Week 9 · learning day 5
Strategic pricing and profitability
Willingness to Pay and Price Setting · 60–90 minutes
Today’s outcomes
- Explain strategic pricing and profitability in the context of willingness to pay and price setting.
- Decide a product decision using the source outcome rather than intuition alone.
- Produce a reusable section of a price recommendation.
Source trace
W09-O02Determine product price by using the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter.
Core lesson
Make the choice inspectable
Strategic pricing and profitability matters when it changes a real allocation of attention, money, time, or delivery capacity. Price reflects value, alternatives, willingness to pay, and economic constraints.
Start by naming the decision and the uncertainty around it. Separate evidence from assumptions, compare at least one alternative, and state what would make you revise the choice.
The source outcome for today is: Determine product price by using the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter.
What decision will strategic pricing and profitability improve, what evidence is sufficient for that decision, and what is the cost of being wrong?
Worked example
Strategic pricing and profitability in practice
For a goal-based savings account, the product manager must decide a choice about strategic pricing and profitability. The team records the target user and outcome, the evidence currently available, the strongest alternative, and the next reversible test. The recommendation is written as a choice with a reason—not as a list of features.
Do the work · 20 minutes
Turn the idea into a decision
- Choose a product you know and write the specific decision that strategic pricing and profitability should support.
- List two pieces of evidence, two assumptions, and one credible alternative.
- Make a recommendation in three sentences and add one condition that would change it.
Save to your portfolio
A price recommendation — section: Strategic pricing and profitability
Knowledge check
Answer before opening
What is the decision at the centre of strategic pricing and profitability?
A good answer names an accountable choice, not merely an activity or output.
How should evidence and assumptions be separated?
Label observed facts, interpretations, and untested beliefs explicitly so the next learning step is visible.
What makes the recommendation revisable?
It includes a trigger, threshold, or new evidence that would justify changing course.
What should the portfolio artefact communicate?
The context, considered alternatives, chosen direction, rationale, evidence, and remaining risk.
Spaced review
Reconnect the learning
Reflection