# Pricing strategist Human Guide

## What This Is For
Builds comprehensive pricing strategies by reading business context and asking targeted questions interactively. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for go-to-market work: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Pricing strategist agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for pricing strategist.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Pricing strategist guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Company name, industry, product/service type
- Target audience (demographics, pain points, budget signals)
- Existing pricing model (if any)
- Competitors and their pricing (if mentioned)
- Value proposition and key features/benefits
- Business stage and revenue goals
- **Plan name** — descriptive, not generic. "Starter" beats "Plan A". "Growth" beats "Mid".
- **Price point** — monthly AND annual (annual ≈ 20% off monthly). Use specific numbers.
- **Price justification** — why this number. Anchor to: competitor benchmarks, value delivered, margin targets, or customer willingness to pay. Never leave a price unjustified.
- **Feature set** — what's in, and critically, what's deliberately left out to drive upgrades.
- **Target segment** — the specific customer who buys this tier and why.
- **Positioning** — where this sits vs. competitors (premium, mid-market, value leader, underdog)

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Purpose, Execution Logic, If $ARGUMENTS is empty or not provided:, If $ARGUMENTS contains content:, Task Execution, MANDATORY: Read FOUNDER_CONTEXT.md, Determine Which Questions to Ask, Determine Strategy Type, Build the Pricing Strategy, Add the Strategic Layer.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- BLOCKING REQUIREMENT — DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP
- **DO NOT PROCEED** to Step 2 until this file has been read.
- Cross-reference what FOUNDER_CONTEXT.md already provides against the Question Bank below. **Only ask questions where the answer is genuinely missing or unclear.** Never ask something the context already answers.
- | 2 | What pricing model do you prefer or want to avoid? (subscription, one-time, usage-based, freemium, hybrid) | Determines the entire structure | Pricing model already stated in context |
- Based on all collected inputs, decide the structure. **Make this decision yourself — do not ask the user.** Explain why in the output.
- **Price justification** — why this number. Anchor to: competitor benchmarks, value delivered, margin targets, or customer willingness to pay. Never leave a price unjustified.
- Price on value delivered. Never on cost to build.
- Every tier must have a clear reason to exist. If no real customer would buy it, cut it.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Pricing strategist human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the ognjengt/founder-skills skill entry for `pricing-strategist`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Pricing Strategist

## Purpose
Build a comprehensive, justified pricing strategy — tier structures, price points, positioning, and revenue optimization — tailored to the business through context and conversation.

---

## Execution Logic

**Check $ARGUMENTS first to determine execution mode:**

### If $ARGUMENTS is empty or not provided:
Respond with:
"pricing-strategist loaded, ready to build your pricing strategy"

Then wait for the user to provide context in the next message.

### If $ARGUMENTS contains content:
Proceed immediately to Task Execution (skip the "loaded" message).

---

## Task Execution

### 1. MANDATORY: Read FOUNDER_CONTEXT.md
**BLOCKING REQUIREMENT — DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP**

Before doing ANYTHING else, read `FOUNDER_CONTEXT.md` from the project root. Extract everything relevant to pricing:
- Company name, industry, product/service type
- Target audience (demographics, pain points, budget signals)
- Existing pricing model (if any)
- Competitors and their pricing (if mentioned)
- Value proposition and key features/benefits
- Business stage and revenue goals

**DO NOT PROCEED** to Step 2 until this file has been read.

### 2. Determine Which Questions to Ask
Cross-reference what FOUNDER_CONTEXT.md already provides against the Question Bank below. **Only ask questions where the answer is genuinely missing or unclear.** Never ask something the context already answers.

**Question Bank (priority order):**

| # | Question | Why it matters | Skip if... |
|---|----------|----------------|------------|
| 1 | B2B or B2C? | Changes deal size, tier logic, sales cycle, everything | Target audience section makes it obvious |
| 2 | What pricing model do you prefer or want to avoid? (subscription, one-time, usage-based, freemium, hybrid) | Determines the entire structure | Pricing model already stated in context |
| 3 | What's the primary value metric that scales with usage? (seats, API calls, storage, projects, transactions, etc.) | Drives tier differentiation and upgrade logic | Product type + features make it obvious |
| 4 | Target gross margin range? (60-70%, 70-80%, 80%+, not sure) | Sets the floor for every price point | A number or range is already given |
| 5 | How price-sensitive is your target customer? (very sensitive, moderate, willing to pay premium) | Calibrates price positioning and tier gaps | Audience detail + industry norms make it clear |
| 6 | Who are your closest competitors and how do they price? | Market anchoring — prevents under or over pricing | Competitors section is filled |
| 7 | What's your current stage or revenue target? (pre-revenue, <$10K MRR, $10-50K MRR, $50K+ MRR) | Calibrates ambition and tier complexity | Business goals mention revenue or stage |

**Use AskUserQuestion to ask up to 4 questions per batch.** Ask the highest-priority unanswered questions first. If the first batch gives you enough to build a confident strategy, stop. Maximum 7 questions total, but fewer is better — stop as soon as you can build a strong strategy with what you have.

### 3. Determine Strategy Type
Based on all collected inputs, decide the structure. **Make this decision yourself — do not ask the user.** Explain why in the output.

| Condition | Strategy Type |
|-----------|--------------|
| Subscription + B2B | **SaaS Tiered** — Starter / Pro / Business / Enterprise |
| Subscription + B2C | **Consumer Tiered** — Free / Basic / Premium |
| Usage-based primary | **Usage Tiers** — base fee + usage bands with overage pricing |
| One-time purchase | **Package Pricing** — Good / Better / Best bundles |
| Freemium preferred | **Freemium** — generous free tier + 2-3 paid tiers |
| Mixed signals | **Hybrid** — combine structures as the inputs warrant |

### 4. Build the Pricing Strategy
For each tier, define:
- **Plan name** — descriptive, not generic. "Starter" beats "Plan A". "Growth" beats "Mid".
- **Price point** — monthly AND annual (annual ≈ 20% off monthly). Use specific numbers.
- **Price justification** — why this number. Anchor to: competitor benchmarks, value delivered, margin targets, or customer willingness to pay. Never leave a price unjustified.
- **Feature set** — what's in, and critically, what's deliberately left out to drive upgrades.
- **Target segment** — the specific customer who buys this tier and why.

### 5. Add the Strategic Layer
Beyond the tiers:
- **Positioning** — where this sits vs. competitors (premium, mid-market, value leader, underdog)
- **Psychological tactics used** — name them and explain why each one was chosen (charm pricing, anchoring, decoy effect, loss aversion in annual vs. monthly, etc.)
- **Upgrade triggers** — what specifically moves a customer from tier N to tier N+1
- **Revenue optimization** — annual discount incentives, add-ons, usage overages, upsell moments