Early in Yuke's life, we billed by the hour. It seemed fair — you pay for the time we spend. But the more projects we ran, the more we realized hourly billing creates a fundamentally broken incentive structure.
The Problem With Hours
When you bill by the hour, you're rewarded for taking longer. The slower you work, the more you earn. That's the opposite of what a client wants — they want results, fast.
It also creates an adversarial dynamic. Clients start questioning every line item. "Did that really take 3 hours?" Instead of collaborating on the product, you're negotiating over timesheets.
We've seen this play out at agencies we worked with before starting Yuke. Meetings get padded. Simple tasks get stretched. Nobody does it maliciously — the incentive structure just nudges behavior in the wrong direction.
How We Do It Instead
We use fixed-scope engagements. Before any work begins, we define:
- What we're building — specific features and deliverables
- How long it takes — a realistic timeline with milestones
- What it costs — a flat fee for the entire phase
This means we're incentivized to ship fast and ship well. If we find a clever shortcut that saves two weeks, that's a win for everyone — not a revenue loss.
But What About Scope Changes?
Scope changes happen. We're not rigid about it. If you discover something mid-sprint that changes the direction, we adjust. But we do it transparently — we'll tell you what the change means for timeline and cost before we commit to it.
The key difference is that changes are intentional decisions, not invisible creep hidden in hourly invoices.
The Result
Our clients know exactly what they're paying before the work starts. There are no surprise invoices. And because we eat the cost of inefficiency, we've built internal processes that are ruthlessly efficient — which means you get better work, faster.
If you've been burned by hourly billing before, we get it. Reach out and we'll show you how a fixed-scope engagement works in practice.