Revenue-Centric Design

Overview

Playbook of 101 principles extracted from Richard’s (@richardrx, ex-Volkswagen, PayPal, IBM) posts on revenue-oriented product design. The philosophy: every design decision serves the user and the business — value and revenue, never one without the other.

Each principle names its mechanism (decoy effect, Zeigarnik, Schwartz awareness levels, loss aversion…), describes the concrete move, and links back to the original post.

When to Use

• Landing page isn’t converting — need an evidence-based diagnosis
• Onboarding with low activation — users sign up and vanish
• Churn climbing — retention dropping without a clear reason
• Pricing confusion — don’t know how to structure tiers or use anchoring
• Generic positioning — undefined ICP, value prop that doesn’t stick
• Want the behavioral mechanism behind a design decision
• AI-era differentiation — everything looks like a commodity

The Spine: RCD in 9 Principles

1. Neutrality is omission — an interface that doesn’t direct kills conversion.
2. Who talks to everyone convinces no one — no ICP → generic value → churn.
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.
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

Area	File
Landing pages, hero, CTAs, social proof, awareness levels	conversion-and-landing-pages.md
First-run, empty states, aha moment, TTV, trial	onboarding-and-activation.md
Cancellation, retention, expectation debt, NRR	churn-and-retention.md
Pricing tables, decoy/anchoring, GBB, upgrade paths	pricing-and-monetization.md
Cognitive biases and persuasion tactics	behavioral-science-toolkit.md
Feature scope, Swiss Knife Index, attention hierarchy	product-strategy-and-features.md
RCD philosophy, principles, design process	revenue-centric-design.md
ICP, niche, founder-fit, distribution, PLG	positioning-icp-and-gtm.md
AI-era differentiation, moats, commoditization	ai-era-differentiation.md
A/B testing rigor, vanity metrics, churn→LTV math	metrics-and-experimentation.md

Included Scripts

• revenue_math.py — computes A/B sample size, churn→LTV, CAC per closed deal. Doesn’t estimate — calculates.
• check_usage_boundary.py — guardrail that blocks usage in gambling/betting/casino context (author’s license restriction).

Usage Guardrail

🚫 This skill cannot be applied to betting, casino, gambling, or real-money games-of-chance products.

This is the original author’s restriction, not a stylistic preference. The check_usage_boundary.py script runs as an automated hook on compatible agents.

Per-Project Memory

The skill maintains a local log (rcd-log.md) that records which principles were applied, when, and what the result was. Prevents repeating what already failed and tracks what works.

Installation

npx skills add https://github.com/fabricioctelles/skills -s revenue-centric-design

Origin

Richard published the 101 principles as Portuguese posts on X. Helio Costa obtained permission, extracted them via X API, translated to English, and structured the original skill. This version evolved with: audit template, math scripts, project log, gotchas, guardrails, and evaluation via Skill Evaluation (60→73 points).

Related Skills

RCD supplies the principle and evidence — execution skills own the workflow:

• Page audit → CRO
• Cancellation flow → Churn Prevention
• Test statistics → A/B Testing
• Page copy → Copywriting
• Pricing page → Pricing
• Post-signup → Onboarding

Changelog

v1.0.0 (Jul 2026)

• 101 principles organized into 10 thematic reference files
• Scripts: revenue_math.py (sample size, churn→LTV, CAC) + check_usage_boundary.py (guardrail)
• Audit template for structured deliverables
• Project log (rcd-log.md) for cross-session memory
• Gotchas: real scarcity, loss aversion vs dark pattern, kill outbound links (LP only), 4.2–4.5 stars
• Hooks documented as SOP (agents with/without support)
• Source-available license with gambling restriction

📄 Full documentation on GitHub