25 DISCOVERY QUESTIONS FOR A NEW CLIENT'S FIRST SESSION

Grouped by what each question actually surfaces — pick 6-8 per intake call, not all 25 in one sitting.

BACKGROUND & CONTEXT
1. What brought you to coaching right now, specifically — why this moment, not six months ago or six months from now?
2. What have you already tried to solve this on your own, and what happened?
3. Who else, if anyone, knows you're starting coaching, and what do they think?
4. What does a typical week actually look like for you right now?
5. What's worked well for you in the past when you've made a real change?

GOALS & OUTCOMES
6. If this coaching engagement is a complete success, what's different in your life in 90 days?
7. What would make you feel like this was a waste of time and money?
8. Is this goal actually yours, or is it something you feel you "should" want?
9. What's the smallest version of success you'd still be genuinely happy with?
10. On a scale of 1-10, how ready are you to actually change, not just talk about changing?

OBSTACLES & PATTERNS
11. What's the real reason you haven't already solved this yourself?
12. What tends to derail you when you're making progress on something important?
13. Is there a pattern you've repeated before that you're worried might repeat here?
14. What's the story you tell yourself about why this is hard for you specifically?
15. Who or what in your life makes this harder than it needs to be?

WORKING STYLE & PREFERENCES
16. Do you do better with a lot of structure, or do you need room to figure things out your own way?
17. How do you actually want to be held accountable — and how have accountability systems failed you before?
18. What kind of feedback lands well for you, and what kind shuts you down?
19. Between sessions, how much time can you realistically commit, not aspirationally commit?
20. Is there anything off-limits you'd want me to know before we start?

SUCCESS METRICS & COMMITMENT
21. How will you know, without me telling you, that a session went well?
22. What would you need to see in the first month to trust this process?
23. Who is the version of you on the other side of this coaching engagement — describe them.
24. What are you willing to give up or change to make room for this?
25. What question should I have asked that I didn't?

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Downloaded from coachevaos.com/templates/discovery-questions-library — free to use in your own intake process.