This is our first release post- our launch, so happy to be sharing this with all those that are following along as we build out Trophy into the most flexible and accessible gamification platform there is!
All of us want customers on our platforms. However, a sign-up is very different from an engaged user who keeps returning and finding value over time.
Creating the right user experience, without being too intrusive, spammy, or in your face , can significantly improve engagement, increase conversions, and reduce churn. In my experience, a platform s success is defined far more by its active users than by the total number of people who have ever signed up.
Below are a few approaches I ve seen work well, along with some that haven t been as effective.
I've built my product around traditional SaaS pricing (monthly tiers), but I m starting to wonder if that model is getting outdated, especially with more AI-powered and compute-heavy tools entering the market. That shift requires real architectural changes, instrumentation, metering, billing logic, and UI changes, not just pricing tweaks. It s something I m starting to seriously think about for my own product.
In particular, AI usage has real COGs (every prompt costs money), and I m seeing more platforms experimenting with usage-based models, or hybrids like SaaS base + usage + overage.
For those of you building AI or compute-intensive tools:
