If an enterprise customer asks for a feature or integration that’s not on our roadmap (essentially custom development), do we charge them separately for it, incorporate it into a higher subscription cost, or agree only if it fits our broader product plans?

Based on our approach in Price to Scale, the primary goal is to ensure that any feature or integration we develop—custom or not—fits into our broader product strategy. Here’s how you might tackle this situation:

• Evaluate Strategic Fit
– Before considering custom development, assess whether the requested feature aligns with the overall product roadmap. If it has broader appeal or strategic value, it might be worth incorporating into the product roadmap rather than treating it as a one-off.
– As discussed in our book, features that can scale across multiple customers should ideally become part of your core offering, leveraging your capability pricing approach.

• Pricing Custom Add-Ons
– For requests that are clearly one-off or specific to a single enterprise—even if there is significant value—consider a discrete “add-on” pricing model. Our book illustrates how add-on capability pricing can be implemented as either a fixed fee or a scalable percentage of the base subscription. This keeps your base product pricing robust and avoids complicating the pricing structure for the majority of your customers.
– A separate price for custom work can also be negotiated directly with the enterprise, reflecting the unique value while ensuring that it doesn’t erode the uniformity of your product’s pricing model.

• Consistency and Scalability
– Avoid the temptation to simply incorporate custom development costs into a higher subscription cost unless that feature is intended to be offered broadly. Keeping enterprise customizations separate (either as an add-on or via discrete pricing) preserves the simplicity and scalability of your main pricing model.
– This approach ensures that while you can respond to extraordinary requests, you also maintain a consistent, scalable pricing structure across customer segments.

In summary, if an enterprise customer asks for a feature or integration that’s not on your roadmap, first assess if it should be part of your future product vision. If it’s a one-off request, use add-on capability pricing or discrete pricing specifically for that customer, rather than altering your standard subscription model. This strategy aligns with the principles laid out in Price to Scale and helps maintain both product integrity and pricing simplicity.