Articles ·
What happens in discovery, and why we quote after it, not before
What discovery covers, what it costs at each size of job, what you get out of it, and why the price comes after it rather than before.
Our pricing says “fixed quote after discovery”. If you have never commissioned software before, that raises a fair question: what is discovery, and why can’t you just have a price now?
Why the price comes second
A price written from a half-understood problem is a guess, and a guess is what turns into an argument in week six. So we do not quote before we understand the job. Discovery comes first, and it carries on until the requirements are genuinely understood on both sides.
What we ask about
Discovery is questions. We ask:
- what the software actually has to do
- who touches it
- what happens when it goes wrong
- what you already run that it has to sit alongside
Roughly half of that you will have thought about already. The other half is usually where projects come unstuck later. There is no time limit on it.
What comes out of it
A written specification: what is being built, what each milestone contains, and what it costs. You read it, you challenge it, and then you agree it. From that point both of us are working from the same document, and “I assumed” stops being part of the conversation.
The quote against that specification is fixed. It does not move because the work turned out to take longer than we expected, or because we underestimated something. It moves only if you change what you are asking for in a way that genuinely alters the agreed scope, and only after we have told you and you have agreed. A quote is open for 30 days from the date we send it.
What discovery costs
- Websites: not billed.
- Web applications: a fixed discovery fee of £400.
- Platforms: under £1,000.
- Flagship platforms: under £5,000.
For platforms and flagship platforms, the exact fee is agreed with you in writing before discovery starts.
If you go ahead, and if you don’t
If you go ahead with the build, the fee is credited in full against it. If you don’t, the specification is yours, written so that any competent developer can build from it, so nothing is repeated and nothing is lost.
What happens next
Next comes the prototype: something real to click through before you pay for the build. If it is not right, you walk away. There is no build deposit to recover and nothing to cancel. For a website nothing has been paid at all; for anything larger, the only payment so far is the discovery fee.
You can read how a project actually runs, step by step.
Not sure which band you’re in?
That is normal, and it is what discovery is for. Start your brief and tell us what you have in mind.