The price of a specialist skill
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The price of a specialist skill
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Re: The price of a specialist skill
#2This is more a tale of bad estimates than specialist skills; if anything, it goes to the point that a specialist must be careful to not get too confident in his knowledge when developing an estimate.
Re: The price of a specialist skill
#3This is more a tale of bad estimates than specialist skills; if anything, it goes to the point that a specialist must be careful to not get too confident in his knowledge when developing an estimate.
So how should the thatcher have differed in his estimating process?
Re: The price of a specialist skill
#4Interesting story. I think you're saying it's a bad thing to treat our estimates as commitments though. I don't necessarily agree with that. I think you need to commit and just accept the fact that you won't always be accurate, but that over time you will become more accurate. Most consulting companies pad their estimates to cover this risk, but I think it's better just to bill out as high as you can.
Billing out higher but still committing has a couple of advantages. 1) You eliminate the cheap customers who would've cost you money and are generally a pain to deal with. 2) You're client has peace of mind since you're committed to finishing what you started. 3) Your client will generally respect you more because it seems as though you're time is worth more (even if others padding an estimate with hours works out to the same final amount).
Re: The price of a specialist skill
#5This is more a tale of bad estimates than specialist skills; if anything, it goes to the point that a specialist must be careful to not get too confident in his knowledge when developing an estimate.
So how should the thatcher have differed in his estimating process?
If you hit a pothole, and your tire pops, you bring it to Jim, your mechanic. "I can fix your tire for $150", Jim says, dreaming of the used boat he can afford with your money. He takes your car into the garage, and puts it up on the lift. He looks up at it, then pulls out a calculator, his eyes glinting. Jim can get the new FishHunter model, with double engines and a built-in beer cooler. Built in! "I'm sorry, the pothole broke your axle and damaged your suspension. The total price is $1279."
This is why you quote for one item, not "I'll do whatever needs to be done". The thatcher should have said "It's one price to just re-thatch, but since I have to rebuild the roof, it's more. What do you want me to do?"
Re: The price of a specialist skill
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
So how should the thatcher have differed in his estimating process?
If you hit a pothole, and your tire pops, you bring it to Jim, your mechanic. "I can fix your tire for $150", Jim says, dreaming of the used boat he can afford with your money. He takes your car into the garage, and puts it up on the lift. He looks up at it, then pulls out a calculator, his eyes glinting. Jim can get the new FishHunter model, with double engines and a built-in beer cooler. Built in! "I'm sorry, the p…
You have a very engaging, "narrative" style of writing that paints a vivid picture in the mind. It is wasted on comments. You should write some articles.
Re: The price of a specialist skill
#7Really the issue is that he gave a quote for the entire thing, instead of what it would cost to fix the initial problem.
Re: The price of a specialist skill
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you hit a pothole, and your tire pops, you bring it to Jim, your mechanic. "I can fix your tire for $150", Jim says, dreaming of the used boat he can afford with your money. He takes your car into the garage, and puts it up on the lift. He looks up at it, then pulls out a calculator, his eyes glinting. Jim can get the new FishHunter model, with double engines and a built-in beer cooler. Built in! "I'm sorry, the p…
You have a very engaging, "narrative" style of writing that paints a vivid picture in the mind. It is wasted on comments. You should write some articles.
Thanks, but if I'm being honest, this comment is directly aping Joel Spolsky's style. I'm glad it worked.
Re: The price of a specialist skill
#9Interesting story. I think you're saying it's a bad thing to treat our estimates as commitments though. I don't necessarily agree with that. I think you need to commit and just accept the fact that you won't always be accurate, but that over time you will become more accurate. Most consulting companies pad their estimates to cover this risk, but I think it's better just to bill out as high as you can. Billing out hig…
Why not just provide a reasonable estimate, with a "price assuming this goes as expected", what can go wrong and a price for fixing the various common issues encountered along the way, and a worst case scenario price?
Re: The price of a specialist skill
#10Well, maybe it was a really good thatcher but certainly not very skilled in running thatching projects and hence is punished by the market and driven out of the business. There are several ways how he could have avoided the situation or softened its impact:
1) Spend a bit of time and energy to assess the damage first, maybe charging a small fee. Essentially, as I understand, the owner had a choice of re-thatching the roof or opting for tiles instead as a substitute. The decision would depend on the economic expediency and the information provided as part of the initial assessment would have had value to the home owner in its own right.
2) Once the contract is signed it's not a matter of choice for the thatcher whether to continue with repairs on own expense, it a legal matter that can be in-forced by the cottage owner through court.
3) The thatcher could have bought professional indemnity insurance to delegate the risk to a third party.
4) The thatcher could have signed the contract on time and materials basis, explicitly leaving the risk of additional work with the cottage owner. In this case it would only be right for the thatcher to let someone else assess the damage for the customer to avoid the conflict of interests.
5) Finally the thatcher could have done the work on project basis charging more for the risk he takes and then hope that over a series of engagements he will still be able to make profit. As a variation he could have specified a contingency within his initial estimate agreeing with the customer that the contingency can only be exercised based on customer discretion should additional work becomes apparent upon stripping.
The problem here is lack of generic project management skills and experience on the thatcher's side and specifically estimation, contract and risk management.