How the work is priced
Studio Kirilov keeps this page on method rather than money. The band for a particular piece of work gets written down once we know what we are building. Until then two things are worth knowing. Which shape you will be offered, and the single thing that can move it.
The shapes
How clear the task is decides the shape. Size does not. A clear task closes with a price on it. An unclear one is measured first, and the measuring is a piece of work with a price of its own. One word the service pages use belongs here as well: work delivered in sprints is priced inside shape one or shape two rather than as a shape of its own.
When the scope is closed in writing before anything begins.
A measurement, a review, a diagnostic, a discovery sprint, a first version against a closed scope.
Only a change of scope moves it, priced and put to you for approval before it starts.
When we know what, but not how long.
A service with edges and a named result, and no promise tied to a calendar.
New scope moves it, never hours spent: the hours are our risk, the edges are the agreement.
When the work has no finish line, only a rhythm.
Support plans, a product partner, a Chief Technology Officer for a few days a month.
Only the level of engagement moves it, agreed anew each time, and notice ends it with nothing owed for leaving.
When a task cannot be fenced in advance and still has to start today.
Chasing a fault nobody has explained, an emergency, work under somebody else’s deadline.
Only the hours worked move it, and you see them as they are logged.
Anything that goes through other hands is passed on at cost and named before you sign.
Licences, hosting and anything else bought on your behalf all arrive at the price they were bought for, with no quiet percentage on somebody else’s invoice and no line that turns up at the end.
The line
The asking
A price without a scope behind it is either bait or a lie. So the band is written rather than published. Describe the task in a few sentences and it comes back to you on paper, together with the shape we propose and the one thing that could move it.
The number
A short description of the task is enough to get a shape and a band back from a person, usually with questions attached before any number.