InputRewards time
Thing of the pastBilled by the hour
You pay for effort.
Hours billed. Number of resources deployed. A bigger project means a bigger spend, without a shared stake in what it changes.
ImpactIndex™ / Outcome-based billing
Pay for impact.
When anyone can build software, what matters is building the right thing and building the thing right, ensuring it moves the needle.
01 / The problem
Billing is broken.
Most businesses pay for hours worked, team size and features delivered, then carry the full risk of turning that work into business results. They still have to justify the spend. What if your technology partner shared responsibility for ensuring ROI?
OutputRewards delivery
Legacy modelShipped is not done
You pay for features.
Story points taken up. Features built. A faster launch means a faster invoice. Whether any of it changes your business is still yours to prove.
OutcomeOwnership of change
You pay for outcomes.
Adoption. Productivity. Revenue. Agreed business KPIs. Part of our fee is tied to the change you see in your business. You say, “Yes, this was worth it.”
Skin in the game
We hold part of our fee until your proof is verified.
AI has changed the economics
If AI does the work, what are you paying for?
AI can accelerate software development and ship in weeks not quarters, and this is table-stakes today. What ImpactIndex™ protects you from is spending for the time that’s ticking, without necessarily proving value or earning a retainer. We empower our customers to pay us by the proportion of change you see in their business.
02 / Three proofs, one commitment
Ship. Stick. Win.
Working software is the first proof. People using it is the next. Business changing visibly is the final proof. Scroll through how each earns its share.
01 / SHIP
It works in the real world.
The solution is deployed, meets the agreed acceptance criteria and is ready for people to use.
- Functional scope accepted
- Speed, stability and security checked
- Release ready for production
Fee connectionBaseline commitment for delivery
02 / STICK
People make it part of their day.
The solution reaches its target users, who use it and come back to it over and over.
- Agreed users and cohort defined
- Activation and repeat usage measured
- Adoption milestone verified together
Fee connectionAdoption tranche released on verified usage
03 / WIN
You can feel the change in your business.
The KPI improves against its baseline, measured within the time window both teams agreed on.
- Business baseline established
- Productivity, cost or growth measured
- KPI movement reviewed and validated
Fee connectionOutcome tranche released on validated impact
03 / Shared accountability
Agree on what success looks like, before signing.
During the early discovery phases, both teams define the vision, goals and targets, what to measure and how, before building begins.
01
Outcome.
Visualize the business change and how the future state would feel like.
02
Baseline.
Establish the starting point, the as-is state with measured values.
03
Responsibilities.
Make dependencies and each team’s contribution explicit.
04
Measurement.
Track agreed KPIs through transparent dashboards and structured reviews.
05
Fee release.
Validate the milestone together and release its agreed fee tranche.
04 / See how it works
Tick a milestone to release the fee.
Mark a milestone as done and see the fee unlock. The work moves from delivered to adopted to business changed.
Released against verified proofs
$60,000
60% of the example fee
Awaiting further proof$40,000
05 / Choose your measures
What should improve?
Start where your business currently is. Agree on a meaningful change you can measure.
01
I’m a Startup
Activation, Repeat Use, Revenue
02
I’m scaling a business
Productivity, Efficiency, Costs
03
I’m an Enterprise
Adoption, SAT/NPS, Profit
04
I’m running AI Pilots
Production-readiness, Speed, Accuracy
06 / From the creators
Built by people who build.
Created by Codewave, drawing on more than a decade of building products with startups, enterprises and public-sector teams.
“If we tie our success to our client’s success, everyone wins.”
Abhijith HKFounder & Head of AI, Codewave
“Every dollar a client invests is connected to tangible, measurable change.”
Vidhya AbhijithFounder & Head of Design, Codewave
A few useful questions
Make the agreement clear.
Is there a fixed fee split?
No. The balance between delivery, adoption and business outcomes depends on your stage, how far the business has been validated and what both teams can reliably measure. We agree on the mix for each engagement. The 30 / 30 / 40 split above is only an example.
How do we decide which KPIs count?
During discovery, both teams define the business goal, baseline, target users, data sources and review intervals. A useful KPI can be measured consistently and connected to the change the solution is intended to support.
What if other factors influence the outcome?
Make those factors part of the agreement. Dependencies, client responsibilities and the review process need to be explicit so changes can be assessed together. The commercial terms determine how exceptions are handled.
How does this apply to AI projects?
AI can compress execution time, while adoption and business impact still need proof. Choose measures such as workflow adoption, task completion or productivity gains, alongside the quality and acceptance requirements relevant to the use case.
Can other teams use the framework?
ImpactIndex™ is presented as an open, community-driven framework. Practitioners can contribute KPI templates, measurement methods and lessons from outcome-based engagements. Talk with Codewave about participation and application.
Open framework / Community driven
Let’s make
impact count.
Bring a business challenge. Together, we can define the change worth building for and the proof that will tell us it worked.
Define your first outcome01 / Start
Start with a change that matters.
Choose a meaningful change and define the outcomes that will prove its value.
02 / Measure
Explicitly define signals you’ll watch.
Set simple, clear measures that show whether you're making progress.
03 / Refer
Refer someone who can benefit from this.
Share your experience and help more teams align technology investment with impact.
Created by Codewave. Open to the people building what comes next.
Contribute to the framework