https://x.com/daniel778753768/status/2076455054412820669?s=46

Design is paid for the result, not for the tools. When a client sends a brief and expects a design by Friday, I usually warn them: part of the week might go by before I even open Figma. First, I need to understand what we are doing and why. Who is the user? What problem are we solving? What happens if we don't build this feature at all? Often, this step shows that half of the plan isn't needed, or it solves the wrong problem. The client looks at the final file and thinks they paid for that — a few screens, neatly placed in frames. In reality, they paid for dozens of ideas that were rejected before the presentation, and for the decision not to build something that sounded good on a call but would have caused problems after launch. A design file is just a record of a decision, not the decision itself. Almost anyone can move blocks around in Figma. The hard part is knowing which blocks should be there in the first place. There is a difference between a designer who opens Figma right away and sends three options within an hour, and one who spends a week asking questions first. The first option looks faster and cheaper. But it's usually the one that gets redone two or three times later, because nobody checked if the design actually solves a real problem. So when I set a price for my work, I rarely think about the number of screens. I think about how many conversations, questions, and dead ends it will take before the final version is ready.