Placement Scenario 1

Pre-workspace gate

User finishes onboarding. Before they see the workspace, a hard paywall blocks access. They must pick a tier and enter payment to proceed.

Commercial belief
"Our product's value is obvious enough — through positioning, demos, and the onboarding briefing — that buyers will commit before trying. Free is for browsing the marketing site, not the product."
Why this might work
Cleanest conversion event. No free-tier support burden. Buyers self-qualify before consuming resources. Highest ARPU per signup. Common for high-touch enterprise sales.
Why this might not
Anti-PLG. Kills self-serve experimentation. Most modern revenue intelligence buyers expect to try before buying. High abandon rate at the gate. Word-of-mouth (Sarah → David) loses friction.
Mockup · Hard gate after onboarding

Pick a plan to open Acme's workspace

Setup is complete. RevOpNow needs a billing relationship before unlocking the workspace — pick a tier below to proceed.

4
Connected
47
Metrics defined
1
Teammate
Note: The Nth-user variant of this gate would say "Sarah set up Acme — choose a tier to join the workspace." That softens it slightly because the value is already implied by Sarah's setup.
Placement Scenario 2

Usage-cap PLG

Workspace is free with no friction. Paywall fires when the user hits a measurable usage cap — typically RON questions per month, connected sources, or saved workspaces.

Commercial belief
"Get them hooked first. Once they ask 5–10 questions and see real answers, the value is undeniable. The paywall fires at the moment of frustration ('I want to ask one more') — that's the highest-conversion moment we'll ever have."
Why this might work
Classic PLG. Self-serve viral loops work (Sarah → David). User has felt value before paying. Conversion happens at peak motivation. Notion, Linear, Figma all scaled this way.
Why this might not
Free tier is expensive — RON inference costs money per question. Need to pick a cap that's generous enough to feel value but tight enough to convert. Free users can drag down system performance.
Mockup · User hits 10-question cap
Free plan
You've used 10 of 10 RON questions this month. Upgrade to keep asking — or wait until next month resets.
Acme Industries · Today
Last refreshed 2 minutes ago
Annual Recurring Revenue
$8.4M
+12% vs last month
Pipeline coverage
3.2×
Below target (3.5×)
Net Revenue Retention
118%
Stable
Cap dimensions worth comparing: RON questions/mo (10), connectors (3), workspaces (1), team members (2), historical retention (90 days). Each cap has different conversion economics. Probably ship with one primary cap, not all.
Placement Scenario 3

Feature-locked free tier

Workspace is free with the core experience intact (RON questions, basic answers, one connector). Paywall fires when the user tries a specific advanced feature — exports, team collaboration, cross-tenant benchmarks, etc.

Commercial belief
"Free is a real product, paid unlocks power tools. Solo users get value forever for free. Teams that want to collaborate, export, or use advanced features upgrade. Slack and Loom built billion-dollar businesses this way."
Why this might work
Free tier is sustainable (cost-bounded by feature, not usage). Pricing tiers map to user maturity. Team features create natural seat expansion. Easier to explain than usage caps.
Why this might not
Have to identify which features become paywalls — and they have to be ones users actually want. Cross-tenant benchmarks (§10.6) is the strongest candidate, but it's not built yet. Risk: free tier is "good enough forever."
Mockup · User tries to invite a teammate
Free plan · Solo
Invite teammates
Share Acme's workspace with the team you collaborate with most.
Team collaboration is on Team and Business plans
Invite up to 5 teammates on Team. Unlimited on Business. Both include shared workspaces, comment threads, and stewardship handoffs.
Feature-lock candidates: Team invites · CSV/PDF exports · Cross-tenant benchmarks (§10.6) · API access · Custom semantic stewardship roles · Advanced integrations (NetSuite, Workday) · Audit log retention. Probably 2-3 in the lock set, not all.
Placement Scenario 4

Time-limited trial

Full product access for 14 days. After expiry, the workspace becomes read-only and the paywall blocks all action until they pick a tier.

