[felixarba]

I found this article helpful. Most comments on here seem to suggest that hourly is best done when clients don't know what they want, and I think that actually misses the point of the article, in my understanding.

Working with a few customers as a freelancer, I agree, a lot of time they can't express what they actually want. They know it when they see it, but they can't express it correctly so you end up building a product, and having a thousand change requests - basically the customer uses you as a prototyping machine until you build what they want.

Obviously this can't work with fixed pricing, BUT this is where the point of the article comes in. If the only thing you can offer to your customer is writing code based on a requirement - you're racing to the bottom because thousands can write code based on a requirement.

BUT, if you focus on outcome - I will build you what you want, AND I'll help you figure out what that is!! That service will include asking the right questions, helping the client figure out what they want, and you can put all of that in your fixed price offer. At this point you aren't just writing code for them, you are their business partner, you want them to succeed, and you will use your experience to offer advice. If you become good at this, you are much more than just a programmer, or what the article calls "technician".

So, thanks for the article, I found it interesting and have some food for thought.