Why Discovery Is Free
We used to charge for the diagnostic. We don't anymore. Here's what actually kept it honest, why the fee wasn't it, and what changed when we dropped it.
We used to charge $2,500 for the diagnostic, the first step of a Function engagement. We don't anymore. Discovery is folded into the Fit Call and the build process, at no separate cost. Here's the reasoning behind the change, and why it doesn't undo what the fee was protecting against.
What the fee was actually for
Free consultations have a problem: when a consultation is free, it has to be paid for somewhere, and the somewhere is the engagement that follows. That gives whoever is running your "free assessment" a reason to find problems that match what their firm sells, size them generously, and keep the findings vague enough that you need them to interpret the roadmap.
We charged for the diagnostic to avoid becoming that. The logic was sound: pay for something, and you're owed a real deliverable instead of a sales pitch dressed as analysis.
What we got wrong
The fee did keep the diagnostic honest. What it didn't do was create that honesty by itself. Plenty of firms charge for discovery and still hand back a vague roadmap that only makes sense if you keep paying them. The fee was never the mechanism. The mechanism was what came out the other end: a fixed build price, stated in writing, before you'd committed to anything else.
Once we looked at it that way, charging for discovery stopped being the load-bearing part of the model. It was friction we'd added to solve a problem that a firm price already solved.
What actually prevents sales theater
A written, fixed price for the build, quoted before any code and before any further commitment, is what makes a diagnosis different from a pitch. You're not being sold an interpretation you have to trust. You're being handed a number you can hold us to.
You also keep the plan either way. If the system we scope is worth building, the price is on the table. If you'd rather build it in-house or with someone else, the plan still leaves with you. Nothing about removing the fee changed that. What changed is that finding out no longer costs you anything up front.
Why it's still fast and bounded
Dropping the fee didn't loosen the process. Discovery still runs one to two weeks inside the Fit Call and build engagement, still maps the actual workflows before anything gets scoped, and still ends in the same place: a decision-ready plan with a real price attached. The rigor was never the part we were charging for.
What this looks like in practice
Start with Function by Revuity. Gloria helps establish whether there is a fit and which service line applies. If Function is right, discovery happens next, still one to two weeks, still free, and it ends in a mapped workflow, a system shape, and a fixed build price you can act on with or without us.
No decks. No discovery theater. Just a plan and a price, without a toll on finding out what they are.