Ask Your Dev Team about your stack
Don't be afraid to ask technical questions just because you're not technical. Understanding your stack gives you power as a stakeholder.
Your “stack” is the combination of programming languages, frameworks, databases, and tools your developer uses to build your software. And you should know what’s in it.
You don’t have to be technical
Don’t be afraid to ask technical questions just because you’re not technical. Ask for information that maybe you don’t completely understand, because one day, you will. If it helps, ask for a diagram, and save this information somewhere safe.
Make sure your developer knows you want an update anytime there’s a change or addition to the stack.
What to ask
”What languages and frameworks are you using, and why?”
Every technology choice is a tradeoff. Your developer should be able to explain why they chose their stack, not just what it is. Listen for practical reasoning: community support, hiring availability, performance characteristics, or alignment with your project’s needs.
Be cautious if the answer is “it’s what we always use.” The best developers choose tools that fit the problem, not the other way around.
”Is this stack well-supported?”
Technologies have lifecycles. Some are actively maintained with large communities. Others are niche, aging, or losing support. An unsupported technology becomes a liability: harder to find developers for, slower to get security patches, and more expensive to maintain.
”What does our infrastructure look like?”
Beyond the code, you should understand where your application runs. Is it on a cloud provider like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure? Is it containerized? Who has access to the servers?
This isn’t about becoming a sysadmin. It’s about knowing what you’re paying for and understanding the dependencies your business relies on.
”What happens if we need to switch?”
Vendor lock-in is real. Some technology choices make it easy to switch providers or frameworks later. Others create deep dependencies that are expensive to unwind.
Ask your developer about portability. If you needed to move to a different hosting provider or swap out a database, how difficult would that be?
Why this matters
Understanding your stack gives you an advantage in every conversation that follows, about budgets, timelines, hiring, and scaling. You don’t need to know how to write code, but you should know what code is running your business.
Go build something and expect better from your developer.