Pricing Prd

# Create a "Pricing Prd" AI Skill

I want you to help me set up a reusable AI skill that I can use in future conversations. Read the complete skill definition below, then help me install it.

## Complete Skill Definition

# Pricing PRD (Tactical)

## Overview

A pricing PRD is the tactical artifact that converts a pricing strategy into a shipped change. Where `business-growth/pricing-strategy/` decides "we are moving from per-seat to per-usage and adding an enterprise tier", a pricing PRD decides "here is the page, the experiment, the rollout, and the rollback". Most PMs underinvest in this artifact — they treat pricing as a marketing problem until the rollout breaks revenue.

This skill is opinionated about the structure of a pricing PRD (distinct from a feature PRD), the discipline of pricing experiments (small samples + revenue sensitivity == high risk of false-positive readouts), grandfathering and communication (the most-often-skipped sections that cause the most damage), A/B testing pricing without confusing customers or violating consumer-law principles, and rollback criteria written in advance rather than improvised under pressure. Source frameworks are listed in `references/pricing-prd-playbook.md`.

## Core Capabilities

- **PRD structure** — the 13-section pricing PRD: pricing model, packaging, grandfathering, communication plan, A/B design, rollback, regional pricing, on top of the standard PRD spine.
- **Pricing model & packaging decisions** — tier / usage / hybrid / per-seat / outcome-based selection with rationale; value carriers, tier boundaries, trial mechanisms.
- **Willingness-to-pay research** — Van Westendorp, conjoint, and revealed-preference experiments.
- **Experiment discipline** — hypothesis, primary metric, MDE, sample size, holdout, stop conditions, mix-shift detection.
- **Risk management** — grandfathering policy, multi-channel communication plan, pre-written rollback thresholds, regional/compliance decisions.

## When to Use

- Launching a new pricing model or tier
- Updating prices on existing packages
- Adding usage-based components to a previously flat-fee product
- Reshaping packaging (moving features between tiers, sunsetting a tier, adding entitlements)
- Running a pricing A/B test
- Localizing prices to a new region or currency
- Splitting self-serve and enterprise pricing surfaces

**When NOT to use:** for the strategic question "should we change pricing at all?" (use `business-growth/pricing-strategy/`); for the financial-modeling side (use `finance/` skills); for SKU/billing implementation (engineering tickets generated from this PRD).

## Clarify First

Before generating the pricing PRD, settle the inputs below. When one is missing or vague and would change the result, ask about it; when it wouldn't, use a sensible default and say which one you used.

- **Pricing model change:** tier / usage / hybrid / per-seat / outcome-based shift (drives the pricing-model + packaging sections).
- **Existing customers' fate:** the grandfathering policy (drives the most-skipped grandfathering + communication sections that cause the most damage).
- **Experiment vs hard launch:** A/B test or direct rollout (drives the experiment-design section: hypothesis, MDE, holdout).
- **Rollback trigger:** the revenue/conversion threshold that aborts the change (drives the pre-written rollback criteria).

Ask about the two or three inputs that matter most for this request, not the whole list. If the user wants a result straight away, produce it and state your assumptions at the top.

## Workflow

1. **Confirm the decision is made.** If "should we change pricing at all?" is still open, that belongs to `business-growth/pricing-strategy/`; this PRD ships a decision.
2. **Write the model and packaging sections** from `assets/pricing_prd_template.md`: what changes, for whom, and which value carrier each tier sells.
3. **Decide test or launch** [RECOMMENDED]. Pricing tests have small samples and revenue-sensitive readouts, so false positives are common. Run an A/B test only when the expected traffic reaches the sample size for your minimum detectable effect within the test window (worksheet: `assets/pricing_experiment_design.md`); otherwise launch to new customers only, with a holdout or a staged region, and say why. Use revenue per visitor or per account as the primary metric, not conversion alone.
4. **Write grandfathering and the communication plan** before the launch date: who keeps the old price, for how long, and the message each segment receives (`assets/grandfathering_communication_template.md`).
5. **Pre-write rollback thresholds**: the metric, the threshold, the window, and who decides.
6. **Check the page** with `assets/pricing_page_checklist.md`.

