Discovery Questionnaire

Map the workflows worth automating first.

A practical business questionnaire for manufacturing, print, visual communications, and supply chain teams preparing for an AI automation discovery sprint.

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Volume and Velocity

Sections

Questions

45-60

Minutes

Private

NDA safe

Before the sprint

Best estimates are useful. Unknowns are useful too.

This questionnaire is designed to identify where work gets stuck, where manual follow-up burns time, and where an AI co-worker can earn its keep in a first sprint.

Use ranges when exact numbers are not available.

Write down who owns each workflow today.

Call out the systems, inboxes, spreadsheets, and approval points involved.

Save or send

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Section A

Business Profile

Baseline company structure, revenue mix, customer segments, and demand patterns.

How many people work in the business, and in what roles?

Include owner/GM, CSR or estimator, design, production, install, admin, bookkeeping, subcontracted install crews, and key outside manufacturers.

Roughly how is revenue split across product or service types?

For example: wide-format print, vehicle graphics, electrical signage, wayfinding, install services, outsourced products, or custom manufacturing.

What share of revenue comes from repeat B2B accounts versus one-off or project customers?

Who are your top customer segments?

Examples: property management, construction, retail, healthcare, utilities, pharma, restaurants, general contractors.

Are there seasonal peaks? Which months, and what drives them?

Section B

Demand and Lead Intake

Inquiry volume, source mix, first response behavior, and manual triage load.

Approximately how many new inquiries or RFQs do you receive per week?

How do inquiries arrive, and in what proportion?

Estimate the mix across email, phone, walk-in, web form, franchise referral, text message, social, or other sources.

Who reads and triages incoming inquiries, and how quickly does a customer typically get a first response?

How many inquiries per week arrive with attachments or specs that must be manually extracted, cleaned up, or re-typed?

Do inquiries go unanswered or get answered late during busy periods? How often, and why?

Section C

Estimating and Quoting

Quote volume, quote speed, estimator variance, win-rate signals, and follow-up consistency.

How many quotes do you produce per week, on average?

How long does it take to build a typical quote, hands-on?

Break this out for simple, typical, and complex quotes if possible.

What is the elapsed time from inquiry to quote delivered, in the best case and typical case?

What is your rough quote win rate? Does it differ for quotes delivered same-day versus later?

Who can build quotes today, and does pricing vary between estimators for the same job?

Do you follow up on quotes that receive no response? If so, who follows up, when, and how consistently?

Section D

Design and Proof Approval

Studio throughput, approval delays, revision load, and proof-chasing ownership.

How many design or proof jobs move through the studio per week?

How long does a proof-approval round take, from proof sent to customer response?

Include typical and worst-case timing.

How many revision rounds does a typical job need, and who chases unanswered proofs?

How often do jobs stall more than three days waiting on customer approval?

Section E

Production and Scheduling

Active job load, cycle time, schedule visibility, late-job signals, and rework drivers.

How many jobs are in production at any one time, and how many ship or complete per week?

What is the typical cycle time from approved order to job complete?

Also include the promised turnaround you quote customers.

How do you track job status today, and how does the team learn a job is running late?

What percentage of jobs require rework or remake, and what are the usual causes?

Section F

Purchasing, Suppliers, and Inventory

Supplier volume, PO workflow, material delay cost, reorder logic, and invoice matching.

How many supplier purchase orders do you issue per week, and to roughly how many active suppliers?

How long from PO sent to supplier acknowledgment, and how often does material arrive late or wrong?

How often does missing material stop or delay a production job? What does a rush order or second trip cost you?

How do you decide when to reorder substrates, vinyl, ink, or other recurring materials today?

For example: system-driven reorder point, visual check, production request, client-order driven, or gut feel.

Do you check supplier invoices against POs and receipts before paying? Who does it, and how long does it take?

Section G

Installation and Permits

Install volume, scheduling horizon, permit lead time, rescheduling causes, and admin ownership.

How many installs do you perform per month, and how far ahead are they scheduled?

For permitted work, what is the typical municipal permit lead time in your area, and who tracks it?

How often do installs get rescheduled, and what usually causes it?

Examples: permits, weather, site readiness, client availability, material, or incomplete production.

Section H

Invoicing, Cash, and Reporting

Invoice latency, payment terms, deposits, collections, and reporting gaps.

How soon after job completion does the invoice go out?

For example: same day, within days, batched weekly, or delayed until job reconciliation.

What are your typical payment terms, and what is your average days-sales-outstanding if known?

Do you collect deposits? On what share of jobs, and how consistently?

Who chases overdue invoices, and on what schedule?

What numbers do you review weekly or monthly today, and how long does it take to assemble them?

Section I

Systems and Data

Core systems, export/API readiness, and the first recurring task worth delegating.

Which systems run the business today?

Include MIS, accounting, email, file storage, scheduling, project management, CRM, and production systems.

Which of these systems can export data or connect via API, as far as you know?

If you could hand one recurring task to a reliable assistant tomorrow, what would it be?

There are no wrong answers. This is often the best signal for the first AI co-worker opportunity.

Next step

Turn the answers into a sprint map.

Kenzai reviews the questionnaire, maps the current workflow, identifies the strongest first automation candidate, and defines the human review points before anything is built.

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