How FDE Outcomes Are Measured and Contracted | Engineering Hours as Investment, Not Billing
An FDE's engineering hours are investment, not revenue. That claim only holds if outcomes are measured and contracts are structured differently from contract development. The ninth article in our FDE practice series covers measuring outcomes by the person's day rather than by technical metrics, the ratios that show whether hours per customer are falling, a contract built on a time box, outcome metrics, and exit conditions rather than fixed scope or billable hours, and where the learning belongs: patterns to the product, branches to the customer, dictionary contents to the customer. It draws on a16z, first-hand Palantir accounts, the AWS and FIS announcements, and the distinction between contract-for-work and quasi-mandate in Japanese civil law. This is the contractual line between a contractor who earns more the longer they stay and an FDE who creates more value the sooner they leave.