Follow the Money

Don't own a number you can't move. That way lies disappointment.

I've been asked to advise, a fair few times, whether someone should jump from IC (individual contributor) to Manager/VP at a young age. My advice is short. Follow the money. If you can't manage your own branch's budget, at least to some extent, refuse the responsibility at that level.

I didn't learn that from a book.

I've seen it happen (and felt it personally). You'd run hiring and firing, but you're not able to choose how much, nor how often, nor are even able to promote and demote outside of a specific micromanaged moveset. The first time a person you are responsible for (at least nominally) leaves because you couldn't give them their 20% due to some imagined budget constraints, is the first time this illusion dies. It only keeps on dying every time your "management fiat" is overruled.

It all works in a cruel way. Accountability without control is flooring the gas in a car without an engine. You press harder, the hill doesn't care. So you start managing the next best thing - how the numbers look. Reports. Explanations. Reviews that soften the situation.

Your title stays. The job is hollow.

That's what burns folks out. You can do the hours, but faking it every day gets to you.

Same trap, unexpected

Consulting has (nearly) the same trap, and it springs faster.

A consultant is hired to solve a mission, get an outcome. There's a problem, fix it. The bigger the problem, the bigger the fee (I like money).

A fixed fee is a promise about an outcome. I like fixed fees - the client knows the bill, I know what I'm solving. It also reduces the frustration where I'm supposed to "bill hours" against fantasies. It does require extra discipline, but that makes both sides happier.

But the outcome hangs on more than me, and plenty of it sits on the client's side of the table. Access. Decisions. Data. Who on their team has time this week. Who gets to say "done".

Credentials that show up two weeks late. The one person who can approve the schema, on holiday. A quick sync that needs three more people to be quick. None of it is malicious. All of it impacts your invoice.

If all that is theirs and the price is mine, I'm the VP without a budget again. Only now I'm not even paid a salary.

Count them before you quote

Before I put a number on anything, I list what the outcome depends on and who holds it. Boring list. Usually a short one.

For every lever on their side, there are three real options:

• Pull it into scope. I get the access, the decision rights, the person's calendar.
• Make it a dependency with a clock. If it doesn't arrive, the milestone pauses. While we wait, nobody's cost quietly grows/shrinks/goes sideways.
• Don't price the whole thing. I'll work with you for a day. It is the honest contract when I can't pull the levers.

What I don't do is quote a fixed number and hope.

Follow the money, again. The client is spending the money to achieve something, find that something. Find the real motivation and you'll find that levers start moving.

Much like being powerless management gives you no future, landing a contract that doesn't have clear value behind it is a way to disappointment. For both you and your client.

When you can't see the levers, sell less

Most of the time you can't account for everything from the outside. Nobody knows who does the signature until something needs signing.

So I squeeze the promise until it covers what I control. One problem. One day.

We talk the problem through, poke at it, and find out which parts move and what we can't touch. You finish with something you can use - a fix, a written decision, or knowledge of who holds what. "Don't build this" counts, as well. Expensive work avoided is still work done.

It's the VP lesson, in a mirror. A day is small enough that there's no number I can be blamed for and can't touch. Every move is either mine, or written down as a dependency. Keep things crystal clear.

From the other side of the table

If you're buying, here's the question for anyone quoting you a fixed price: what do you need from us for this price to hold?

A good answer is a list. A shrug means they haven't thought about it yet. Well, if your problem's important for you (and it probably is), someone should think on all the roadblocks. That way's the money.

And if you can't see the problems yet, buy a day.

A day for a problem