I like this approach; the other reason it is good is that when the client sees the proposal, they get choices. They can see the breakdown, see which feature costs how much, and customize how they want it.
This involves the client more, making it more of their project, and also it changes the dialogue from "Should I hire them?" to "Which features should I hire them to do?"
The only thing I would change is that your expected time per feature times your hourly rate is the floor cost of each feature. Be aware of your costs but do not charge solely based on them. If feature X is a huge win for the client but is easy for you (due to your years of experience, built-up tech-stack, or home-built tools), don't give it away for peanuts!
Yes it makes it very easy to shift features around to get a decent spread of easy and hard in a week / iteration.
It's also useful to have a check - more than a three day estimate basically means its too big - redo the press release
As for the floor cost - maybe. You still need to keep your feet on the ground at some point so increasing your rates and multiplying up is a fine approach. When you have an obvious winner go for much bigger rewards - but not everytime
Comments
I like this approach; the other reason it is good is that when the client sees the proposal, they get choices. They can see the breakdown, see which feature costs how much, and customize how they want it.
This involves the client more, making it more of their project, and also it changes the dialogue from "Should I hire them?" to "Which features should I hire them to do?"
The only thing I would change is that your expected time per feature times your hourly rate is the floor cost of each feature. Be aware of your costs but do not charge solely based on them. If feature X is a huge win for the client but is easy for you (due to your years of experience, built-up tech-stack, or home-built tools), don't give it away for peanuts!
Yes it makes it very easy to shift features around to get a decent spread of easy and hard in a week / iteration.
It's also useful to have a check - more than a three day estimate basically means its too big - redo the press release
As for the floor cost - maybe. You still need to keep your feet on the ground at some point so increasing your rates and multiplying up is a fine approach. When you have an obvious winner go for much bigger rewards - but not everytime