Commercial belief
"Show full value, then convert under deadline pressure. Users see what the paid product feels like — every feature, no caps. Then a hard deadline forces a decision. Standard for older B2B SaaS."
Why this might work
No feature segmentation needed. Users experience full product. Deadline-driven conversion. Sales team can engage during trial. Predictable revenue cycle.
Why this might not
Feels old-school. Lapsed-trial users abandon and rarely return. Doesn't support viral self-serve growth (Sarah's invite to David becomes "you have 14 days"). Inconsistent with PLG positioning.
Mockup A · Day 11 (trial active)
Trial
3 days left in your trial · all features included Pick a plan to keep going →
Acme Industries · Today
Last refreshed 2 minutes ago
Annual Recurring Revenue
$8.4M
+12%
Pipeline coverage
3.2×
Below target
Net Revenue Retention
118%
Stable
Mockup B · Day 15 (trial expired)

Your trial has ended.

Acme's workspace is preserved — your connected sources, metrics, and 47 stewarded definitions are all intact. Pick a plan to continue working. Read-only access stays available for 30 days.

Trial length tradeoffs: 7 days = aggressive, 14 days = standard, 30 days = generous. Longer trials reduce urgency but improve product-fit signal. Read-only fallback (vs hard delete) preserves goodwill for re-conversion.
Universal surface 1

Pricing comparison page

Standalone pricing page. Used regardless of which placement scenario you pick. Probably linked from marketing site, in-product upgrade buttons, and the paywall scenarios above.

Mockup · 3-tier comparison

One platform. Three ways to use it.

Pricing per workspace. Add teammates anytime.

Starter
For solo founders and individual operators getting started.
$0 forever
No card required.
  • 1 workspace
  • 3 connected sources
  • 10 RON questions per month
  • Solo use only
  • Team collaboration
  • CSV / PDF exports
  • Cross-tenant benchmarks
Team
For growing teams that need to collaborate and act on what RON finds.
$49 /seat / month
Billed annually. Monthly available.
  • Up to 5 workspaces
  • Unlimited connected sources
  • Unlimited RON questions
  • Up to 10 teammates
  • Shared workspaces and comments
  • CSV / PDF exports
  • Stewardship roles
  • Cross-tenant benchmarks
Business
For finance, RevOps, and exec teams running the whole business through RevOpNow.
$129 /seat / month
Billed annually.
  • Unlimited workspaces
  • Unlimited connected sources
  • Unlimited RON questions
  • Unlimited teammates
  • Shared workspaces and comments
  • CSV / PDF / API exports
  • Stewardship roles
  • Cross-tenant benchmarks
  • Audit log · SSO · custom retention
Numbers are placeholders. Real pricing depends on RON inference cost, competitive positioning vs Pulse / Vena / Mosaic, and what segment you want to win first. The 3-tier shape is what matters.
Universal surface 2

In-context upgrade modal

Fires when a user hits a paywall mid-action. Modal explains why they're seeing it, what's unlocked, and gives them an instant path forward. Used by scenarios 2 and 3 most heavily.

Mockup · User tries to export to CSV (locked feature)
Available on Team and Business

Exports are a Team feature.

You're on the free Starter plan. Upgrade to Team to export this report as CSV or PDF, plus everything else below.

  • CSV / PDF exports of any view
  • Up to 10 teammates and shared workspaces
  • Unlimited RON questions and connected sources
  • Stewardship handoffs and role-based permissions
Modal copy varies by trigger: the headline always names what they tried to do ("Exports are a Team feature"), not the abstract feature category. The bullet list always shows what else they get, not just the thing they wanted — to expand the perceived value of upgrade.
Universal surface 3

Payment / checkout flow

After a user picks a tier from the pricing page or upgrade modal. Two-column: form on the left, order summary on the right. Standard SaaS pattern.

Mockup · Card entry + order summary
Billing details
Payment method
Order summary
Team plan
Annual · 1 seat
Team plan $49 / mo
Annual billing ×12
Annual discount −$120
Total today $588.00
Renews annually. Cancel anytime from Settings · Billing. 14-day refund window.
Real implementation would use Stripe Elements for card entry (PCI compliance), with billing details handled server-side. Mockup shows the layout, not the technical wiring.