyone involved.

If you work in femtech, family tech, or wellness and you are looking for a brand and UX/UI designer, I would love to connect. Book a call here and we can have an initial conversation to see whether we are a good fit and what the right next step might be.