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name: pricing-strategy description: "Structure pricing strategy decisions, packaging options, and tier design for SaaS and digital products. Use when reviewing or setting pricing, designing pricing tiers, evaluating freemium vs paid, or preparing a pricing change. Produces a pricing strategy recommendation with model rationale, tier structure, competitive positioning, and rollout plan."

Pricing Strategy Skill

Build pricing that reflects value delivered — not cost to build. Structure every pricing decision with customer segmentation, value metric identification, competitive context, and a packaging recommendation.

Pricing Foundations

Three questions to answer before any pricing decision:

1. Who is our buyer? (Role, company size, willingness to pay)
2. What value do we deliver? (Quantifiable outcome — time saved, revenue generated, risk reduced)
3. What is our pricing model? (Per seat, usage-based, flat, hybrid)

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Pricing Models

Model	Best For	Risk
Per Seat	Collaboration tools, team software	Disincentivises adoption as team grows
Usage-Based	APIs, infrastructure, consumption tools	Revenue unpredictability for both sides
Flat Rate	Simple tools, early-stage	Leaves money on table from power users
Tiered	Products with clear user segments	Feature gatekeeping frustrates users
Freemium	Viral/PLG products with low marginal cost	Conversion to paid is hard to engineer
Value-Based	Enterprise, outcomes-driven products	Requires strong ROI story

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Freemium Decision Framework

Use freemium when:

• ✅ Marginal cost per free user is near zero
• ✅ Product is inherently viral (network effects or sharing)
• ✅ Free tier creates genuine value (not just a demo)
• ✅ Clear upgrade trigger exists (feature, volume, or team size)
• ✅ Conversion benchmark is realistic (2–5% free-to-paid is typical)

Avoid freemium when:

• ❌ Support cost per free user is high
• ❌ No natural upgrade trigger in the product
• ❌ Core value requires features you'd need to gate

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Packaging / Tiering Framework

Recommended 3-tier structure for SaaS:

Tier	Target	Price Signal	Key Features	Lock-in Mechanism
Free / Starter	Individual, early discovery	$0	Core value, usage-limited	Invite colleagues, export limit
Pro / Growth	SMB, growing teams	$[X]/seat/mo	Full features, higher limits	Team collaboration, integrations
Business / Enterprise	Mid-market, enterprise	$[X]/seat/mo or custom	Admin, SSO, SLAs, dedicated support	Security, compliance, volume

Tier design rules:

• Each tier should be genuinely sufficient for its target segment
• The upgrade trigger should be felt naturally — not manufactured
• Price jumps of 3–5x between tiers are normal and defensible

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Competitive Pricing Context

Competitor	Model	Price	Key Differentiator
[Name]	[Model]	[Price]	[What they lead with]

Positioning options:

• Premium: Price 20–40% above market. Justify with enterprise features, support, or brand.
• Parity: Match the market leader. Win on product or distribution.
• Value: Price below market. Win on volume. Dangerous without strong unit economics.

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Output Format

Pricing Strategy Recommendation — [Product] — [Date]

Current State: [What pricing exists today, if any] Problem to Solve: [Why pricing is being reviewed]

Recommended Pricing Model: [Model name + rationale]

Value Metric: [The single unit that scales with customer value — e.g., "active users", "API calls", "documents processed"]

Proposed Tiers:

[Table using 3-tier structure above]

Free-to-Paid Upgrade Trigger: [Specific moment or threshold that creates natural upgrade pressure]

Competitive Position: [Premium / Parity / Value + reasoning]

Pricing Change Rollout (if applicable):

• Grandfathering: [Yes / No — recommendation and rationale]
• Communication plan: [How to tell customers + timing]
• Rollback plan: [Under what conditions you'd revert]

Risks:

• [Risk] → Mitigation: [Action]

Metrics to Monitor Post-Change:

• Conversion rate (free to paid)
• Churn rate by tier
• Average revenue per user (ARPU)
• Expansion revenue

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Required Inputs

Work from what is given. If any of these is missing, still produce the complete output: fill each gap with a reasonable assumption marked (assumed, confirm) and list those assumptions at the end. Ask a question first only when the core subject itself is missing (there is nothing to write about).

• Product or service being priced
• Current pricing (if any — and why it's being reviewed)
• Target customer segments (size, role, willingness to pay)
• Key competitors and their pricing (if known)
• Business model (SaaS / Marketplace / Usage-based / Other)
• Primary goal (grow adoption / increase ARPU / reduce churn / new market entry)

Deeper Materials

• references/model-selection.md — the model-selection decision tree and the regrets table from each model's veterans

Quality Checks

• Value metric is defined (the unit that scales with customer value)
• Free-to-paid upgrade trigger is specific (not "when they need more")
• Competitive positioning is chosen and justified (premium / parity / value)
• Pricing change rollout plan includes grandfathering decision
• Counter-metrics are defined to catch perverse incentives
• Risks have specific mitigations (not just listed)

Anti-Patterns

• Do not base pricing solely on cost-plus — pricing must reflect value delivered to the customer
• Do not design tiers where the middle tier is clearly worse value — it undermines trust and pushes customers to extremes
• Do not change pricing without a migration plan for existing customers — surprise price changes cause churn
• Do not set enterprise pricing as "contact us" without a floor — it deters self-serve evaluation and qualification
• Do not skip competitive positioning — pricing in isolation from the market is incomplete strategy

Guidelines

• Never price based on cost — price based on value delivered to the customer
• Always A/B test price changes where possible; use geographic holdouts if A/B isn't feasible
• Recommend annual pricing with 15–20% discount — improves cash flow and reduces churn
• If enterprise pricing is "contact us", recommend adding a price floor to qualify inbound

Example Trigger Phrases

• "Set pricing."
• "Design pricing tiers."
• "Evaluate freemium vs paid."
• "Prepare a pricing change."