Hi all,
Happy snowy Sunday!
How you present and market options in your business is a critical way to decide user actions and business revenue.
Examples:
What items show up first on The Real Real
When you cancel a trial are you put into a discount/resurrection flow
When does Netflix decide to pull a show off and says “leaving soon”
How do you pick your pricing in SaaS and display it
Options show up in every corner of your software product.
The above examples are critical inputs into each company’s overall health and business outcomes.
If you execute the presentation of options correctly, you can guide users and accomplish:
Upselling customers
Locking buyers into annual plans (boost LTV)
Creating fomo and urgency
But, Julia, aren’t options presented just based on an algorithm?
Wrong.
The presentation of options in software products also includes the combination of flawless UI/UX, meticulous price testing, and, of course, marketing.
When companies do this right, their product experience is more delightful, they make more money and they have more control over outcomes.
Let’s make sure you get there + reap the benefits.
Here are 4 hidden opportunities across product surfaces to add options for users and increase revenue.
I want to start off by saying that all software companies are built differently, but should evaluate these key operating goals:
What happens with users in the first 5 minutes to 24 hours when they hit your software
Example: Do they make it through onboarding?
Example: Do they pay for a subscription in onboarding. What’s the price?
Example: What features or tabs do they explore most when hitting the main product experience?
Example: Do they close the product and open it again? Is this because they were bored or taking an action like grabbing data from a 3rd party to import?
Retention and Churn
Session Times
Time to “aha” moment
Revenue
ARR
Net Revenue
What is the breakdown of subscriptions: one time payments, monthly subscriptions, annual, etc.
If any of these factors are extreme outliers, it presents an incredibly interesting opportunity.
Example: One of Knight Vision’s clients, Grifin, is a super hot fintech app that scans your credit card statements and automatically invests where you shop.
Currently, 50% of all new users at Grifin sign up for an annual subscription when they install the app.
That’s an insanely high number (typically 30% in ecomm and under 20% avg in consumer software).
B2B software fluctuates depending on if the tool is enterprise only (which at that case is typically only annual plans negotiated with Account Executives) or self-serve, which is increasingly popular now.
When you absolutely nail one area (like Grifin did with annual conversions) it creates a healthy imbalance that frees you up to spot new pockets of opportunity to add value and present smarter options elsewhere.
Let’s get into what that looks like in the shape of a funnel.
1. Pricing layout, plan architecture, usage pricing
How you structure your pricing tiers and display them can make or break conversion rates.
The goal is to create a compelling hierarchy that guides users toward higher-value plans quickly and easily OR allows users to experience the product and THEN capping their usage with a paywall.
Traditional: Most SaaS companies have 3 pricing tiers
Popular: Usage based pricing w/ tokens
Usage based pricing isn’t new; it’s just being adopted more frequently now because AI startups are hot.
This transition to usage-based pricing is driven by several factors:
it aligns costs more closely with value delivered, making it fairer for variable-usage customers
it reduces barriers for low-usage adopters while capturing more revenue from heavy users
it's better suited to AI products where resource consumption can fluctuate wildly between things like API calls, models, etc.
Your favorite companies like Stripe, Twilio, and AI players like Anthropic are leading the charge, often blending hybrid approaches (base fee + usage overage).
This blend ^ is a totally interesting hidden opportunity to explore in price testing.
Incredibly pricing resource:
My friend Jake Mor (we worked tg for the first time 5 years ago) has an entire company around paywalls called Superwall. His sole focus is to test + provide the best possible paywalls.
2. “Leaving soon” scarcity layers
B2B founders love to send emails that features are leaving soon or getting reworked.
Can they pls stop and just show me in the actual product?
Netflix just adds a “Leaving soon” frame that forces the mindset of consuming now vs later.
Sure, two totally different products. I can imagine a few CSRs getting frantic phone calls. If you have insane enterprise clients, this obviously doesn’t apply to core features.
Most companies can however build scarcity layers by:
Flagging trials or promos with visible countdown timers and “X days left at this price.”
Highlighting inventory or seat scarcity (“3 spots left this month,” “Only 2 enterprise slots at this rate”).
Using upcoming removals or price changes (“Price increases on Feb 1, lock current rate now”).
User makes API call → then gets hit with an “out of tokens, must reload now” wall
The goal is to make the choice timing visible vs. just the choice itself.
3. Price testing (B2B & B2C)
Easy moves to test:
Rebundling: features into new plans to switch up value
Reorder: put bestseller / recommended in the primary position and as default.
Reprice: cohorts w/ different pricing to test elasticity
B2B examples:
HubSpot: Reordered pricing tiers + “Most Popular” badge = higher ARPU. Annual savings emphasis boosted LTV.
Slack: Tested plans in onboarding (annual vs. monthly defaults, bundles) higher upgrades.
Zendesk: Modular add-ons vs. bundles = more revenue from power users
Common SaaS wins: Annual preselects, hybrid usage pricing, post-usage upgrade prompts, anchoring with “Enterprise” first.
B2C examples:
Streaming: Tiered plans + “Most Popular” labels
Mobile app paywalls: Timing, copy, annual discounts (“Save 50%”), one-time vs. subscription
Freemium apps (Duolingo, Calm): Limited-time discounts + value bundles = big lifts.
Consumer AI apps: Token packs, usage sliders, prepaid discounts = better overage acceptance
4. “Dark patterns” as conversion scaffolding
Dark patterns are manipulative.
I guarantee your favorite products are using them.
Examples B2B:
Sneaking overages or annoying fees
Low advertised base price, but things like usage-based overages + seat add-ons appear only after onboarding.
Hubspot does this all the time without really helping you understand what features you will need and then making you pay per feature after you pay the annual fee
Hard to cancel
Example: Multiple confirmation screens or forcing users to explain reasons in detail before they can cancel (common in SaaS billing flows)
Subscription traps
Examples B2C:
Hiding the X button, forcing users into a high payment (popular in mobile apps)
Fake scarcity (example: saying there’s a limited amount when there’s not)
Easy to sign up and extremely hard to cancel
The ethics of dark patterns hinge on reversibility and transparency…like always allowing easy opt-outs.
It’s your job as a builder to have strong judgement and remain compliant.
Well, How’d I Do?
Spotting hidden opportunities and acting on them requires builders to think carefully, move quickly, design beautifully, and be responsible.
Top builders treat finding hidden opportunities like art.
You’ve got the game plan now:
Architect pricing/plans that are sticky
Create scarcity and a sense of urgency
Test relentlessly (your runway depends on it)
Be aware of ethical, compliant dark patterns
I hope you had an excellent snow day if you’re in NYC like me!
Julia
