Article
Why Micro-Engagements are Essential in 2025
June 11, 2025
The market has changed, and clients’ needs have changed accordingly. Clients want more for less and they want it quicker than ever, with flexibility to pivot as needed, and without committing to a long-term contract. No matter where you land in the consulting/agency environment, you’ve probably noticed this lately. It’s not just anecdotal evidence, it’s a trend .
I’ve seen and heard of all sorts of hamfisted counters to these requests; tighter SOWs that protect against unexpected pivots, or, conversely, staff augmentation that shifts accountability to the client for said pivots. Most common, though, is discounting if the client signs a long-term contract right out of the gates. The problem is that these solutions are short-sighted, lack creativity, and detract from the full value that working with an outside partner can provide. More importantly, none of them address the underlying issue: trust.
Data-driven, AI-powered strategies have shifted from nice-to-have to non-negotiable as global economic uncertainty and the high cost of money have tightened budgets, so can you blame clients for their position? In volatile environments, people rarely take risks. Corporations even less so . Procurement teams close their roster to new vendors, CEOs adopt the “nobody got fired for hiring McKinsey” strategy, and budget holders everywhere wait until the last quarter to spend that use-it-or-lose-it money. This isn’t just about the success of a project, your client’s job could be on the line. This is why chopping rates is a weak solution. Sure, it raises a client’s potential ROI, but it doesn’t make them trust you’ll get the job done.
Some have employed results-based pricing. In theory, it’s perfect. It protects a client against the risk of an ineffective engagement and it can be lucrative for an agency that delivers. The problem, though, is that effective results-based contracts require deep information sharing, multiparty agreement on the selection and measurement of KPIs, robust accountability frameworks, and a long contracting process. This might work with a long-time partner, but good luck getting that set up on a first engagement.
Enter the micro-engagement
Micro-engagements are typically a starting point that leads directly into a bigger project or a smaller version of the full thing. Strategy workshops, audits of existing experiences, and benchmarking assessments comprise much of the former. The latter often include ideation workshops and design or innovation sprints. Depending on the situation, micro-engagements can be proportionally priced or they can even be offered as an investment into a relationship.
Many firms don’t like to offer micro-engagements. The general consensus is that the margins are lower, they result in less stability for the business, and the costs of selling them are disproportionately high. These can be true, but are short-sighted.
Versions of micro-engagements exist in just about every industry, almost all of which have more sophisticated pricing strategies than the archaic professional services sector. Free trials for subscriptions, samples at grocery stores, friendly return policies, test drives for cars, the list goes on. Would you have really bought that spanakopita from Costco if they didn’t give you a paper cup of it first? Imagine walking into a Mercedes dealership unsure if you wanted to make such a big purchase, and the salesperson said “Well, we don’t allow people to test drive or even sit in the cars, but I can offer you a 2% discount.” Would you buy that car? So why would you expect a client to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new partnership?
Micro-engagements are good for everyone
A micro-engagement can pay huge dividends for a client, especially a new one. The most obvious benefit is that they can gain a tangible, valuable output that points their team in the right direction. Furthermore, it can help secure internal investment to unlock or accelerate a key initiative, minimize risk of locking themselves into a bad contract, and even save time on subsequent engagements by aligning expectations and helping everyone understand who needs to be involved to ensure success.
Micro-engagements aren’t just good for the client, they’re good for the vendor, too. These initial interactions foster deeper knowledge sharing, which sets up subsequent workstreams for greater success. They also allow for mutual vetting, thereby reducing risk. Oftentimes, consulting firms miss potential client red flags due to the very one-sided nature of the proposal process. Most of all, micro-engagements increase the chance of a subsequent (much larger) partnership while ensuring a happier customer. There’s a reason other industries employ this strategy in spades. It works .
At Livefront , an end-to-end digital product consulting firm, we’ve leaned into micro-engagements for all of these reasons and more. Our average client tenure is over six years, and — surprise! — these relationships all started small and we built trust from there. Our most recent client survey showed that our NPS is 89, and 100% of our clients voted that they trust Livefront to support their goals, do what we say we’ll do, and deliver successfully.
We often explore how we might kick off relationships through micro-engagements that deliver quick results and establish trust. Examples of these include but are not limited to:
- Innovation Sprints to rapidly develop and test new ideas
- UX Audits to identify usability issues and areas for improvement
- Technical health assessments to ensure functionality aligns with user expectations
- Accessibility audits to guarantee compliance and enhance UX for everyone
- Platform evaluation to assess the strengths and weaknesses of software or hardware systems, and more.
If you’re an innovative digital product leader and you need results, get in touch . We won’t make you blindly trust us — we’ll prove it first.
