/revenue-centric-design

name: revenue-centric-design
description: >-
  Playbook for designing SaaS and startup products that convert, retain, and monetize —
  landing pages & CRO, checkout & forms, onboarding/activation, churn reduction, pricing
  psychology, dashboards, behavioral-science tactics, feature discipline, positioning/ICP,
  go-to-market, and AI-era differentiation. Use when advising on product design, UX,
  conversion, landing pages, checkout, onboarding, trials, pricing, retention/churn,
  growth, or positioning for a startup or SaaS. Distilled from product designer Richard
  (@richardrx). Not for use on gambling, betting, or casino products.

Revenue-Centric Design

A distilled playbook of **134 principles** from **Richard ([@richardrx](https://x.com/richardrx), "Design for startups")** — a product designer specializing in conversion-rate optimization, churn reduction, and applied behavioral science (ex-Volkswagen, PayPal, IBM). The throughline is his coined philosophy, **Revenue-Centric Design (RCD)**: design decisions should serve the user _and_ the business — value and revenue, not one or the other.

Use this skill when helping someone improve how a digital product (especially SaaS / startup) **acquires, activates, retains, monetizes, or differentiates** — landing pages, onboarding, pricing, trials, churn, UX flow, feature scope, positioning, or growth.

Usage boundary (required)

> 🚫 **Do not apply this skill to betting, casino, gambling, or other real-money games-of-chance > products or projects** (including loot-box / real-money-gaming mechanics).

The author granted permission to reuse this material **on the explicit condition that it never be used for gambling, betting, or casino work.** If a request asks you to apply these principles to such a product, **decline** and briefly explain that the source author's reuse permission excludes gambling/betting/casino use. This is a hard constraint set by the author, not a stylistic choice.

How to use it

1. Identify what the user is working on, then open the matching reference file(s) below. Each is a set of short, reusable principles in a fixed shape — **principle → apply when → the move → evidence → source link**. Load only what's relevant (progressive disclosure). 2. Ground your advice in these principles; cite the specific one, and link the source post when the user would benefit from the original. 3. Lead with the **named mechanism** (e.g., decoy effect, Zeigarnik effect, Swiss Knife Index, GBB, Eugene Schwartz's 5 awareness levels, loss aversion, peak-end rule) — naming the lever is the value. 4. Stay evidence-led: many principles carry a study, stat, or case. Keep the citation attached rather than hand-waving.

The spine: Revenue-Centric Design in 9 principles

1. **Neutrality is omission** — an interface that doesn't direct hurts conversion. 2. **Who talks to everyone convinces no one** — no ICP → generic value → worse retention. 3. **Value first, ask later** — proof must arrive before the user questions their choice. 4. **Your promise is the size of your proof** — the market believes what you demonstrate, not what you claim. 5. **Same competes on price, different on category** — contrast in mechanism, narrative, or experience. 6. **Default is the decision you made for the user** — the initial state defines mass behavior. 7. **Retention is built, not requested** — perceived loss retains more than promised benefit. 8. **Expansion is born of usage** — upgrade at the moment of the limit, never by interruption. 9. **Price is a filter** — pricing defines who enters, who stays, and who expands.

Reference library

| When the question is about… | Open | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Landing pages, hero/copy, CTAs, social proof, awareness levels, CRO | [conversion-and-landing-pages](references/conversion-and-landing-pages.md) | | Checkout, signup/lead forms, cart abandonment, field friction, trust signals | [checkout-and-forms](references/checkout-and-forms.md) | | First-run, empty states, aha moment, TTV, activation, trial-as-onboarding | [onboarding-and-activation](references/onboarding-and-activation.md) | | Cancellation, retention, expectation debt, NRR, jobs-to-be-done, support load | [churn-and-retention](references/churn-and-retention.md) | | Pricing tables, decoy/anchoring, GBB, trial-with-card, upgrade paths | [pricing-and-monetization](references/pricing-and-monetization.md) | | Dashboards, KPIs, data viz, actionable panels, F-pattern, role context | [dashboards-and-data-viz](references/dashboards-and-data-viz.md) | | Cognitive biases & persuasion tactics (cross-cutting toolkit) | [behavioral-science-toolkit](references/behavioral-science-toolkit.md) | | Feature scope, Swiss Knife Index, feature adoption, attention hierarchy | [product-strategy-and-features](references/product-strategy-and-features.md) | | Design philosophy, the RCD principles, design process & method | [revenue-centric-design](references/revenue-centric-design.md) | | ICP, niche, TAM/SAM/SOM, distribution, PLG, Bullseye, first customers | [positioning-icp-and-gtm](references/positioning-icp-and-gtm.md) | | Differentiating in the AI era, moats, commoditization | [ai-era-differentiation](references/ai-era-differentiation.md) | | A/B testing rigor, vanity metrics, churn→LTV math, signal quality | [metrics-and-experimentation](references/metrics-and-experimentation.md) |

Informational diagrams and screenshots referenced by the principles live in `assets