About

Why QBF exists.

Too many businesses are sold websites by the page, the template and the feature list. We thought the sequence was backwards — so we built a consultancy that starts with understanding, and named it after the idea.

QBF started with a frustration. Businesses were buying websites the way you might buy a car by the number of cup-holders — by page count and feature list. The result was sites that looked busy and did very little.

A website is a commercial tool. Before you can build the right one, you have to understand the business behind it: who it serves, how it earns, and what a visitor actually needs in order to decide. So we made that the starting point of every project — and called the company Questions Before Features.

We’re deliberately small and deliberately senior. The person who asks the questions is the person who designs and builds the answer, so nothing gets lost in translation. No account managers relaying messages. No juniors learning on your budget.

We work mostly with established Irish businesses — professional services, B2B firms, and companies whose website no longer reflects how good they’ve become. And we’re happy to tell you when you don’t need what you asked for. Often, that’s the most valuable thing we do.

“We’d rather lose a project by asking a hard question than win one by ignoring it.”

Who you’ll work with

A small, senior team — the whole time.

Cathal Byrne, Founder and Principal Consultant at QBF — Cathal Byrne Founder & Principal Consultant Cathal spent fifteen years building websites inside agencies before starting QBF — mostly rescuing projects that had skipped the thinking. He leads strategy and asks the questions everyone else forgot to.

Deirdre Kavanagh, Head of Design at QBF — Deirdre Kavanagh Head of Design Deirdre designs interfaces that get out of the way. She’s happiest turning a messy problem into a calm, clear structure — and has strong, well-earned opinions about what belongs above the fold.

Rohan Desai, Head of Development at QBF — Rohan Desai Head of Development Rohan builds fast, tidy WordPress that clients can actually run. He cares about performance, accessibility and clean handovers — and treats a bloated plugin list as a personal affront.

What you can expect

Straight answers, including “you don’t need that”.
Senior people on your project from first call to launch.
Work you can see and shape as it develops — no big reveal.
A website you own outright, built to be run by your team.
No jargon, no lock-in, and no invented urgency.

Start with a conversation