[RicoElectrico]

Maybe the problem you're trying to solve shouldn't exist in the first place. It seems that people-y professions (as opposed to technical ones) such as law, sales etc. are really keen on setting unreasonable expectations. Most of the SW industry at least heard of the mythical man-month.

[adrianparlow]

There's been a lot of talk about lawyers shifting off the billable hour model and towards value-based billing. We think fixed fee models will take many years to saturate the market, but things are definitely heading in that direction (esp. for simple / repeatable projects)

[mikepurvis]

Having recently paid a lawyer a bunch of money for a divorce, I expect it's a bit of a double-edged sword. They benefit from clients not wanting to waste time and money peppering them with useless questions and updates, but at the same time a legal proceeding is kind of like a disease— the longer it goes on the worse it gets, and so there is benefit to everyone in being able to get questions reliably and conclusively answered early in the process. A model where you were paying for an end result could well provide better end results, assuming the service provider (lawyer) still retained some mechanism to protect themselves from becoming their client's emotional support system.