Column · one dollar product
Whether the problem is real enough to overcome friction. At $1 the buyer is not evaluating value carefully; they are deciding whether to bother. That is a clean test of relevance, stripped of budgeting.
Whether the outcome is worth prioritising against other spending. At $99 the buyer compares you to alternatives and to doing nothing. That is a test of positioning, not of relevance.
Testing at $99 before relevance is established confuses two failures: the problem may be irrelevant, or the price may be wrong. You cannot tell which. Testing at $1 first isolates the first question.
A $1 product can succeed while the business fails, because the population willing to pay $1 is much larger than the population willing to pay $99. A $1 success is permission to raise the price and find out, not proof of a business.
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