Service
Outcome Underwriting
An outcome that cannot be underwritten cannot be honestly sold — and most of what crosses this desk cannot be underwritten.
The work
What the work actually is.
The result priced before it is pursued: prize, baseline, attribution, and a written verdict.
Hourly firms can take any engagement, because hours carry no risk; the intake question is “can we staff it,” and the answer is always yes. A firm paid on results asks a harder question first: can this outcome be defined in one falsifiable sentence, measured against a baseline both sides will sign, and attributed to the work rather than the tide? When the answer is no, no fee structure fixes it — the engagement is a dispute with a start date.
Underwriting is the discipline of answering before anyone is paid. The prize is sized: what the outcome is worth, to whom, on what horizon. The edge is tested: does the firm control enough of the causal chain to own the result, or would it be renting credit for other people’s work? Then the engagement is scored against the firm’s seven-criterion selection rubric: size of prize, edge and control, attribution clarity, counterparty quality, convexity, strategic value, doctrine fit. The score is shared, not summarized.
The practice is built to decline most of what crosses the desk — and the declining is the product working. A firm that eats its own underwriting mistakes learns to make fewer of them; a firm that bills for its mistakes learns to repeat them. Clients the firm declines get the reasons in writing — often worth more than the engagement would have been.
Deliverables
What you keep.
- Outcome definition
- The result in one falsifiable sentence — the number, the date, the owner. The sentence the whole contract hangs from.
- Baseline memorandum
- Where the number stands today, measured how, from which sources — drafted for signature before any work begins.
- Selection scorecard
- The engagement scored against the firm’s seven-criterion rubric, with the scoring shown — shared, not summarized.
- Underwriting verdict
- Take, restructure, or decline — in writing, with reasons. A declined engagement keeps its memo.
Getting started
One underwriting session on the outcome that matters most: the prize sized, the baseline drafted, attribution traced to the moves that would produce it — and the firm’s take-or-decline verdict in writing.
The practice
The rest of Outcome Engineering.
- Outcome Engineering overview
- Incentive & Contract Design Fee structures engineered so the firm is paid because you won — success, gainshare, equity, milestones.
- Instrumentation & Verification The measurement machinery an outcome fee stands on: locked baselines, verified value, audit rights.
- The Operating Cadence The weekly rhythm that keeps an outcome engagement on the rails — drift named early, exit designed from the start.
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