Part of how VBP works is that the problem is well-defined and valuable. It's also intractable, viz. it can't be solved effectively (cost, labor, annoyance, etc.) by the client. In this sense, learning what powerful people think are these kinds of problems is the Holy Grail...since their definition is way, way different than a line manager's or even a supergenius coder's. They also tend to grok the "thinking in the shower" part very well. They like a deadline, but number of hours is not relevant.
I've found that some organizations and people can't understand this. They are not all dreadful clients. But dreadful clients are very likely to be this type.
And as an aside--a lot of this problem discovery takes place in the startup space, and "connections" are indeed often at the root of a lot of the problems startups aim at. They don't always realize this and tend to do a bad job finding other people with the problem. But there are also thousands of little companies that do one weird trick really well, that you'll never hear of until the framjulator starts flashing an OBLATZ message.
A strong argument for value-based pricing.
Part of how VBP works is that the problem is well-defined and valuable. It's also intractable, viz. it can't be solved effectively (cost, labor, annoyance, etc.) by the client. In this sense, learning what powerful people think are these kinds of problems is the Holy Grail...since their definition is way, way different than a line manager's or even a supergenius coder's. They also tend to grok the "thinking in the shower" part very well. They like a deadline, but number of hours is not relevant.
I've found that some organizations and people can't understand this. They are not all dreadful clients. But dreadful clients are very likely to be this type.
And as an aside--a lot of this problem discovery takes place in the startup space, and "connections" are indeed often at the root of a lot of the problems startups aim at. They don't always realize this and tend to do a bad job finding other people with the problem. But there are also thousands of little companies that do one weird trick really well, that you'll never hear of until the framjulator starts flashing an OBLATZ message.