Why talking to your existing users is keeping you stuck, who you're not hearing from (and why that matters), and how to find the voices that will actually change your product direction.
I especially love your point about price walls removing an entire group of people who could have loved your product but I do have a question about that.
A few years ago I worked for a company where we had a subscription based service and for a time the company was seriously considering removing the free tier entirely. Their reasoning was that in their experience the free users were the ones that caused the most problems, had the most questions, and demanded the most attention.
Instead of simply removing free access they considered a $1.00 a month subscription which was $19 less than the pro subscription. But that simple $1.00 would weed out those people who were creating problems and yet keep the barrier to entry super low.
The company ended up not going with that idea but it's one that has been bouncing around in my head for years. At what point is a free service not worth it? And is it ever worth it to intentionally alienate free users by introducing a paid tier, even one as low as $1 per month?
I especially love your point about price walls removing an entire group of people who could have loved your product but I do have a question about that.
A few years ago I worked for a company where we had a subscription based service and for a time the company was seriously considering removing the free tier entirely. Their reasoning was that in their experience the free users were the ones that caused the most problems, had the most questions, and demanded the most attention.
Instead of simply removing free access they considered a $1.00 a month subscription which was $19 less than the pro subscription. But that simple $1.00 would weed out those people who were creating problems and yet keep the barrier to entry super low.
The company ended up not going with that idea but it's one that has been bouncing around in my head for years. At what point is a free service not worth it? And is it ever worth it to intentionally alienate free users by introducing a paid tier, even one as low as $1 per month?