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Comment by briefcomment | Hacker News Reader

Ask users if they're willing to pay extra for the feature. For example, say "We're thinking of adding this feature and increasing the cost by $2/month. Would you like this?". Then if enough people say yes, build it and don't increase the cost (unless you want to). Might build you some goodwill too.

Just an idea, never seen this in practice.

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Ah crap I had a long reply but hit refresh on mobile and lost it..

Long story short, we did this with great success. Instead of a feature we made a separate app that people actually pay for more than the main app.

It is a "shut up and take my money" kind of thing, and being a small business, that is the only type of development we could justify working on.

We had many other ideas which we discussed one way or another with customers, but none got that "I need it now and here's a cheque" reaction.

In my experience, when people are ready to pay for something, you might as well just sell it. Giving it free sometimes adds doubts - will it be maintained? Is it an experiment? Is it a budget version of what you promised? Will they "owe" you one?

I'm happy to just pay for things because it "closes" a transaction. Where I live, we even have this tradition that the buyer says "I agree to buy" and the seller says "I agree to sell". A receipt is an abstraction of this process, but here, it's normal for someone to respond "I buy" when emailed a reciept.

I like this version of the same question - it's like a mini commitment.

If you're looking for feature ideas, and if you have decent user analytics, I would seek ideas from users who have changed their engagement with your product for the worse. If you solicit suggestions from someone who's cut their time with your product, or who uses it in fits and starts, you might get some pointed suggestions.

Agree with this. Ask the users who have stuck around with your product the longest. Their opinions are more valuable and insightful.

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