Roadmapping engagement

Selling the first slice of a project — roughly the first 5–10% of its value — as a priced strategy or roadmap engagement, rather than giving that thinking away inside a proposal. You peel off the diagnosis, price it, and make it the required first step: the client walks through the strategy door before the execution door opens. Baker frames it as the answer to the free-proposal trap — instead of writing recommendations for free and hoping to win the build, you sell the recommendations as the work, and the build follows almost every time.

Source: David C. Baker, The Business of Expertise (PRACTITIONER) — the “two rooms” (close the execution door; the only way in is strategy first) and the 5–10% roadmap/diagnostic rule of thumb for charging for thinking separately from execution.

First used in: 2.8 · The paid diagnostic