| name | value-metric-design |
| description | Choose the value metric — what you charge per (seats, usage units, records, transactions, outcomes) — the single highest-leverage pricing decision. Reach for this when a product's metric caps growth, when expansion isn't automatic, or before setting any price number. Scores candidate metrics on value-alignment, expansion-with-success, and budget-predictability. |
Skill: Value-Metric Design
The value metric is what you charge per. It is the highest-leverage decision in
pricing — a right metric makes expansion automatic; a wrong one caps the company
forever. Decide it before the number.
Step 0 — The three tests every value metric must pass
A strong value metric is simultaneously:
- Value-aligned — it tracks the value the customer captures (not your cost).
- Expanding — it grows as the customer becomes more successful (so expansion is
automatic, not a re-sell).
- Predictable — the customer can forecast and budget it (no bill shock).
These trade off. The most value-aligned metric is often the least predictable.
Step 1 — Enumerate candidate metrics
List every plausible per-unit: seats, active users, API calls, GB stored/processed,
records/contacts, transactions, monetary volume processed, outcomes (resolved
tickets, qualified leads), workspaces/projects. Don't pre-filter yet.
Step 2 — Score each candidate through the tree
Run each candidate through ../../knowledge/pricing-decision-trees.md §2.
Reject cost proxies. Flag the bill-shock risks. Note which metrics the customer can
game down (e.g. deactivating "active users") — those leak revenue.
Step 3 — Resolve the alignment-vs-predictability tension
The usual resolution: a steady metric for the base + a value-aligned metric for
expansion. E.g. price the platform on seats/workspaces (predictable) and the
consumption on usage (aligned) — the hybrid pattern. Don't force one metric to do
both jobs if they conflict.
Step 4 — Run the failure question
"If this product becomes 10× more valuable, does our revenue grow with it?" A metric
that answers no caps the business — discard it however convenient it is to bill.
Step 5 — Validate, then set tiers
Hand the chosen metric to willingness-to-pay-research to find the price points, then
to packaging-and-tiering to fence the tiers along the metric.
Output
A value-metric recommendation with: each candidate's three-test score, the
gaming/bill-shock risks, how the alignment-vs-predictability tension was resolved, and
the failure-question result. Name the one metric (or the base+expansion pair) you'd
bet the business on.
