Cost Plus • 

Cost Plus is straightforward in principle: a markup percentage applied on top of a resource rate. But adding that capability to a platform where pricing logic runs through rate cards, client settings, scopes, fixed fees, and deliverable configurations meant touching almost every connected part of the product at once. Getting it right required understanding not just what to build, but in what order.

There was no written brief, just a clear product intention. Cost Plus was part of SCOPE Better’s broader Anyway Pricing strategy: the ambition to give agencies every pricing model they needed inside one platform, from standard rate cards to timeline-based scoping to scenario pricing. Cost Plus was a foundational piece of that vision, and it needed to integrate cleanly into what already existed rather than sit alongside it awkwardly.

Before any design work, I mapped the full user flow to understand every part of the platform this feature would touch and how the logic would need to behave differently depending on context. That map was reviewed and approved before moving forward, a deliberate decision to make sure the design was grounded in the platform’s actual capabilities before committing to a direction.

I structured the work in three phases. First, the overall user flow, mapping every touchpoint and getting alignment on the logic before designing anything. Second, the use cases, defining the specific scenarios that needed to work: fixed fees with roles and hours editable, fixed fees with roles and hours not editable, scope by role with Cost Plus applied at rate card level. Third, complete flows for each use case, including any adjustments needed to existing screens to accommodate the new feature without disrupting what was already there.

The most significant constraint came from the client page. The original intention was to allow Cost Plus to be configured at the client level, giving agencies the flexibility to apply different markups per client. Engineering flagged that querying Cost Plus from the client page would cause performance issues, so we descoped it. Cost Plus was implemented at rate card level only, which kept the logic clean and the system stable. It was a trade-off between flexibility and performance, and the right call given where the platform was at the time.

The feature covered every relevant scenario: rate cards with Cost Plus enabled or not, fixed fees with and without roles and hours, and the ability to turn Cost Plus on and off at scope level. Permission logic was built in throughout; only the right users could configure, edit, or override values depending on their role.

Adoption was strong — this was a period when SCOPE Better was bringing on new clients, and Cost Plus was one of the capabilities that made the platform viable for agencies with more complex pricing structures. No specific metrics, but the commercial momentum at the time was the clearest signal the feature was landing well.

The work was in understanding every place the logic needed to reach, and making sure it behaved consistently across all of them.