How to scope an MVP that ships in six weeks at a fixed price
The one-outcome rule, what belongs in v1, and the questions we ask on the scoping call.
Fixed-price product builds get a bad name because the scope was never fixed — it was a wish list with a number attached. A six-week MVP is possible when it is scoped around one outcome, one user and one workflow, with everything else explicitly deferred. Here is the scoping method we use before we quote.
The one-outcome rule
Write the outcome as a sentence a customer would say: 'I can submit a claim and see its status without calling anyone.' If you need 'and' more than once, you have two products. Pick the one that earns money or saves time first.
What belongs in v1
Authentication, the one core workflow end to end, an admin view of it, billing if anyone pays in v1, transactional email, and the security basics. That is the whole list. Reporting, roles, integrations beyond the first and mobile come in v2 unless the outcome is impossible without them.
What we ask on the scoping call
Who uses it on day one and how many of them. What they use today and what breaks. Which systems it must read from or write to. What 'done' looks like in one screen. What must never happen (data, compliance, tone). When it needs to be live and why that date.
How the price is set
The scope above becomes a written statement of work with acceptance tests for each item. The price is fixed against that document; a change to the document is a change order with its own price, agreed before work continues. Nothing is billed by the hour.
How the six weeks run
Week one: data model, auth and the skeleton of the workflow, demoed. Weeks two to four: the workflow to acceptance, with a running version every week. Week five: billing, admin, email, security pass, test suite. Week six: your data, your domain, go-live, documentation.
After launch
You own the repo, the infrastructure and the deploy scripts. Stay on a monthly retainer for the next outcome, or run it yourself; either way the code and the documentation are written so that a competent engineer can take over.
This is how Drapto and Quotarider were scoped internally, one outcome at a time, without outside capital. Send the outcome sentence to enquiry@xdqlabs.com and you will get a scope and a price within two working days — see AI-Powered Software Delivery for what is included.
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Want this built for your company?
A short brief to enquiry@xdqlabs.com gets a scope and a fixed price within two working days — or a straight answer that it isn't a fit.