Pricing research skill

Gather evidence-based pricing data through structured methodologies. Produces willingness-to-pay ranges, price sensitivity curves, and competitive pricing intelligence that feed into /pricing-strategy for packaging decisions.

Inputs

Input	Required	Source
Product/feature to price	Yes	User specifies what's being priced
ICP profile	Recommended	/icp-research output
Competitor pricing data	Recommended	/competitor-research output or manual gathering
Current pricing (if exists)	Optional	User provides existing pricing
Target sample size	Optional	Default: 30-50 respondents per segment

Scope boundary

This skill produces research data. It answers "what are people willing to pay?" and "what does the market charge?"

It does NOT answer:

• How to package features into tiers (that's /pricing-strategy)
• How to structure a freemium vs. trial model (that's /pricing-strategy)
• How to design a pricing page (that's /landing-page-copy)
• Whether to do usage-based vs. seat-based (that's /pricing-strategy informed by this research)

Think of this as the evidence gathering that makes pricing-strategy decisions defensible instead of gut-feel.

Methodologies (overview)

Four methodologies are documented in the premium reference. Choose by goal:

Methodology	Best for	Sample size	Output
1. Van Westendorp PSM	Establishing acceptable price range from scratch	30-50 per segment	PMC / OPP / IDP / PME points + range
2. Gabor-Granger	Testing a shortlist of candidate prices	30-50 per segment	Demand curve + revenue-max price
3. Conjoint analysis	Pricing multi-feature products with modular packaging	200+	Per-attribute utility incl. price
4. Competitive intel	Mapping the market before primary research	Desk research	Competitive pricing matrix

Default starting point for B2B SaaS under $10M ARR: Van Westendorp + Gabor-Granger + competitive intel. That's 80% of the insight at 20% of the cost. Reach for conjoint only when packaging is genuinely complex.

Van Westendorp — the four questions (most-used pattern)

Present in this exact order:

1. Too cheap: "At what price would you consider [product] to be so inexpensive that you'd question its quality?"
2. Cheap (good value): "At what price would you consider [product] to be a bargain — a great buy for the money?"
3. Expensive (getting pricey): "At what price would you consider [product] to be starting to get expensive — not out of the question, but you'd have to think about it?"
4. Too expensive: "At what price would you consider [product] to be so expensive that you'd never consider buying it?"

The four cumulative-distribution intersections produce PMC (point of marginal cheapness), PME (point of marginal expensiveness), OPP (optimal price point), and IDP (indifference price point). Acceptable range = PMC→PME. Optimal zone = OPP→IDP. Full curve plotting + sample survey + practical notes: the premium reference.

When to use Gabor-Granger instead

You already have 3-5 candidate price points; you need a demand curve, not just a range; you want to estimate revenue impact of price changes; you're testing a price increase on existing customers.

Competitive pricing intel — do this first

Desk research before primary research, so you have context for interpreting WTP data. Public pricing pages + review sites + sales intelligence + indirect signals (ARPU implied from customer count + revenue). Track price points per tier, feature gates, billing options, pricing model, discounting signals.

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Anti-patterns

Don't do these:

• Asking WTP questions without qualifying respondents first. Non-buyers will skew your data low.
• Blending segments in analysis. Enterprise and SMB WTP data mixed together is useless.
• Treating survey data as ground truth. WTP research shows what people SAY they'd pay, not what they'll actually pay. Real prices are typically 10-20% lower than stated WTP.
• Ignoring competitive context. WTP in a vacuum means nothing. Buyers compare.
• Running pricing research once and treating it as permanent. Markets shift. Re-run annually or when entering new segments.
• Skipping value anchoring. If respondents don't understand the value before you ask about price, their answers are noise.
• Using this skill to make packaging decisions. This is research. Packaging is strategy. Use /pricing-strategy for that.
• Small sample overconfidence. Under 30 respondents, treat everything as directional, not definitive.

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Final ship gate

Run /premortem --output before ship. See /premortem skill for the 5 execution domains (will-it-resonate / will-it-convert / will-it-stay-on-brand / will-stakeholder-push-back / will-it-degrade-over-time) and output template.

Trivial-case escape: ## Premortem\nNo failure modes — trivial change satisfies the contract for genuinely trivial outputs.