Scope Creep Examples — Web design
A feature that was never in the proposal
The proposal scoped a marketing site. Midway through, the client asks for a member login area — a different kind of project that was never discussed or priced.
The signed proposal is explicit: a public marketing site, five pages, no accounts or logins. Three weeks in, the client mentions in a review call that they'll also need a members-only resources area where logged-in users see gated content — said casually, as if it were part of the same project all along. It wasn't discussed at any point during scoping, and it isn't a variation on anything already quoted; it's a different kind of build (auth, permissions, a gated content model) layered onto a project that assumed none of that.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Out-of-scope clause→ — Defines what falls outside the agreed deliverables — and that anything outside them needs a separate change order before work starts.
Suggested change-order wording
Suggested change-order wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
A gated members area wasn't part of the scoped five-page marketing site in our agreement — it involves account creation, login, and permissions, which is a different kind of build. We'd love to help with it as a separate phase. I'll put together a proposal with timeline and pricing once you've had a chance to think through what the gated area needs to include.
How this usually resolves
Treating it as a distinct follow-on proposal rather than trying to price it inline on the call works best — a members area has enough of its own scoping questions (how many roles, what content, how are accounts created) that quoting it on the spot usually underprices it.
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