---
title: "Why we don't do change orders — X Gravity"
description: "A fixed scope pretends you can know everything on day one. You can't."
url: https://xgravity.co/field-notes/why-we-dont-do-change-orders.html
---

[Field Notes](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/) · By X Gravity

# Why we don't do change orders

A fixed scope pretends you can know everything on day one. You can't.

Every agency project starts the same way: a scope document that lists everything you'll get, a price, and a date. It feels safe. Then the project starts, and reality shows up.

Halfway through the website, you realize the booking flow should come first. Two weeks into the brand, a customer interview changes the positioning. The app prototype shows that nobody needs half the features, and one nobody thought of is the whole point.

In a fixed-scope world, every one of those discoveries becomes a change order: a new estimate, a new negotiation, a delay. The project gets more expensive exactly when it's getting better, so the incentive is to ignore good ideas. That's backwards.

## How we work instead

1.  **We map it together** and agree what comes first.
2.  **You get an honest estimate** of how long it'll take and roughly what it'll cost.
3.  **You pay one flat monthly rate** while we work, one project at a time, until it's done.
4.  **When a better idea shows up, we follow it.** If that pushes the timeline, you hear it early, with the options.

Scopes can't predict the best ideas. We'd rather follow them than invoice for them.

## "So how many hours do I get?"

We don't sell hours, because the moment you buy hours you start counting them, and we start defending them. Some weeks are heads-down sprints; others are review weeks while you test. The project never stalls. Keeping it moving is our job.

[Next noteWhat owning your own tools really costs](https://xgravity.co/field-notes/what-owning-your-tools-really-costs.html)