The practice

Member lesson

Pricing and scoping

Lesson 7 of 11 in The practice.

Pricing Design Work & Creativity (The Guide) · The Futur
Lesson

Most studio pain is a scoping problem wearing a pricing costume. A fixed fee against a vague scope is a promise to work for free once the vagueness resolves, and it usually resolves in the client's favour.

discoveryaskbriefagreeconceptswidenrefinenarrowhandoverlet gothe widest point is the cheapest place to be wrong
The arc of a project, with the widest point in the middle and one narrowing at each end.
A doodle of two fields from above, one with a faint dotted boundary pushed outward by arrows around a tired designer, one with a solid fence and a new request landing outside it beside a separate coin.
A job with a vague boundary keeps spreading for the same pay. A clear boundary shows exactly when a request falls outside it and needs its own price.
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Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    Which single paragraph in a written scope prevents the most conflict later?

    • The one listing the software and file formats the studio will hand over
    • The one defining what a round is, and what revisions beyond the agreed number cost
    • The one naming the designers who will actually work on the project
    • The one setting out the studio's working hours and response times
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Billing by hours spent. Safe for the studio, unpredictable for the client.”

    • Decision criteria
    • Time and materials
    • Fixed fee
    • Kill fee
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “One price for a defined scope. Predictable, and only safe if the scope is real.”

    • Success criterion
    • Reverse brief
    • Desk research
    • Fixed fee

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