**Done when** the PRD names the primary metric and its sample-size calculation (or the reason there is no test), the grandfathering policy, and a rollback threshold someone has agreed to act on.

## Anti-Patterns

### Van Westendorp without segmentation
**Mistake:** One aggregate Van Westendorp curve across all respondents sets a single price for every segment.
**Why it happens:** One curve is simpler to present, and the sample feels too small to split.
**Instead:** Report the curves per segment (SMB, mid-market, enterprise) and price each tier inside its segment's IPP-to-OPP band. Treat the aggregate curve as informational only.

### Conversion as the primary test metric
**Mistake:** A cheaper variant lifts conversion, the team ships it, and 90 days later ARPU and retention are down.
**Why it happens:** Conversion moves fast and is easy to read inside a short test window.
**Instead:** Make ARPU (revenue per visitor) the primary metric in `assets/pricing_experiment_design.md`. Track trial-to-paid, D30 downgrade and D90 retention as secondary metrics. If the primary-metric line says only "conversion rate", rewrite it.

### Testing prices on existing customers
**Mistake:** The A/B split includes logged-in customers, who see a different price from the one they signed up at.
**Why it happens:** Splitting all traffic is the default setup and gives the largest sample.
**Instead:** Limit eligibility to anonymous visitors and new signups who haven't seen a price yet. Exclude existing customers and price-freeze contracts, get Legal sign-off on eligibility, and disclose pricing experiments in the Terms and the pricing FAQ.

Nine more, each with a bad and a good example: `references/red-flags.md`.

## References

Pull the reference that matches the task; keep this file lean and load detail on demand.

- **[references/pricing-prd-playbook.md](references/pricing-prd-playbook.md)** — the full end-to-end playbook: pricing-PRD-vs-feature-PRD table, model decision, willingness-to-pay methods, packaging, grandfathering, communication plan, A/B test design, rollback criteria, regional pricing, UX checklist, anti-patterns, 12-step workflow, tools/assets table, troubleshooting, success criteria, and source frameworks. Read when authoring any pricing PRD.
- **[references/pricing-experimentation-guide.md](references/pricing-experimentation-guide.md)** — deep guide on pricing A/B tests, mix-shift detection, and readout windows. Read when designing or reading out a pricing experiment.
- **[references/packaging-frameworks.md](references/packaging-frameworks.md)** — tier vs usage vs hybrid frameworks and Ramanujam-style packaging. Read when deciding what goes in which tier.
- **[references/red-flags.md](references/red-flags.md)** — concrete examples of how pricing PRDs go wrong and how to fix them. Read when reviewing a draft for quality.

## Files

| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `assets/pricing_prd_template.md` | 13-section pricing PRD template |
| `assets/pricing_experiment_design.md` | Test design worksheet: hypothesis, MDE, sample size, holdout |
| `assets/pricing_page_checklist.md` | Pricing-page UX review |
| `assets/grandfathering_communication_template.md` | Customer email for grandfathering |
| `examples/usage-based-tier-pricing-prd.md` | Worked pricing PRD |

## Scope & Limitations

**In Scope:** Tactical pricing PRD authoring, willingness-to-pay research summary (Van Westendorp, conjoint), packaging decisions, grandfathering policy, customer/sales/support communication plan, A/B test design, rollback criteria, regional pricing decisions, pricing-page UX checklist, anti-pattern avoidance.

**Out of Scope:** Strategic pricing question "should we change pricing at all?" (see `business-growth/pricing-strategy/`). Financial modeling and revenue projection (see `finance/`). Billing and subscription-management implementation (engineering tickets). Detailed conjoint analysis methodology (specialist tooling). Legal review of pricing terms in regulated jurisdictions (must involve actual legal counsel; this skill is not legal advice).

