Gold plating

Adding extra features, polish, or effort to a deliverable beyond what the client asked for or is paying for — often initiated by the agency's own team, not the client.

Example

A designer adds a fully custom icon set and micro-animations to a website that was only scoped and quoted for a standard template build, because they thought it would look better.

Why it matters for agencies

Unlike client-driven scope creep, gold plating is self-inflicted — it doesn't show up as a client request to flag, so it can't be change-ordered after the fact. Catching it means a team culture where "is this in scope?" is asked before extra work starts, not just when a client asks for something extra.