Pricing Transparency
As much as possible, I like to be up-front about pricing. I do not like dancing around the money question and I suspect you don’t like it either.
There are some activities that are not on the list below because they are harder to price as they are often too contextual and need some conversation first. For example:
Technical/UX Writing
Editing
Product Design
Service Design
Building Research & Design practice and teams
Organisational alignment and leadership therapy
Happy to work with you on these, but they require a conversation or two to price.
Lastly, something I hear time and time again: “That’s too expensive!”
I get the feelings behind this statement. I would prefer you to think in terms of “that’s not in my budget” because my prices are not too expensive. I’m running a business, so are you. My work will very likely make you a lot of money as it has for other clients and it should make money for me.
Please reach out if you want to talk about how much risk you feel you can handle and whether paying me $30,000 is something you’re up for versus continuing to make a product or service that doesn’t resonate with your customers.
Things to Consider
I want to help you. I know you’ve been burned by people in the past who do this kind of work. I’ve seen their deliverables and I am sorry you’ve had to deal with it.
There is an asterisk for everything. I reserve the right to say, “That is not actually what I described on the Pricing page and here’s why…” but I won’t bait-and-switch you.
All projects are done remotely. I’ve been doing most of my work remotely for 13 years. It is rarely necessary to have people together in the same location. If you’re adamant that you need to be in the same room with the participants, Studio VO is not the right fit for you. If you still want me to show up in person, and I have to fly, there’s a $2,000,000 surcharge.
Recruiting participants can be a challenge. Sometimes it takes a bit to find the right people. Pricing for recruiting is either:
rolled into the price (usually for low-complexity projects) or
passed-through at-cost to you if we use a recruiting specialist (usually for high-complexity projects)
Discovery Projects
I propose these projects when one of two things come up:
A client genuinely wants to “see what’s out there.” Generative research can be very rewarding to do and it usually helps better determine where you need to focus your time and efforts.
A client is entirely unsure what they need. This is very much an okay state to be in! But the solution isn’t “let’s guess our way out of this.” Instead, let’s see what the work truly needs to be.
Discovery projects are not meant to go longer than 10 business days. At the end, we’ll have documented a path forward. More than likely it will be one of the other project types listed below.
Scope
I will interview stakeholders and, potentially, customers and employees. I will determine the number of people needed, with your input.
Price — $8,000
There is an $800 per day additional fee for projects that take longer than 10 business days to complete. I scope these specifically to complete as quickly as possible. If Gary is on vacation, but you want to start ASAP, this additional fee will apply until I can speak to Gary. An option to avoid this fee is to wait to start until Gary is back.
Delivery
A report on the outcome of the project with guidance on next steps. This will be detailed enough that you can do the next steps internally or have someone else do them for you. Or we can chat about continuing to work together.
On rare occasions, a client has something complex enough to warrant multiple Discovery projects. This can be an outcome, but isn’t often warranted.
I want a Discovery project, please.
Research
Generally speaking, Research can cover speaking with Stakeholders, customers, and employees, as well as past customers and employees. During these projects we may use one or many methods for conducting research (like surveys and interviews).
The pricing for this will depend on:
who needs to be interviewed
how many interviews
what methods we want to employ
the level to which your company’s leadership needs to be persuaded by the outcome of the project
Once we determine the answers to these questions, I set the pricing on a per-participant basis with a range of 3-12 participants, per round, to run a project.
The price range varies and is based on many factors including:
complexity of the audience segments (who the customer is, can the employee be interrupted)
How much buy-in/internal alignment you have for this work
How urgent is the need
Scope
I will interview stakeholders, customers, and potentially employees. We will determine together the number of people needed.
Price
Low complexity: $800 per participant
Example (from a real project!): “People have meetings. Go find out about that. We aren’t too concerned with who you talk with and we don’t need a shiny report at the end. This is entirely so that we can understand where the team needs to focus its efforts over the next year.”
High complexity: $1,800 per participant
Example (from a real project!): “The participants are male nurses, who specialise in palliative care, work in a rural setting, and who are paid via Medicaid/Medicare. The higher-ups don’t think we need to focus on their needs, but I do. I need a spectacularly designed presentation to persuade them we need to do more to support this segment.”
Your price: Somewhere in the range of $800 to $1,800 per participant
Delivery
A detailed report on the outcome of the project with guidance on next steps. This will be detailed enough that you can do the next steps internally or have someone else do them for you. Or we can chat about continuing to work together.
I want a Research project, please.
Usability Testing
Usability testing, like voting in Chicago, should be done early and often. Sorry, Chicago…old joke.
I do a lot of usability testing and it is a great way to find things to fix, or things that are missing, with your product or service. Relatively speaking, it’s a very inexpensive way to reduce the risk you are delivering products and services your customers can’t use.
Scope
I will test your product or service with participants who accurately fit the identified profile. I will determine the number of people needed, but the range is typically 5 to 12 participants, per round of testing.
Price
Low complexity: $400 per participant
Example (from a real project!): “We need to understand what information is relevant to people when searching for a new doctor on our production site. We need a punch list of things to fix.”
High complexity: $1,500 per participant
Example (from a real project!): “We have a barely functional prototype which we need help with. We’re offering a brand new service with this app and want to see if people can find what they need with it. We’re also not entirely sure this is a good idea, but the CEO said we need to do it. We’ll need a video showing clips of people crying about how bad it is.”
Your price: Somewhere in the range of $400 to $1,500 per participant
Delivery
A detailed report on the outcome of the testing with guidance on how to fix what is broken or missing. This will be detailed enough that you can do the next steps internally or have someone else do them for you. Or we can chat about continuing to work together.
I want a Usability Testing project, please.
Design Projects
Sure as heck, I do Product Design and Service Design!
Add New Features
Happy to help! If we can do some research and testing. If you’ve already done research, great! Oh. You asked your biggest customer what they wanted and did that? We’re going to need to roll in some research.
Whole App Redeux
Hard pass. Unless… you let me drive the entire effort.
Generally Speaking…
If we need seven meetings to determine if the button layout is correct … I need you to look deep within on this one and decide who you want to be as an organization.
I’m looking to help you get shit done quickly and well.