Why we charge for Discovery

Agencies skip diagnosis entirely. They ask enough questions to write a proposal and send over a timeline and a number. It feels like progress. It isn't.

We charge for discovery before any project starts.

Free discovery means no discovery

When an agency doesn't charge for a diagnostic phase, they're not offering it for free. They're just not doing it at all. The understanding of your situation goes only as deep as the proposal requires, which means it stops exactly where their commercial interest begins.

An agency that earns its fees from the project that follows diagnosis has every incentive to reach a conclusion quickly.

The proposal that arrives on day one is a warning sign

You speak to an agency. They listen, ask some questions, and come back within the week with scope and a number. It feels decisive. It feels like they've done this before.

They have. That's the problem.

What looks like confidence is pattern recognition. They've seen something that looks like your situation, and they're applying the same answer. The proposal is fast because the thinking stopped early. Speed here is a signal that they've stopped asking questions.

Sometimes it works out. Often it doesn't. By the time you find out, you're six months in.

Clarity isn't a quote

Paying for a diagnosis can feel like paying for a quote.

A quote tells you what something costs. It assumes the scope is understood and the only remaining question is price.

Clarity, our diagnostic phase, tells you what's actually going on. It identifies the real constraint, whether that's the platform, the UX, the operations, or something else entirely. And it gives you a sequence. Conflating the two leads to expensive projects that solve the wrong problem.

Where Clarity leads to a project with us, we offset the cost against it. You're paying for the diagnosis first, before you commit to anything larger. If the diagnosis concludes that a major project isn't the right move, you've spent a fraction of what that project would have cost to find out before it started.

The Clarity fee is fixed regardless of what we find. We're paid for the diagnosis itself. The offset just means you're not charged twice for the same work if you go on to build with us.

“If we do it with you, we'd have to do it with everyone”

This objection assumes Clarity is something you'd run with every agency during evaluation. It isn't.

Clarity replaces running five agencies through a pitch and choosing the best presentation.

You wouldn't run Clarity with five agencies. You'd run it with one, after you've decided they're worth working with and before the scope is set.

What Clarity is

Clarity is our structured diagnostic phase — paid, with a fixed scope. It's how every Strawberry engagement begins. Find out how it works.

The agency that skips diagnosis is being optimistic on your behalf.

When it goes wrong, you pay the cost.