Value Vs. Efficiency (Which One Are You Paying For?)
The traditional way of hiring a design studio is to pay for their time. We believe there is a better way (and so do our clients).
How it Usually Works
Most design studios charge based on an estimation of their time. And, most clients expect to pay for time—this is how it works when you hire someone to do almost any job. The process usually works as follows—a prospective client communicates what they are looking for, the design studio asks a few questions, maybe there is some discussion of budget and timeline—then, like magic, the design studio produces a detailed proposal that forecasts months into the future. The proposal usually includes an accounting of how 100+ hours will be spent—Research, 16 hours; Information Architecture, 32 hours; Design, 64 hours, and so on.
Similar to many other industries, web design has been impacted by advances in technology that have commoditized some parts of the process. If you hired someone to make a website 10+ years ago, you were hiring them for the technical expertise required to build a website. Now, website builders like Squarespace make the development process much more efficient, freeing up time to focus on higher-value activities. However, most design studios have not adjusted their model to reflect these changes. While many other industries are shifting to flat-fee or value-based pricing, most design studios are digging their heels in. After all, more efficiency means fewer hours billed.
The Missed Opportunity: Pricing For Value
Moving away from an hourly model creates new flexibility to innovate on the process and double down on unique strengths. In industries that are not based around hourly billing, companies compete based on value—how much is the end-product worth to the customer? When the currency changes from time to value, it more closely aligns the goals of all parties involved.
We believe that embracing technologies like Squarespace and removing inefficiencies from the process should be seen as an opportunity, not a threat. When we launched Rubric in 2017, we set out to re-imagine the process of building a website from the ground up. This is how we developed the idea of Pilots and shaped our offering into what it is today. After hundreds of successful launches, we can confidently say that not a single client cared about how we spent our time—they cared about the value we created.
Working With Rubric
When someone hires Rubric to create their website, they are paying for our process, design expertise, and strategic insight. They are not paying for an intern to fiddle around for dozens of hours (at full hourly rate), unnecessary review meetings, or countless hours building something that platforms like Squarespace have already built for free. By pricing for value instead of time, we are able to continually optimize our process and double down on the work that matters most.