**Important Caveats:**
- Pricing changes have asymmetric risk. A bad pricing change can erase a year of growth. The PRD discipline (rollback criteria, holdout, communication plan) is risk management, not bureaucracy.
- A/B testing pricing on identified customers carries consumer-law risk in some jurisdictions. When in doubt, test on anonymous visitors only and consult legal.
- The Van Westendorp method has known limitations — stated preference rather than revealed, feature-blind, segment-aggregated. Use as one input among three, not as the answer.
- Pricing-page UX changes can be confounded with pricing-model changes in A/B tests. Run UX-only experiments separately from model-change experiments to attribute the lift correctly.

## Integration Points

| Integration | Direction | What flows |
|---|---|---|
| `business-growth/pricing-strategy/` | Receives from | Strategic direction (new model, new tier, new segment) becomes the input to the tactical PRD |
| `create-prd/` | Extends | Pricing PRD uses sections 1-2 of standard PRD plus 11 pricing-specific sections |
| `feature-flag-strategy/` | Feeds into | Pricing rollout uses feature flags for tier entitlements and rollback |
| `activation-funnel/` | Bidirectional | Pricing changes affect activation rates; activation funnel measures the impact |
| `customer-feedback-triage/` | Receives from | Pricing-related feedback clusters surface willingness-to-pay signals and bill-shock issues |
| `finance/` | Bidirectional | Finance models the revenue projection; pricing PRD constrains the model assumptions |
| `senior-pm/` | Feeds into | Pricing change becomes a portfolio risk and an executive update item |
| `prfaq/` | Feeds into | A new pricing model often warrants a PR/FAQ for internal alignment |
| `eol-communication/` | Pattern overlap | EOL of a pricing tier uses similar grandfathering and communication patterns |
| `launch-playbook/` | Feeds into | Pricing-page launch follows standard launch playbook for internal/external comm coordination |

---

## What I Need You to Do

First, detect which platform I'm using (Claude.ai, ChatGPT, etc.) and follow the matching instructions below.

### If I'm on Claude.ai:

Walk me through these exact steps:

1. **Create the Project:** Tell me to go to **claude.ai > Projects > Create project** and name it **"Pricing Prd"**

2. **Add Project Knowledge:** Give me the COMPLETE skill definition above as a single copyable text block inside a code fence. Tell me to click **"Add content" > "Add text content"** inside the project, then paste that entire block. Do NOT say "paste from above" -- give me the actual text to copy right there.

3. **Set Custom Instructions:** Tell me to open project settings and paste this exact instruction:
   "You are an expert Pricing Prd in the Project Management domain. Use the project knowledge as your expertise. Follow the workflows, frameworks, and templates defined there. Always provide specific, actionable output."

4. **Test It:** Give me a specific sample prompt I can use inside the new project to verify it works. Pick a real task from the skill's workflows.

### If I'm on ChatGPT:

Walk me through these exact steps:

1. **Create a Custom GPT:** Tell me to go to **chatgpt.com > Explore GPTs > Create**
2. **Configure it:**
   - Name: **"Pricing Prd"**
   - Description: "Write the PRD for a pricing change: model and packaging, experiment design, grandfathering, communication and rollback thresholds. Use when turning a pricing decision into an experiment, a pricing-page launch or a tier change."
   - Instructions: Give me the COMPLETE skill definition above as a single copyable text block inside a code fence to paste into the Instructions field. Do NOT say "paste from above."
3. **Test It:** Give me a sample prompt to verify it works.

### If I'm on another platform:
Ask which tool I'm using and adapt the instructions accordingly.

## Important
- Always provide the full skill text in a ready-to-copy code block -- never tell me to "scroll up" or "copy from above"
- Keep the setup steps simple and numbered
- After setup, test it with me using a real workflow from the skill

Source: https://github.com/borghei/Claude-Skills/tree/main/project-management/execution/pricing-prd/SKILL.md