The Good, The Bad and The Budget
Last newsletter we shared how we craft a Reverse Brief for a project. This time: the tricky subject of budgets.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of budget negotiation from Reddit
“How much?” That’s one of the Big Three up-front questions in any visitor experience project (the others being “What’s it about?” and “Who’s it for?”). But this vital piece of information is often missing from a brief. Why? There are a number of reasons, some good, some arguable:
Reason 1 (good): No-one knows yet, so funding has not yet been allocated. The initial piece of work is to generate a costable concept to obtain funding.
Reason 2 (fair): It’s the rules. Procurement regulations prohibit revealing budgets during competitive bidding stages.
Reason 3 (arguable): “If we don’t tell them how much we have, maybe they’ll come in with a lower price?”
Reason 3 may sound canny, but in our experience, if you do have a budget in mind, not revealing at all it only works if you can provide a very detailed scope of work. Without that, you’re asking “how long is a piece of string” ‒ and suppliers will play it safe by saying “quite long”.
Proceeding without a budget indication can also lead to a disconnect between designer and client expectations. A designer might dream up a grandiose concept that doesn’t align with the project’s realities. Or, conversely, something too modest, when “groundbreaking” is called for.
Here are three possible ways to avoid disappointment and frustration:
Option A: Start with a fees-only design exploration to create estimated “Bronze”, “Silver”, and “Gold” budget level approaches to obtain funding.
Option B: Provide no budget indication, but give a detailed scope of work and list of deliverables. Providing examples of analogous experiences can also be helpful as benchmarks.
Option C: Provide a budget range or limit and ask what could be delivered for up to the maximum amount. This will allow you to compare apples with apples and determine who will give you the most bang for your buck when you’ve sought multiple quotes.
A disappointing and frustrating design outcome from Reddit.
We do have rules of thumb based on average costs per m2 for visitor experiences, depending on the level of immersion and interactivity, which we can use to roughly estimate project costs before design begins. But it’s only when the design develops, from concept through to detail, that estimates become more accurate.
Ultimately, our Budget Poker advice is to be transparent (but firm). Research, or ask the designers you talk to about costs for similar-scaled recent projects. Feel free to ask for explanations of costs, especially if something seems unusually high or low. But if you can, don’t be afraid to share your high-level budget realities. Generally, the more informed the designer, the better the outcome.
As always, if you have a visitor experience project in mind and want some assistance - with scoping, pricing, design or build - feel free to reach out!